He Still Has Two Password Guesses Left Before $840 Million Deletes Itself Forever
Programmer Stefan Thomas has just two password attempts left to unlock an IronKey USB drive holding the private keys to 7,002 Bitcoin he received in 2011 for making a “What is Bitcoin?” video. The device is designed to permanently lock and delete its contents after 10 wrong tries, and Thomas has already used eight, with the stash recently valued at about $777 million at around $111,000 per BTC.
In 2011, Thomas took payment for an educational video in Bitcoin, and the 7,002 BTC he received has since become a fortune. The private keys sit on an IronKey encrypted USB drive, protected by a password Thomas once wrote down and then lost. IronKey is built to permanently lock and delete its contents after 10 wrong attempts, and Thomas has already burned eight. He has brought in outside help, from digital forensics firm Naxo to security researcher Chris Tarnovsky, but the money is still stuck behind two final guesses.
Every so often, crypto’s promise of self-sovereignty collides with a forgotten password. Thomas learned that lesson after earning 7,002 Bitcoin in 2011. With Bitcoin trading around $111,000, that stash has been valued at roughly $777 million. Thomas did what early believers did: he stored the wallet’s private keys on an encrypted USB drive and wrote the password on a piece of paper, then lost it.
The IronKey device is built to keep secrets even from determined attackers. That toughness comes with a hard limit: after 10 incorrect password attempts, the drive permanently locks and deletes its contents. Thomas has already burned 8 tries, leaving only 2 guesses. The manufacturer, Kingston, stated: “There is no backup password or alternative method, other than the original password that was set up by the user to retrieve the data.” The IronKey was designed to resist extraction.
As Bitcoin’s price climbed, the stakes became surreal. His holdings were estimated at about $91 million in 2020, then roughly $235 million by October 2023, with another account putting it near $253 million in late 2025. The last two password attempts have become a high-stakes decision tree: guess, or keep waiting. Thomas has explored recovery efforts, including turning down Unciphered because he had verbal agreements with Naxo and security researcher Chris Tarnovsky. Tarnovsky told WIRED his involvement was a single call in 2023, saying, “I want Stefan to cough up some money up front.” Thomas summed up the pace in a 2023 interview: “When you’re dealing with so much money, everything takes forever.” As of late 2025, the IronKey was still stored in a Swiss vault, and by mid-2026 there’s been no confirmed recovery.