Ireland Moves Another 500 BTC From Clifton Collins' Seized Wallets to Coinbase Prime
Published October 20, 2026, 11:52 PM PKT. Based on on-chain reporting by bitcoinsistemi.com, which cites data from the blockchain analytics platform Lookonchain (primary source), with additional reporting from Bitcoin.com News, cryptonews.net and CoinTurk (secondary sources).
A wallet linked to convicted Irish drug trafficker Clifton Collins moved 500 BTC, worth about $41.5 million, to Coinbase Prime on Tuesday, October 20, 2026, according to on-chain data shared by the analytics platform Lookonchain and reported by bitcoinsistemi.com. The transfer is the fifth time this year that a 500-BTC tranche has been moved out of the wallets tied to Collins' long-thought-lost Bitcoin fortune. Blockchain intelligence firm Arkham Intelligence flagged the transaction and says it believes law enforcement is responsible for the latest movement, though Irish officials have not independently confirmed this particular transfer, Bitcoin.com News reported.
The fifth 500-BTC tranche
The October 20 transfer of 500 BTC follows a clear pattern in 2026. Ireland's Criminal Assets Bureau seized 500 BTC in March, another 500 in May and 500 more in July, and in August another 500 BTC, worth about $39.56 million at the time, was sent to Coinbase Prime, according to reporting by CoinTurk. With the latest movement, about 2,500 BTC, worth roughly $207.5 million at current prices, have been moved out of the Collins-linked wallets this year, bitcoinsistemi.com reported. The May tranche took a different route: Arkham linked that 500-BTC movement to a Binance deposit address associated with market maker Wintermute rather than Coinbase Prime, according to earlier coverage.
2,500 BTC moved, 3,500 still sitting
Approximately 3,500 BTC of the original 6,000 BTC may still be in the relevant wallets, worth about $290 million at current prices, bitcoinsistemi.com reported. Bitcoin.com News put the remaining figure at 3,500 BTC worth about $288 million. The 6,000 BTC were bought with the proceeds of cannabis trafficking in 2011 and 2012, when Bitcoin traded at around $5, putting Collins' estimated purchase cost near $30,000 for a stash that would later be worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Each of the 12 wallets held 500 BTC, so every recovered tranche empties one wallet, and seven of the twelve wallets may now be unlocked or in the process of being recovered.
The fishing rod case fortune
Collins, a former beekeeper from Dublin who ran large-scale cannabis grow houses, began buying Bitcoin in 2011 and 2012 and accumulated about 6,000 BTC, according to Irish authorities and blockchain intelligence firms cited in earlier reporting. To protect the stash, he split it evenly across 12 wallets, printed their private keys on a sheet of A4 paper and concealed it inside the aluminum cap of a fishing rod case stored at a rented property in County Galway. Collins was arrested in 2017 after Irish police found cannabis in his car, and he was sentenced to five years in prison. While he was in prison, the landlord cleared the rented property and the fishing gear, with the supposed keys, was reportedly sent to a dump. An Irish court ordered the confiscation of the 6,000 BTC in 2020 as proceeds of crime, but without the private keys the ruling was effectively unenforceable.
How Ireland got the keys back
In March 2026, Ireland's Criminal Assets Bureau announced it had managed to access a previously inaccessible 500-BTC wallet with help from Europol's European Cybercrime Centre, Arkham-flagged data showed 500 BTC leaving a wallet labeled "Clifton Collins: Lost Keys" for Coinbase Prime on March 24. Ireland's Criminal Assets Bureau said Europol provided "highly complex technical expertise and decryption resources" for the operation. Neither agency has disclosed the method used to open the wallet, leaving the technical details of the recovery outside the public record, and exactly how authorities gained access to the keys remains unrevealed. What is clear is that the recovery, one of the strangest lost-fortune stories in Bitcoin history, keeps unfolding tranche by tranche, with about $290 million still sitting in the wallets that Irish authorities have yet to open.
This article is news reporting and is not investment advice.
Sources
- bitcoinsistemi.com, "A European Country May Have Sold a Large Amount of Bitcoin Today," October 20, 2026, primary source: the October 20 500-BTC transfer to Coinbase Prime, the Lookonchain data, the 2026 recovery timeline (March 500 BTC seized, 1,000 more in May and July, August 500-BTC move), the 2,500 BTC total moved this year worth about $207.5 million, and the estimated 3,500 BTC remaining worth about $290 million
- Bitcoin.com News, "Sleeping Bitcoin Giant Moves 500 BTC Worth $41M After 10 Years of Silence," October 2026, secondary source: Arkham Intelligence's flagging of the fifth movement this year, Arkham's belief that law enforcement is responsible with no independent official confirmation of this transfer, the 6,000-BTC 2011-2012 accumulation, and the fishing rod case key-loss history
- CoinTurk, October 20, 2026, secondary source: the full tranche table (March, May, July, August 28 and October 20, 2026) and the August transfer's $39.56 million value
- cryptonews.net and Weex, October 2026, secondary sources: the 2016 arrest, 2017 imprisonment and 5-year sentence, the 2020 court confiscation order, the March 24 Coinbase Prime transfer details, and the May tranche's route to a Binance address linked to Wintermute
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