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%)
Documentation absent — software wallet (2013)
Mobile or software wallet
A small Bitcoin business in 2013 operated with a single controlling wallet held by one partner who died unexpectedly. No documentation of the wallet location, p
Device discarded — software wallet (2013)
Mobile or software wallet
A UK-based user discarded an old laptop in 2013 during a home clearout without realising it still contained a Bitcoin wallet. The laptop was collected with hous
Documentation absent — software wallet 2013
Mobile or software wallet
Bitcoin holders who had generated paper wallets using early online generators discovered in 2013 that some generator sites had been silently logging private key
Documentation absent — software wallet 2013
Mobile or software wallet
A Bitcoin business operating in 2013 stored its operational wallet on a single employee's personal laptop without a documented access protocol or backup procedu
Forced relocation — software wallet 2013
Mobile or software wallet
A Bitcoin holder who was deported from their country of residence in 2013 was unable to retrieve a computer containing their wallet before departure. The device
Destroyed by lightning — Bitcoin-Qt (2013)
Mobile or software wallet
A user who stored their Bitcoin-Qt wallet on a desktop computer that was struck by lightning in 2013 lost the device entirely. No backup existed offsite. The su
Device lost — software wallet (2013)
Mobile or software wallet
A user's mobile phone containing a Bitcoin mobile wallet app was damaged beyond repair in 2013. The user had not backed up the wallet seed displayed during setu
Hidden wallet discovered — software wallet (2013)
Mobile or software wallet
The 2013 Bitcoin price run from $13 to over $1,000 prompted numerous reports of families discovering that a deceased relative had held significant Bitcoin. In c
Estate access failure — software wallet (2013)
Mobile or software wallet
In 2013 several probate cases emerged in the US involving Bitcoin holders who had died without disclosing wallet access information. Attorneys handling estates
Owner incapacity — software wallet 2013
Mobile or software wallet
A Bitcoin miner who was incarcerated in 2013 left behind a computer with a significant wallet balance. Family members who attempted to access the wallet to pay
Brain wallet — software wallet (2013)
Mobile or software wallet
An early Bitcoin adopter who had created a brain wallet in 2010 found in 2013 that the passphrase phrase they had memorised was no longer fully recallable after
When the password manager service was discontinued, the stored passphrase was lost.
Mobile or software wallet
A 2013 Bitcointalk thread documented a case where a user had stored a wallet passphrase in an online password manager. When the password manager service was dis
The intended recipient found the paper wallet but could not spend the BTC because
Mobile or software wallet
A user who had generated a Bitcoin paper wallet for a gift in 2011 discovered in 2013 that they had also added an additional passphrase encryption to the privat
Passphrase unavailable — software wallet (2013)
Mobile or software wallet
A user who had been gifted Bitcoin in 2012 received it in a wallet.dat file with an encrypted passphrase set by the sender for security. The sender intended to
The USB drive was later formatted as part of a routine data cleanup.
Mobile or software wallet
A user who had correctly recorded their Bitcoin-Qt wallet private keys exported the keys to a USB drive and discarded the original computer. The USB drive was l
Seed phrase unavailable — software wallet 2013
Mobile or software wallet
A user running Bitcoin-Qt before HD wallet standards generated new addresses regularly for each transaction without making fresh backups. In 2013 the wallet.dat
Paper wallet faded — software wallet (2013)
Mobile or software wallet
A 2013 forum post documented a case where a Bitcoin holder had printed a paper wallet with a QR code in 2011. By 2013 the thermal paper had faded sufficiently t
Seed phrase unavailable — software wallet 2013
Mobile or software wallet
An early miner who had stored a wallet backup on a single CD-ROM found in 2013 that disc rot had made the backup unreadable. The wallet.dat had been written to
The laptop was later encrypted with BitLocker and the BitLocker recovery key was not
Mobile or software wallet
A 2013 Bitcointalk thread documented a case where a user had correctly backed up their Electrum seed to a text file on a laptop. The laptop was later encrypted
Seed unavailable — Electrum (2013)
Mobile or software wallet
An Electrum wallet user who had generated a wallet in late 2012 did not write down the seed words displayed at setup. In 2013 when the device was replaced, the
Seed unavailable — software wallet (2013)
Mobile or software wallet
An early Bitcoin adopter who had run a mining node in 2010 and 2011 had the wallet key material stored only in a single text file on a Dropbox account. In 2013
When LastPass suffered a security breach in 2013, the user changed their master
Mobile or software wallet
An early Bitcoin adopter had backed up their wallet private keys to a LastPass account. When LastPass suffered a security breach in 2013, the user changed their
Seed unavailable — Electrum (2013)
Mobile or software wallet
A 2013 forum thread documents a user who had written their Electrum seed on a whiteboard in their home office and photographed it, intending to print and file t
The laptop contained the only copy of their Bitcoin-Qt wallet.
Mobile or software wallet
A Bitcoin miner whose home was burgled in summer 2013 had their laptop taken. The laptop contained the only copy of their Bitcoin-Qt wallet. The machine was not
Drive wiped without backup — software wallet (2013)
Mobile or software wallet
A user who had accumulated BTC through early faucet use and small trades in 2011–12 had their only backup on a USB drive attached to a keyring that was lost in
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