I know some of you might have come across this tale on X, Reddit, or Telegram, but I haven't seen a dedicated thread about it here.
So here's the deal: back in 2013, a user made a Bitcoin Core (Bitcoin-Qt v0.7.2) wallet and decided to encrypt it with a passphrase. Fast forward a bunch of years, he found out he totally forgot that passphrase.
Right now, that wallet has around 16.5 BTC sitting in it.
Here’s the wallet address: 189JveWz2WP79oYU9Gq4NUfiurbiuNPUhn
What's wild is that folks figured out who the wallet owner is, and it turns out he was one of the early members here: arielram.
I didn't spot any posts from that account, but the profile seems to point to the same guy who's now trying to get back into his wallet.
Currently, the owner is on a quest to recover access and has revealed a ton of hints, personal info, and password habits. Someone even made a web-based offline verifier so others can help out with guessing passwords.
According to some posts floating around, the owner is offering a 0.5 BTC bounty for anyone who can help crack the passphrase.
Quick background:
The wallet was set up using Bitcoin-Qt v0.7.2 back in 2013.
What the owner recalls:
- Password length is probably between 7 and 15 characters.
- Usually used some uppercase letters.
- Often included numbers like 5, 6, 7, and 8.
- Rarely added symbols or special characters.
- Sometimes included Spanish words.
- Sometimes included English words.
- Usually capitalized those words.
- Occasionally swapped z for s and s for z.
He might remember some specific words he used.
0.5 BTC is not a small amount, but in most civilized countries of the world there is a rule that whoever finds the lost money has the right to 10% of the total amount. Maybe such rules are not present for a person who has lost his password, but whoever manages to find the password definitely deserves a slightly bigger reward.
Anyway, good luck to all the treasure hunters and I hope someone gets lucky.
I'm not an expert when it comes to recovering passwords and stuff, but is it really necessary to expose his identity and this much personal data? Surely this will have implications for his security and privacy, no? I mean, he just made himself publicly known to be holding six figures worth of bitcoin (at the current price). It would've been better if he kept himself anonymous.
Not sure if you guys have read about this guy who recovered his 5 BTC after losing access to his wallet years ago.
https://mb.com.ph/2026/05/20/bitcoin-owner-who-lost-access-to-his-wallet-found-a-way-in-after-a-decade-with-claude-ai
I believe this guy also brute forced it countless of times, and used traditional recovery methods but all exhausted after failing many many times.
Until he used Claude to assist him to analyze his password habits, personal info, and other stuff that can be helpful to find the right password combination.
This guy, Ariel, should try this method as well, given that he already have tons of information that can be used for the AI to analyze his data. I think AI is capable of generating thousands of possible combinations. Well, that's a good start, efficient and fast.
Yes in many countries if you find something that was lost and return it especially to the authorities you are entitled to ten percent of that which was loss but this is a cry for help from someone who needs it.
Personally 0.5 Bitcoin is not small that's half a bitcoin and at Bitcoin's highest it has reached over fifty thousand dollars so that's a real potential funds to be given.
I still have a feeling it's not about the money because there are chances that the person who finds it may not need it.
Update: The lost 16.5 BTC has now been successfully recovered by the owner.
https://www.blockchain.com/explorer/addresses/btc/189JveWz2WP79oYU9Gq4NUfiurbiuNPUhn
Someone who goes by the username @usermain01 on Telegram managed to find Ariel's password: pera5durasnopera5lus
Here's the official post on X:
https://x.com/marcebit/status/2067019456425988286
Someone also made a thread about this before: Can AI Profile Our Personalities to Guess Passwords? The @cprkrn 5 BTC Recovery
So far, the person who found Ariel's password hasn't shared yet how he managed to do it, so I guess it's possible that he also used the assistance of AI.
That was fast, merely 10 days since the original untranslated Twitter post.
Doesn't look like it, his "possible words" list and "often used numbers" already pretty much covered it.
Didn't need profiling and other stuffs.
It appears like "pera" appearing twice is what actually made it hard.
Given that there's only a few tokens there, it shouldn't be as hard as it appears to be, only if we think outside the box like usermain01.
Yes, the contest is over, guys, but it was fun for everyone who participated.
Within just 5 days, someone managed to find the passphrase:
My script had already tried various 2-word and 3-word combinations, including:
I was actually quite close, but the owner had used four words in the passphrase.
I had assumed that if he used multiple words, it would most likely be a combination of two or three words. It never occurred to me that he might have repeated words and ended up using a four-word passphrase.
Congratulations to the person who solved it.
Right now he has nothing, because the bitcoin is lost, I don't see any threat here, as you can see many people have tried to help recover this bitcoin with no success so far, it's not going to be easy.
I would worry right after he recovers this Bitcoin, not now that it seems like he is never going to recover it, giving up his name is a must because it's going to help in the research to recover the lost bitcoin.
There is obviously nothing left for his to lose here, not until what's lost is recovered, OP, I personally recommend ZachXBT, he should get in touch with Zach, that guy is on a whole new level when it comes to recovering lost Bitcoin, he his very good at it.
16.5 BTC are now recovered, thanks for sharing it, participating and trust on me, I really appreciate.
Invite to everyone to follow me on X: marcebit , I will be posting soon more open calls.