How Many Bitcoins Have Been Stolen?

With the crypto world being rife with headlines about crypto theft, have you ever wondered how many Bitcoins have been stolen in total in the ten years of its existence? If you have, then this is where you find the answer.

Today, as fintech and blockchain get increasingly refined, hackers and scammers also fine tune their skills to catch up with the foundations of security. The result is, a spike in the number of crypto scams.

Recently, a report from Chainalysis showed us that Ethereum had been the most commonly targeted cryptocurrency in 2018, when it came to scams and hacks. However, this does not mean that the spotlight has always shone on Ethereum alone.

Bitcoin, the oldest cryptocurrency out there, has had its fair share of attacks by scammers. Therefore, a very significant number of Bitcoins have been stolen so far. Let us find out just how many.

How Many Bitcoins Have Been Stolen?

According to most latest reports, it seems around 4 million Bitcoins have been stolen so far. In addition to that, roughly 2 million of them have been lost till now, which takes the total figure of Bitcoins that are not with their legitimate owners to about 6 million.

You May Also Read: Can Lost Bitcoins Be Recovered?

Now, if we are to take only the stolen Bitcoins into account, and calculate the value of them, we would be quite astounded. As of now, at press time, as per the data sourced from Coinmarketcap.com, the price of Bitcoin is $3,645.92 a unit. If we try to calculate the total price of the number of Bitcoins stolen, that amount would come to a little upward of a whopping 14.5 billion dollars.

Hard to imagine right? Well, that is the value of the Bitcoins crypto thefts have managed to lay their hands on, without us being able to do to much in order to prevent it.

You May Also Read: Can Cryptocurrency Scams Be Stopped?

Are These Lost and Stolen Bitcoins Calculated As A Part of The Total Market Supply?

A pertinent question to ask at this point is whether these lost and stolen Bitcoins are accounted for when it comes to measuring the total supply. The answer is quite complex.

Kim Grauer, senior economist at Chainalysis, commented about this issue, saying:

“That is a very complex question. On the one hand, direct calculations about market cap do not take lost coins into consideration. Considering how highly speculative this field is, those market cap calculations may make it into economic models of the market that impact spending activity. Yet the market has adapted to the actual demand and supply available – just look at exchange behavior. Furthermore, it is well known monetary policy procedure to lower or increase fiat reserves to impact exchange rates. So the answer is yes and no.”

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