In a remarkable turn of events on July 5, a fortunate cryptocurrency investor unexpectedly found themselves $322,000 richer.
Conor Grogan, the head of product at Coinbase, took to Twitter to share the story of how he stumbled upon dormant crypto assets and successfully contacted the unknowing owner.
Grogan explained that when the Ethereum blockchain underwent a fork in 2016, creating Ethereum Classic (ETC), anyone holding the standard Ether (ETH) on-chain was airdropped an equal amount of ETC.
However, many investors never touched these newly acquired funds.
Grogan remarked that it is common for individuals to forget about funds on-chain or fail to keep track of airdrops.
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He revealed that he had previously recovered six-figure sums for investors in similar situations, such as notifying a Twitter user of 23 ETH that had remained untouched.
Tracking down these wallets proved to be a challenging task. Grogan began by meticulously searching the “ETC rich list” for accounts that had never accessed their ETC.
After identifying around 20 addresses holding over $250,000 worth of ETC, he painstakingly examined each one to find a means of communication.
Grogan faced multiple dead ends in most cases until he stumbled upon an address with the prefix “0x475.”
Curiously, this wallet contained a cryptocurrency called eosDAC (EOSDAC), which had been airdropped to Ethereum holders in 2018.
Armed with this newfound information, Grogan used the airdrop amount and snapshot date to connect with the owner’s EOS wallet.
As Grogan delved deeper, he discovered that the 0x475 ETH address had an intriguing history, which eventually enabled him to uncover the legal name associated with it by scrutinizing legal documents.
In an uplifting conclusion, Grogan successfully reached out to the owner and informed them about their long-forgotten wealth.
Reflecting on the experience, Grogan expressed his hope that he had brightened the owner’s day by reconnecting them with their lost funds.
This tale serves as a reminder of how easy it can be to overlook or lose track of valuable assets in the fast-paced world of cryptocurrencies.
