Dormant Ethereum ICO Wallet
In the 8-year history of Ethereum, there have been multiple mysteries that have made their way to the mainstream. However, one of the most popular of these is an ETH wallet that participated in the Ethereum ICO back in 2014 which has not seen any kind of activity since then.
X User Uncovers Mysterious Wallet
In February 2023, X (formerly Twitter) user @jconorgrogan took to the platform to reveal a curious Ethereum wallet. This wallet, according to Conor, was the only ETH wallet that had participated in the ICO in 2015 and had not carried out any transactions since then.
The mystery behind the wallet further grew when community members discovered that it was carrying a total of 250,000 ETH. Records show that the wallet had bought this massive stash of ETH in 2014 for $75,000 and the value of the investment has since appreciated to over $470 million. Yet it has not been claimed, nor has the owner sold any coins.
Not only had the wallet seen its initial investment grow exponentially, but it had also made millions of dollars in airdrops alone. Conor revealed that the wallet had received upwards of $6.5 million in airdrops, which, on its own, was already an 87x return on the original investment.
Estonian Banking Magnate Loses Keys To ETH Wallet
Nine months after the initial tweet was made, Conor provided an update with an answer to who owns the $470 million ETH wallet and why they had not made any transactions. Like many speculated, it was actually a case of lost keys but the owner of the wallet was even more interesting.
Conor posted a screenshot of an interview with the founder of Estonian LHV Bank, Rain Lohmus, where he admitted that he had actually lost access to his Ethereum wallet holding 250,000 ETH. However, Lohmus doesn’t seem too phased by this given that he said he had not really tried to recover the wallet.
The LHV Bank founder also revealed that he is unable to solve the issue and get back his ETH. So he is open to sharing offers from anyone who believes that they will be able to access the wallet. On his own though, Lohmus’ plan is “to build Rain Lohmus as an AI and see if he can get his memories back.”
Hot Take
In conclusion, it turns out that this long-dormant multi-million dollar Ethereum wallet belongs to Rain Lohmus, founder of Estonian LHV Bank who lost access to his keys and is now seeking help or considering building himself as an AI to recover his memories.