A Bitcoin investor who forgot the password to a crypto wallet containing nearly $400,000 worth of Bitcoin has regained access after more than a decade, thanks to the assistance of Anthropic’s Claude AI.
The unusual recovery story surfaced after X user detailed how they finally unlocked a wallet holding five Bitcoin (BTC), a stash that had remained inaccessible for over 11 years.
According to the user, the password had been changed while they were “stoned,” only to be forgotten later, turning what was once a routine security measure into a years-long digital dead end.
The wallet, containing 5 BTC, had appreciated dramatically in value over time. While five Bitcoins may have seemed modest years ago, they are now worth close to $400,000, making the recovery attempt increasingly important.
For years, cprkrn reportedly tried multiple methods to regain access, including brute-force password attempts using btcrecover, an open-source tool designed to help users retrieve encrypted cryptocurrency wallets.
Despite having several possible passwords and multiple wallet backups stored on an old computer, every effort failed.
Forgotten College Notes Spark Breakthrough
The turning point came when the user discovered an old mnemonic phrase scribbled in a college notebook.
The recovery phrase matched the wallet’s hierarchical deterministic (HD) addresses, confirming it was linked to the elusive Bitcoin holdings. However, the wallet file itself remained encrypted, preventing immediate access.
Running out of options, the person turned to Claude in what they described as a final attempt. The user uploaded years’ worth of files from an old college computer to the AI assistant, hoping it might uncover something overlooked.
The AI reportedly identified an older backup wallet file from December 2019 hidden among archived data. More significantly, Claude uncovered a technical issue in how password attempts were being processed.
Claude Found the Bug, Not the Password
Rather than magically guessing the lost password, Claude helped identify a flaw in the recovery setup. According to reports, the AI discovered that the shared encryption key and password combinations used by btcrecover were not being merged correctly, effectively sabotaging earlier attempts.
Once the issue was corrected and an older wallet version, one created before the password change, was located, the private keys were successfully decrypted. The recovered Bitcoin was then transferred into a modern wallet.
The case highlights how AI tools are increasingly being used for complex technical problem-solving, particularly in digital forensics and data recovery.
It also stands in stark contrast to other infamous crypto losses, including a man who reportedly lost access to thousands of Bitcoin after a hard drive was mistakenly thrown away, with courts later blocking attempts to excavate a landfill.