On May 25, an anonymous holder sent 107 Bitcoin, worth roughly $8.5 million, to one of the most famous dead-end addresses in crypto. The coins are gone forever. No refunds, no recovery, no takebacks.
The transfer wasn’t a fat-finger mistake or a phishing casualty. It was a deliberate, premeditated act carried out across five separate transactions, each featuring timelocks tied to a specific block number (950,958) and unusually high fees.
The anatomy of a $8.5M bonfire
The destination was Bitcoin’s notorious burn address: 1111111111111111111114oLvT2. Created in 2010, this address has an unspendable public key, meaning any Bitcoin sent there is permanently removed from circulation.
The originating wallets date back to 2014 and 2015, making them relics of early crypto history. They’re possibly linked to exchanges like Poloniex and Bitfinex, though no definitive connection has been established. One of the wallets reportedly peaked at a value of $2.5 million before being drained in this event.
