This Man Was Locked Out Of His Bitcoin Wallet For 11 Years — Claude AI Got Him Back In
A Bitcoin holder known as @cprkrn recovered 5 BTC (worth ~$400K-$500K) on May 13, 2026, after being locked out of his wallet for over 11 years, crediting Claude AI for the breakthrough. While intoxicated in college, he changed his wallet password and forgot it. Despite having an old seed phrase and attempting professional recovery services and brute-force software, he remained locked out until Bitcoin surpassed $100,000.
His recovery method involved uploading his entire old college computer's data into Claude. The AI forensicly identified an older wallet file and discovered a bug in the btcrecover utility that was concatenating a key with the password incorrectly. Claude corrected the decryption logic, extracted the private keys, and regained access to the funds. Blockchain data confirmed the wallet's first activity since 2015.
The story went viral on X, garnering millions of views. The original ~$1,250 investment, made at roughly $250 per Bitcoin, had grown by approximately 32,500%.
bitcoinist2 days ago 14:32