This Bitcoin Investor Is Warning Against Being Your Own Bank After Losing $234M

Bitcoin (BTC) millionaires are having a hard time getting into their wallets — thanks to forgotten passwords, the New York Times reported Tuesday.
What Happened: Stefan Thomas, a computer programmer, is one such millionaire who holds 7,002 bitcoins worth 234 million — as of press time — on a hard disk, whose password he has forgotten, according to the Times.

Thomas is left with just two guesses to unlock the drive known as IronKey. Should he fail to input the correct password, the device will be encrypted and locked forever.

The programmer lost the paper on which he had written down the password years ago. Thomas told the Times that he no longer supports the idea of people being their own banks, something which is often pointed out in favor of the apex cryptocurrency.

“This whole idea of being your own bank — let me put it this way: Do you make your own shoes?”

“The reason we have banks is that we don’t want to deal with all those things that banks do,” said Thomas.

Some others like Gabriel Abed still support Bitcoin even after having lost 800 Bitcoin — worth nearly $26.64 million as of press time — when a colleague reformatted a laptop in 2011.

“The risk of being my own bank comes with the reward of being able to freely access my money and be a citizen of the world — that is worth it,” said Abed.

Why It Matters: Of the nearly 18.5 million existing BTC, nearly 20% currently worth $122 billion are stuck in stranded wallets, as per Chainalysis, reported the Times.

Even tech-savvy investors are not spared wallet related pain. A BTC investor said this week he lost nearly $100,000 while trying to migrate his Bitcoin from an old computer to a new one.

Price Action: Bitcoin traded 5% lower at $33,013.53 at press time. On Tuesday, Grayscale Bitcoin Trust GBTC closed 4.06% higher at $38.92.