Ethereum News Today: Ethereum Wallet Frozen Since 2014 Holds $1.18 Billion in Assets

The story of an Ethereum wallet worth over $1 billion that has remained untouched since 2014 has resurfaced as one of the most compelling "what if" scenarios in the history of cryptocurrencies. Estonian banker Rain Lõhmus, co-founder of LHV Bank, participated in Ethereum’s early presale in 2014, acquiring 250,000 ETH at roughly $0.30 per token, for a total cost of less than $80,000. These tokens, stored in a presale wallet, have never been moved and remain inaccessible due to the loss of the associated password and JSON wallet file [1].

In late 2023, Coinbase executive Conor Grogan linked the address holding 250,000.0256 ETH to Lõhmus after the Estonian banker revealed on a radio interview that he had lost access to the wallet. Grogan noted that the address, labeled “Rain Lohmus” on Etherscan, had not executed any outgoing transactions since Ethereum’s early days [1]. The wallet has, however, accumulated a range of airdropped tokens over the years, adding to its growing value. As of early 2025, with Ethereum trading near $4,700, the total value of the assets is estimated at around $1.18 billion [1].

Lõhmus has not attempted to sell or transfer the assets, and he has even suggested he would consider splitting the fortune with anyone who can help recover the password. Despite this, no progress has been reported, and the funds remain frozen. The wallet’s inactivity has made it one of the most intriguing cases in the crypto space, often compared to other legendary lost fortunes like the Bitcoin Pizza Day transaction and the Newport hard drive case [1].

Bitcoin Pizza Day refers to the May 22, 2010, transaction where programmer Laszlo Hanyecz spent 10,000 BTC for two pizzas, a payment worth about $40 at the time. Today, with Bitcoin trading at over $120,000, those same coins would be valued at roughly $1.2 billion [1]. Another well-known case is that of James Howells, a Welsh IT worker who accidentally discarded a hard drive believed to contain 7,500–8,000 BTC. Legal attempts to recover the device from a landfill were dismissed in 2025, effectively ending his chances of retrieving the lost wealth [1].

What sets Lõhmus’s Ethereum wallet apart is the fact that the assets remain fully visible on-chain and have not been lost due to physical destruction or careless spending. The 250,000 ETH in the wallet represents approximately 0.2% of Ethereum’s circulating supply of about 120.7 million ETH. While not large enough to significantly affect the market, the size of the balance is sufficient to cement its status as a major unclaimed digital fortune [1].

The challenge of recovering the wallet lies in the encryption used during Ethereum’s 2014 presale. The presale wallets are protected by PBKDF2-HMAC encryption with a unique salt, which makes brute-force attacks extremely time-consuming and computationally expensive. Without the original JSON wallet file or strong hints to the password, recovery is considered nearly impossible [1]. Even with modern tools and hardware, the process requires testing password candidates from a vast search space, and incorrect attempts can yield misleading results.

Public discussions among developers and password-recovery experts consistently emphasize the difficulty of such cases. While some recovery services have had success when users provide strong memory fragments or personal wordlists, the likelihood of success diminishes greatly when no clues are available. In Lõhmus’s case, the probability of recovering the wallet is negligible unless he retains both the JSON file and a substantial part of the password [1].

As Ethereum continues to evolve, this frozen wallet serves as a reminder of the unpredictable nature of the crypto market and the long-term risks of losing access to one’s assets. Unlike traditional finance, where lost passwords or lost keys can sometimes be replaced or recovered through institutional support, the decentralized nature of blockchain means that once access is lost, it is nearly impossible to regain [1].

Source: [1] The billion-dollar Ethereum wallet that no one can unlock — why? (https://coinmarketcap.com/community/articles/689f4c8bd3fffe3dd57d950c/)