Irish authorities have recovered 500 Bitcoin (BTC), valued at approximately $35 million (30 million euros), from the wallet of convicted cannabis grower Clifton Collins. The recovery, announced on March 24, 2026, is the first successful breach of Collins’ 6,000 BTC fortune. These funds were previously considered lost since 2017.
Ireland’s Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) led the operation, with Europol providing the necessary technical expertise. After recovery, the funds moved to a Coinbase account controlled by the state.
Collins, who purchased his Bitcoin in 2011 and 2012 using proceeds from illegal cannabis cultivation, originally distributed his 6,000 BTC across 12 separate wallets to mitigate security risks. Each wallet contained exactly 500 BTC, but the access codes were lost after his arrest.
Although the High Court issued a ruling on the confiscation of the assets in 2020, the CAB could not access the assets without the physical keys. The original stash, which was valued at a total of €53 million, was seized by the court; however, the value of the assets has risen significantly over the years, reaching a value of over €400 million.
Forensic Breakthroughs Revive Dormant Criminal Assets
The discovery of the lost Collins Bitcoin assets points to a changing environment in which the notion of dormant assets is no longer applicable, as law enforcement agencies are utilizing decryption resources to circumvent the security mechanisms that were previously in place for illicit assets.
Digital gold remains a focus for Irish regulators
This seizure aligns with Ireland’s broader strategy to tighten its grip on the cryptocurrency sector. The Central Bank of Ireland has been working closely with EU partners to ensure uniform enforcement of the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation, aiming to prevent the use of digital assets for money laundering.
The successful recovery provides a significant win for CAB, which returned €8.6 million to the exchequer in 2023. If the bureau manages to unlock the full 6,000 BTC, it would dwarf all previous asset recoveries, effectively turning a decade-old loss into a historic windfall for the Irish state.
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