Over $3.5B in ETH Gone Forever—Here’s How Crypto Users Are Accidentally Burning Their Fortunes
Crypto’s self-custody mantra comes with a brutal downside: irreversible mistakes. A new report reveals just how much ETH has been lost to typos, dead wallets, and plain old human error.
The Unrecoverable Black Hole
Send to the wrong address? Forget a password? Congrats—you’ve just donated to Ethereum’s decentralized furnace. Unlike traditional finance, there’s no customer service hotline to undo screwups.
‘Bank Error in Your Favor’ Doesn’t Exist Here
While Wall Street bails itself out with fees and reversals, crypto’s code-is-law ethos means even billion-dollar oopsies stay permanent. Some call it financial Darwinism—others call it a feature, not a bug.
The irony? The same system that cuts out middlemen also bypasses safety nets. Maybe hedge your bets… or at least double-check that wallet address.
Actual Losses Likely Much Higher
Grogan shared his analysis on July 21 via a post on X, noting that if we include the 5.3 million ETH burned through EIP-1559, then more than 5% of the total supply ever created has been permanently destroyed. This translates to $23.42 billion worth of the cryptocurrency.
The Coinbase executive added that this amount only covers ETH that is locked forever, which is much lower than what has been lost or is unreachable. “To be clear, this $3.4B+ number significantly undershoots the actual lost/inaccessible ETH amount,” he explained.
For instance, the results do not account for all missing private keys or dormant wallets like forgotten Genesis wallets. His report also lists addresses and transaction details and reveals how each loss happened.
The findings are based on verified on-chain data, including cases where the cryptocurrency was sent to irretrievable addresses, locked in malfunctioning smart contracts, or forfeited through wallet mismanagement.
One of the most significant incidents highlighted occurred in 2017, when the Web3 Foundation wrote off 306,000 ETH after a bug in the Parity wallet let someone shut down a key part of the system, blocking access to those funds. Another case involved the Canadian exchange QuadrigaCX, which locked 60,000 ETH in a smart contract with no way to withdraw the funds.
In 2022, the Akutars NFT project also trapped 11,500 ETH during a sale due to a smart contract flaw that stopped refunds from being sent to people. Additionally, more than 25,000 ETH has been collectively sent by users to a burn address for reasons that remain unknown.
Ethereum Leads as Top Target for Hacks
Elsewhere, CertiK’s “Hack3d” report for the first half of 2025 reveals that crypto investors lost $2.47 billion to security breaches, scams, and exploits, surpassing the total recorded in 2024.
Ethereum was the most targeted blockchain, accounting for 175 separate incidents and $1.63 billion in stolen funds. Wallet compromises emerged as the most damaging FORM of breach, responsible for losses of up to $1.7 billion across just 34 incidents. On the other hand, phishing attacks were the most frequent, with 132 incidents resulting in the theft of $410 million from crypto users.
The blockchain security firm says the network’s appeal to hackers is due to its leading role in decentralized finance (DeFi) and high volume of smart contract activity. Additionally, billions of dollars remain locked in Ethereum-based protocols, making them attractive targets for bad actors.
