A bitcoin owner has regained access to a long-lost Bitcoin wallet worth nearly $400,000 with help from Claude, the AI chatbot. According to a report from Techradar, the incident has gone viral across tech and crypto communities after the user claimed the wallet had remained locked for more than 11 years because he forgot the password after changing it during his college days.
As per the report, the user owned around 5 Bitcoin that were originally purchased in 2015 when Bitcoin traded at nearly $250 per coin. Over the years, the value of those holdings increased massively, eventually reaching almost $400,000 at current prices. Despite trying several traditional recovery methods, including brute-force password tools that reportedly tested trillions of password combinations, the wallet remained inaccessible.
The breakthrough reportedly came after the user uploaded files from an old college computer into Claude and asked the AI assistant to analyse them. Instead of “hacking” Bitcoin encryption, Claude reportedly helped identify an old backup wallet file hidden among years of stored data. The chatbot also helped trace a technical issue involving the recovery process and password configuration.
AI did not crack Bitcoin security
Several experts and online users clarified that the AI system did not break Bitcoin’s security or magically guess the password. Instead, Claude acted more like a digital assistant that helped organise files, locate forgotten backups and debug recovery tools. Reddit users discussing the case pointed out that the necessary recovery information already existed on the user’s old computer, but the AI helped connect the missing pieces faster.
The user reportedly discovered an old mnemonic phrase earlier this year, but it still was not enough to unlock the wallet. Claude later identified an older wallet.dat backup file that reportedly predated the password change. Combining the backup file with the recovery phrase finally allowed access to the Bitcoin wallet after more than a decade.
Why is the story attracting attention?
The incident has sparked wider conversations around the growing role of AI in cybersecurity, digital forensics and data recovery. While most headlines described the event as AI “cracking” a wallet, the story is more about AI helping humans process huge amounts of scattered information more efficiently.
The case also highlights how many early cryptocurrency wallets may still be sitting inaccessible on old hard drives and forgotten computers.