Part of the CustodyStress archive of observed Bitcoin custody incidents
Mobile or software wallet
Cases in this category involve mobile apps and desktop software wallets. Recovery depends entirely on whether a seed phrase backup was made and stored independently of the device.
Mobile and software wallets are the most frequently observed custody system in this archive, reflecting their widespread use. The structural risk is consistent: where a seed phrase backup was created and stored independently of the device, recovery was possible. Where no backup existed, loss of the device meant permanent loss of access.
572 observed cases
Blocked
405 (71%)
Constrained
44 (8%)
Survives
118 (21%)
Indeterminate
5 (1%)
The MDM policy wiped the wallet app and its stored key.
Mobile or software wallet
A Bitcoin company treasury held in 2-of-3 Copay multisig experienced a quorum failure in February 2016 when a key holder's device was remotely wiped as part of
A software update broke the screen reader's compatibility with their wallet application.
Mobile or software wallet
A Bitcoin holder with a severe visual impairment relied on a screen reader to access their wallet. In May 2016 a software update broke the screen reader's compa
The former partner transferred approximately 5 BTC from the wallet while threatening to
Mobile or software wallet
A forum post from June 2016 describes a trader coerced into revealing wallet credentials by a former business partner who had insider knowledge of their holding
Their travel document had been confiscated at a border crossing.
Mobile or software wallet
A user who had stored their seed phrase in a safety deposit box in a country they subsequently left found in June 2016 that they could not re-enter the country
The business closed and the landlord, claiming unpaid rent, changed the locks
Mobile or software wallet
A Bitcoin holder who ran a small business stored their wallet on the business desktop computer. In August 2016 the business closed and the landlord, claiming un
Multisig quorum failure — software wallet 2016
Mobile or software wallet
A Bitcoin inheritance arrangement structured as a 1-of-2 multisig (for survivorship) was challenged in court in September 2016. The deceased had created the 2-o
Hidden wallet discovered — Bitcoin Core (2016)
Mobile or software wallet
An early Bitcoin forum participant died in January 2016 leaving behind a laptop with a Bitcoin Core installation. The executor found a note saying 'Bitcoin wall
The attorney found a Bitcoin-Qt installation on the laptop but no wallet file in
Mobile or software wallet
An estate attorney documented a December 2015 case where the deceased had left a note referencing 'coins on the laptop' and a hint: 'remember 2009'. The attorne
A thorough search of all known email accounts and devices yielded no evidence of any
Mobile or software wallet
A family discovered in late 2015 that their recently deceased relative had referenced 'digital gold' in several journal entries. An estate specialist determined
They had memorised their seed phrase and were able to recover their funds
Mobile or software wallet
A Bitcoin holder who fled their home country as a political refugee in 2015 had stored their primary holdings on a hardware wallet that was left behind in the e
Owner incapacity — software wallet 2015
Mobile or software wallet
A Bitcoin investor suffered a severe brain injury in August 2015 that left them in a coma for three months. During this period their family needed to manage fin
Multisig quorum failure — software wallet 2015
Mobile or software wallet
A Bitcoin inheritance arrangement used a 2-of-3 multisig where the testator held two keys and a trusted friend held the third. The testator became seriously ill
Passphrase unavailable — software wallet (2015)
Mobile or software wallet
A university student who had mined Bitcoin as a computer science project in 2013 returned to their wallet in July 2015 intending to sell after price increases.
The computer's power supply failed and the motherboard was damaged by the surge.
Mobile or software wallet
A Bitcoin investor who had been holding since 2011 stored their wallet exclusively on an old desktop computer. In January 2015 the computer's power supply faile
An early Bitcoin miner died unexpectedly in January 2015.
Mobile or software wallet
An early Bitcoin miner died unexpectedly in January 2015. Family members found a USB drive labelled 'Bitcoin' but it was password protected with a Windows BitLo
Passphrase unavailable — Bitcoin-Qt (2015)
Mobile or software wallet
A 2015 forum post describes a user who had encrypted their 2012 Bitcoin-Qt wallet with a passphrase they associated with a deceased relative's nickname. By 2015
The victim transferred 2 BTC under duress.
Mobile or software wallet
A 2015 documented case describes a Bitcoin holder who was coerced by a domestic partner with access to their home computer. The partner threatened to publish pr
Destroyed in fire — software wallet (2015)
Mobile or software wallet
A Bitcoin holder who had accumulated coins since 2012 stored their wallet on a laptop that was destroyed in a house fire in February 2015. No off-site backup of
Device lost — software wallet (2015)
Mobile or software wallet
A mobile-first Bitcoin user who kept their primary wallet on an iPhone had the phone seized by police during an unrelated arrest in February 2015. The phone was
A Bitcoin holder was diagnosed with early-stage dementia in 2015.
Mobile or software wallet
A Bitcoin holder was diagnosed with early-stage dementia in 2015. Their family discovered they had BTC holdings but the holder could not reliably recall wallet
Passphrase unavailable — software wallet 2015
Mobile or software wallet
A user who had set a wallet passphrase as an obscure film quote in a foreign language found in 2015 that neither they nor any resource they consulted could repr
They retrieved the paper and found the printed QR code had faded to the point where it
Mobile or software wallet
A user who had set up a deterministic wallet in 2013 stored the seed as a QR code printed on paper. In February 2015 they retrieved the paper and found the prin
The thief gained direct access to the wallet and transferred the BTC within hours of
Mobile or software wallet
A user whose phone was stolen in March 2015 had stored their Mycelium wallet's private key only on the device with no seed backup. The thief gained direct acces
The RAID controller had not been properly configured and no redundancy existed.
Mobile or software wallet
A Bitcoin user stored their wallet exclusively in a virtual machine on a home server. In March 2015 the server's RAID array failed catastrophically, with multip
Estate access failure — software wallet (2015)
Mobile or software wallet
A 2015 probate case involved the estate of a Bitcoin developer who had created multiple wallets over several years. The estate attorney located wallet files on
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