Locked Out of Millions: Couple Can’t Access $5.8M Worth of Ethereum

Yuki and Art Williams, who purchased 3,000 Ethereum coins back in 2014, can not open their crypto wallet. The family claims that the essential JSON file was never downloaded, and thus they don’t have access to their $5.8 million.

In Search for Help

According to the American media 7news, the Washington DC family Yuki and Art Williams possess 3,000 ETH coins in their crypto wallet. Unfortunately, the wife and husband can only see them and not access the assets. The couple insisted that when they bought the assets in 2014, the JSON file was never downloaded. Art Williams said:

“The instructions were to leave your computer on for an hour and a half and as the progression bar showed it populating the JSON file would appear. Unfortunately for us, it did not appear.”

Calculated in today’s prices, the wallet contains $5.8 million. Mr. Williams told 7news that the Ethereum Foundation promised him to solve the issue and send him a backup JSON file. However, the family is still waiting.

In another attempt to access their funds, the couple e-mailed the Foundation based in Switzerland and showed them proof of purchase and screenshots of the problem. 7news also tried to reach out to the Ethereum Foundation but received no comment.

The last move that the family is yet to make is to hire a law firm that would open a case in court in Switzerland. The attorneys would demand that the Ethereum Foundation grant a JSON file to the desperate couple during the process.

“Devastating, to say the least. Obviously, that’s life-changing money,” added Mr. Williams.

The Man Who Lost Access to 7,002 BTC

Investing in cryptocurrencies is not risky only because of the volatile nature of the assets. Apart from that, investors need to save and protect their private keys. In case someone loses their private keys, that could lead to an irreversible disaster. Such is the case with Stefan Thomas and his bitcoins worth more than $223 million.

As CryptoPotato reported earlier in the year, the resident of San Francisco produced an educational video called “What is Bitcoin?” for another crypto fan and received 7,002 bitcoins for his services.

However, Thomas didn’t pay much attention to his new holdings as they had a little-to-no value at the time, and he lost the digital keys to the wallet. In the following years, though, BTC’s price exploded, and now the 7,002 coins are worth around $223 million.

The wallet called IronKey allows users ten attempts to guess the password. So far, Thomas has tried eight times to access the funds, but they were all unsuccessful. If he fails ten times, the wallet will be encrypted forever.

“I would just lay in bed and think about it. Then, I would go to the computer with some new strategy, and it wouldn’t work, and I would be desperate again,” the man revealed.

To avoid any of the above, it’s highly recommended that you take crypto security seriously and make sure to always follow these tips.