British man recovers £3.3M in Bitcoin lost for over a decade

A British Bitcoin investor has recovered 61 BTC worth roughly £3.3 million after losing access to the coins for more than 12 years following the collapse of early UK exchange Intersango.

LBC reported that the investor, identified only as Chris, regained control of the Bitcoin this year after lawyers gathered documents proving that the assets held through the defunct exchange belonged to him.

Chris originally invested £1,500 in Bitcoin in 2011 after a friend persuaded him to consider the cryptocurrency, which traded at £2.94 per coin when he made his first purchases. His holdings had risen to roughly £4,000 by the time he lost access.

The recovery returned all 61 BTC to Chris, according to CEL Solicitors, which handled the claim. The firm said he instructed its lawyers in January and the case was settled on May 28, roughly four months later.

Crypto.news previously reported that the recovered holdings were valued at approximately $4.5 million, turning an investment made during Bitcoin’s early years into a multimillion-dollar holding.

Intersango collapse left Bitcoin inaccessible for years

Chris bought the cryptocurrency through Britcoin, one of the earliest Bitcoin exchanges serving UK customers. The platform later became Intersango and attracted thousands of users during the early years of the cryptocurrency market.

Intersango ran into problems in late 2012, before its website eventually went offline in early 2014. Customers attempting to withdraw their funds received no response, while Chris found that his account had been frozen when he tried to move his Bitcoin.

“It was a bit of a shock when it happened. It wasn’t really money that I wanted to lose,” he told LBC.

The exchange was not regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, leaving Chris with limited options to pursue the assets at the time. After making several unsuccessful attempts to contact the company, he eventually treated the Bitcoin as lost.

As the cryptocurrency increased in value over the following decade, the inaccessible holding became considerably more valuable.

“It was a punch in the stomach watching Bitcoin go up and up,” Chris said, adding that he eventually stopped following the price because he had written off the coins.

His circumstances changed again in 2018 when emails arrived from two Intersango co-founders asking former customers with accounts on the platform to contact them. Chris deleted the messages because he believed they were scams.

He made another attempt to recover the assets in early 2026 after his wife encouraged him to contact CEL Solicitors, which specializes in cryptocurrency recovery cases.

Lawyers used old records to prove ownership of 61 BTC

Recovering the coins required documentation connecting Chris to his original Bitcoin purchases and Intersango account.

Ryan Sweetnam, director of financial litigation at CEL Solicitors, said the firm had to prepare documents for proceedings in US courts before the claim could be resolved. The process ultimately ended through negotiations without requiring a judge to decide Chris’s individual claim.

A major difficulty was finding financial records dating back almost 15 years. CEL Solicitors said historical bank statements, emails and exchange records can help establish ownership in cases involving assets held by failed cryptocurrency businesses.

“We had to get all the court documents sorted for American courts,” Sweetnam told LBC.

“And so that took quite a long time. But in the end, you could probably describe the whole process as negotiation rather than having to get in front of a judge to get this one user back his funds.”

The case differs from some other long-dormant Bitcoin recoveries because Chris had not forgotten a private key or password to a self-custody wallet. His coins had remained inaccessible after an exchange holding customer assets ceased operating.

Other dormant holdings have resurfaced this year under different circumstances. In July, a Bitcoin wallet inactive for more than eight years transferred 5,908 BTC worth around $383 million to a new address.

In May, another holder said Anthropic’s Claude helped him recover five Bitcoin after a search for an old wallet backup. The coins had remained inaccessible for more than a decade.

For Chris, the legal claim ended when the 61 BTC reached a wallet he controls. He said his family’s “jaws dropped, eyes popped” when he told them about the recovery, although they initially urged him to wait until the Bitcoin arrived before celebrating.

More than 5,500 BTC may remain tied to Intersango users

Chris’s recovery could be one of several claims involving assets connected to the former exchange.

The three Intersango co-founders have been involved in a lengthy legal dispute over the platform’s closure. During those proceedings, it was alleged that one founder holds approximately 5,500 BTC, valued in the region of £500 million, with at least part of the holdings potentially belonging to former customers.

Sweetnam said one of the founders acknowledged during litigation that he continued to hold assets belonging to former Intersango users.

“As I understand it, that was the first time anyone had actually admitted that these assets were still somewhere,” he told LBC.

The lawyer said the company had disappeared years earlier without users knowing where the assets had gone, leaving former customers uncertain whether their Bitcoin still existed.

CEL Solicitors has said more than 5,500 BTC has been traced and is believed to be connected to former users. Recovering individual holdings would require claimants to establish that specific assets belong to them.

Sweetnam said former customers may be able to use old bank statements, exchange emails and other records as evidence. An email address used to register with Intersango can provide another starting point for tracing an account.

UK crypto rules have changed since Intersango closed

The regulatory environment for cryptocurrency businesses in Britain has changed substantially since Intersango stopped operating, although the country’s full crypto authorization regime has not yet taken effect.

The FCA has set an application period running from Sept. 30, 2026, through Feb. 28, 2027, before the UK’s new crypto regime takes effect on Oct. 25, 2027. Trading platforms, custodians, stablecoin issuers and other covered businesses will need authorization to conduct regulated crypto activities in the country.

Chris has since transferred his recovered Bitcoin to an FCA-regulated platform but remains concerned about security risks. He told LBC that he checks the account as many as 20 times each day because of fears about scammers and hackers.

He plans to retain part of the recovered amount in cryptocurrency while converting some of it into cash. One use for the money will be purchasing a larger home that can better accommodate his mother-in-law and her disabilities.

After waiting more than a decade to regain the assets, Chris said he had not yet properly celebrated the recovery. He plans to hold a party and take his family on vacation.

Sweetnam said the process for other former Intersango customers could take time because each claimant would need to establish ownership of the assets they are seeking.

“They owe you that debt,” he told LBC. “They are trying to come forward; they are trying to repatriate, but it can be a long process.”