A British man has become an overnight multi-millionaire after cryptocurrency he ‘lost’ for more than a decade was recovered – with scores of UK investors also set to finally cash-in.
Legal firm CEL Solicitors claimed it has successfully reclaimed Bitcoin worth more than £3 million for the man, who wants to remain anonymous, a landmark achievement in cryptocurrency asset recovery.
Chris – not his real name – originally purchased his first Bitcoin in December 2011, when a single coin was valued at just £2.94. The transaction was made via the UK’s first Bitcoin exchange, Britcoin, which was then renamed Intersango.
He lost access to his crypto wallet when Intersango went bust. But he’s finally had the total amount returned to him at its current market rate.
He said: “The worst thing was seeing Bitcoin grow and knowing what I could have done with the money. I haven’t had much work in the last few years, my son got married, my father-in-law passed away so my wife had to quit work to look after her mum.
“Both of my parents are in their 80s and have health issues. My children have been through university, my son has bought a house that ended up needing a lot more work than he realised.
“When I lost access to the wallet it was a big shock and quite devastating, because we weren’t in a great financial position. I had a young family, a new home and it was money I couldn’t afford to lose. My wallet had grown from my initial £1,500 investment to about £4,000.
“For a long time I didn’t tell my family. When it was growing I’d suggested to friends and family that they should buy Bitcoin, too. So friends knew I had it and they’d bring it up over the years – how big it had got – but I didn’t want to talk about it.”
Chris’ Bitcoin wallet is now worth £3.3m, which means he became a multi-millionaire overnight when CEL Solicitors returned it back to him.
He added: “I’m not used to that sort of money. We’ve never struggled but we’ve never been able to live the life that we want to live. We’re still down to earth and I wouldn’t go crazy, but we do need to upgrade to a bigger house so that we are able to better accommodate my mother-in-law and her disabilities.
“I can help my son pay off some of his loans on his new house. I want to keep some Bitcoin to see if the value rises again but if I do it does make me nervous in case it goes down and although some investments are more regulated now, crypto isn’t.
“There are still a lot of scammers around. You can be hacked and all the money’s gone. It’s not like moving money between a normal bank account.”
Ryan Sweetnam, director of financial litigation at CEL Solicitors, said: “When it comes to recovering crypto assets, the path to repatriation is never straightforward.
“In the case of Intersango, gathering vital documents and the verification of legitimate claims was challenging after so many years.
“A significant hurdle in this case was obtaining bank records from almost 15 years ago to evidence proof of purchase, but it is possible.”
When it launched in July 2011, Britcoin quickly attracted thousands of users and became the second-largest Bitcoin exchange in the world.
However, access to early investments was reduced in late 2012, when sterling and the US dollar trading stopped.
By early 2014, the website went down and users received no response when they tried to withdraw their funds.
During this time, a single Bitcoin was valued at hundreds of pounds, a significant increase from when it was originally purchased, but still far below its peak of around £94,000 in October 2025.
Intersango Ltd was dissolved in March 2016 and the Bitcoin was never returned, leaving thousands of users without a clear path to their cryptocurrency for more than a decade.
Using specialist crypto-tracing software through its sister company, The Crypto Tracing Experts, the Liverpool-based law firm has identified a wallet containing more than 5,500 Bitcoin, believed to belong to Intersango users.
Sweetnam said: “Hundreds of millions of pounds is still sitting in a wallet capable of being returned.
“We urge anyone who lost Bitcoin because of the closing of Britcoin or Intersango to get in touch. Recovery is possible and, as in the case of this client, it could be life-changing.”
The settlement follows a 10-year legal battle between Intersango’s co-founders over the handling of its users’ Bitcoin.
Intersango LLC, through its representatives, have now acknowledged in court proceedings that they continue to hold Bitcoin belonging to the platform’s original users.