A British investor, Chris, has recovered 61 BTC valued at approximately £3.33 million after losing access for over a decade.
A British man has successfully regained access to 61 BTC, valued at around £3.33 million (approximately $4.5 million), which he had thought was lost following the collapse of one of the UK’s early cryptocurrency exchanges, Intersango. The investor, who identified himself as Chris, initially invested about £1500 (around $2000) in Bitcoin in 2011 using a platform that was later renamed Intersango. His account was frozen when the value of the Bitcoin had risen to about £4000 (around $5400).
Intersango faced operational challenges starting in late 2012, halting trading in pounds and dollars, and by early 2014, its website was defunct, leaving users without access to their funds.
The company behind Intersango was liquidated in 2016. Chris made multiple attempts to recover his assets, but after failing, he stopped monitoring Bitcoin's price. He remarked, "It was hard to watch Bitcoin rise," reflecting on the missed opportunity.
In 2018, he received emails from two of Intersango’s co-founders requesting contact, but he dismissed them as scams and deleted the messages. It wasn't until January 2026, encouraged by his wife, that he revisited the possibility of retrieving his funds. He enlisted the help of CEL Solicitors, a law firm that assisted in verifying his ownership of the cryptocurrency.
One significant hurdle was gathering documentation from over a decade ago, including bank statements necessary to prove the purchase. After extensive negotiations, and without needing to pursue a separate legal case, Chris successfully recovered all 61 BTC by May 28, 2026, after reaching out to the lawyers on January 20.
Chris intends to cash out a portion of his funds to buy a larger home and support his family, while he plans to retain the remaining Bitcoins. In a related story, another British man, James Howells, has been trying to recover 7500 BTC lost in a hard drive discarded in a Newport landfill. He has faced challenges with local authorities regarding excavation permissions and has now shifted his focus to tokenizing his rights to the lost Bitcoins through a new initiative called Ceiniog Coin, with plans for a television series based on his experience.
