An early Bitcoin miner lost 25,000 BTC in 2011, worth $500K then, $2.4B now. The attacker was never caught. Here’s how it happened.
June 13, 2011, marked one of the cryptocurrency industry’s first devastating thefts. A Bitcointalk user known as Allinvain woke up to find his entire balance gone. 25,000 BTC had vanished overnight.
The loss amounted to roughly $500,000 at the time. Today, those same coins would be worth over $2.4 billion.
Allinvain was among Bitcoin’s earliest miners. He had accumulated his holdings through Slush Pool, one of the first mining pools. Everything disappeared in seconds.
How the Attacker Struck
The breach started with a compromised Slush Pool account. Someone gained access and changed the payout address. Allinvain’s credentials had already leaked.
But the real vulnerability lay elsewhere. His wallet.dat file sat unencrypted on a Windows machine. Mining software from multiple sources ran on the same system.
The attacker copied the private keys directly. Within moments, hundreds of UTXOs were consolidated. The entire wallet drained in one massive transaction.
StarPlatinum reported the destination address as 1KPTdMb6p7H3YCwsyFqrEmKGmsHqe1Q3jg. Hours later, Allinvain posted about the theft on Bitcointalk. His balance showed zero.
More Bitcoin flowed to the same address afterward. The total reached 25,033 BTC. The attacker slowly split and moved the funds.
Related Reading: Brazilian Police Bust Crypto Farms Stealing $130K Monthly
The Aftermath and Current Status
According to StarPlatinum, nearly all the stolen Bitcoin has been spent. Only 0.004 BTC remains in the destination address today.
The thief was never identified. Early Bitcoin lacked the advanced tracing tools available now. Chain analysis was primitive at best.
This incident highlighted critical security gaps in early cryptocurrency practices. Unencrypted wallets posed enormous risks. Storing large amounts on internet-connected machines was dangerous.
The case became a cautionary tale for the growing crypto community. It demonstrated how quickly fortunes could disappear without proper security measures.
Allinvain’s story remains one of the most significant early Bitcoin thefts. Each market cycle pushes the value of the stolen Bitcoin even higher. Yet the perpetrator walked away clean.
StarPlatinum’s thread brought renewed attention to this historic loss. It serves as a reminder of Bitcoin’s Wild West days. At the time, developers and users were still defining security best practices.
The 25,000 BTC theft stands as a brutal lesson. Early adopters faced risks most couldn’t imagine. Some paid the ultimate price.
Source: https://www.livebitcoinnews.com/from-25000-btc-to-zero-unsolved-2011-bitcoin-hack-now-worth-2-4b/