TL;DR: Stefan Thomas, a San Francisco coder, once earned 7,002 Bitcoins from a single explainer video—then promptly lost the password to his IronKey wallet. With just two guesses left before it’s locked forever, he’s now one of the world’s richest crypto bros with trust issues… with himself.
It all started when…
Meet Stefan Thomas, a Swiss-born programmer living in San Francisco, and the kind of guy who was just early enough on Bitcoin to make it big… and just human enough to completely screw it up.
Back in 2011, Stefan was the kind of person crypto Twitter now calls an “OG.” A true believer. A 20-something tech bro with the foresight to accept Bitcoin as payment for a simple explainer video on this new, nerdy digital currency. He was paid 7,002 BTC—worth about $2,000 at the time. Smart move, right?
Even smarter? He stored the private keys to his Bitcoin wallet on an IronKey USB device — a military-grade, hacker-proof digital vault. The IronKey allows 10 attempts at the password. Then? Self-destruction mode: forever encryption.
The only thing missing? A sticky note.
and then
Fast-forward to 2021. Bitcoin was trading at $34,000 per coin. Stefan’s stash? Worth $240 million. Life-changing money. A yacht-and-island kind of fortune. But there was just one tiny problem…
He forgot the password.
Yep. Stefan had written the password down — somewhere. He had a system. A memory trick. He was sure it’d come back. It didn’t.
As of the last update, he had used 8 of his 10 password attempts. Each failure brought him closer to financial oblivion. That’s two tries left to either unlock generational wealth… or permanently brick the world’s most expensive flash drive.
“I would just lay in bed and think about it,” he told reporters. “Then I’d go to the computer with some new strategy, and it wouldn’t work, and I’d be desperate again.”
He tried hypnotists, brain-hacking, probably even the KonMari method. Every crypto enthusiast from Twitter to Reddit had a theory. But none of them had the password.
The Facepalm
Crypto bros offered help. Psychics probably slid into his DMs. And Twitter? Ruthless.
“Even 20-year tech veterans forget passwords. Never trust your brain. Use a password manager. Or a tattoo.”
Memes exploded. Stefan’s face appeared on a Photoshopped “Lost Password” milk carton. He became the unofficial poster child for HODL heartbreak.
To this day, the drive sits in a drawer, untouched. Two attempts remain. And Stefan? He’s moved on. Mostly.
“I got to a point where I realized it was hurting me,” he said. “I don’t want to be the guy that lost $240 million in crypto… but I guess I am.”
Does This Deserve the HODLaward?
👍 You tell us. Would you hand Stefan the Golden USB? Or at least a sticky note and a hug?
Tag a friend who once forgot their Netflix login for five days straight.
