Share this article
Hacker Refuses to Hand Police Password for Seized Wallet With $6.5M in Bitcoin
Throughout a two-year prison term, the man repeatedly refused to give wallet access to German authorities.
Updated Sep 14, 2021, 12:07 p.m. Published Feb 5, 2021, 1:20 p.m.
German authorities who seized a convicted hacker's wallet containing over 1,700 bitcoin – worth at least $64.7 million at today's prices – have hit a brick wall when trying to access the coins.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
- According to a German prosecutor cited by Reuters Friday, the convicted criminal is refusing to share the password that would allow the authorities to access the bitcoin.
- The hacker was sentenced to an over two-year prison term for installing software on other people’s computers without permission in order to mine cryptocurrency.
- He has now served the sentence and has consistently refused hand over the wallet password, despite multiple requests.
- “We asked him but he didn’t say,” prosecutor Sebastian Murer told Reuters. “Perhaps he doesn’t know.”
- Prosecutors have made sure the man cannot access the bitcoin trove after release, Reuters said without providing any further detail.
Read more: Ex-Ripple CTO Can’t Remember Password to Access $240M in Bitcoin
More For You
What to know:
- As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M.
- GoPlus Intelligence's Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025 , with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month.
- Since its January 2025 launch , the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B , while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B.
More For You
CFTC's acting chief Pham poised to go to crypto firm MoonPay once Mike Selig lands
The leader of the derivatives regulator is planning to join the crypto industry as the CFTC and other federal regulators work on policies to benefit the sector.
What to know:
- Commodity Futures Trading Commission Acting Chairman Caroline Pham confirmed again that she's heading to crypto firm MoonPay when the Senate confirms her replacement and he's sworn in.
- President Donald Trump's CFTC chair nominee Mike Selig was set for a Senate vote Wednesday evening, according to that chamber's schedule.
- Selig, currently an SEC official, would arrive at the CFTC just as several of Pham's crypto initiatives have gone live.
Top Stories
