Key Takeaways
- CAB-linked wallets moved 500 BTC worth $38 million on Aug. 28 after 10 years.
- CAB has now recovered 2,000 BTC tied to Clifton Collins, worth $155 million.
- Neither CAB nor Europol has confirmed how the latest 500 BTC became accessible. In the past, both agencies have confirmed recovery but with little details.
Ireland’s CAB Moves Another 500 BTC From Decade-Old Wallet
On Friday, Aug. 28, 2026, a stash of 500 BTC moved from a wallet first created on Jan. 23, 2016. The 500 BTC worth $38 million transferred from a legacy P2PKH (Pay-to-PubKey-Hash) wallet to a newer P2SH (Pay-to-Script-Hash) address. The movement was discovered by btcparser.com.
It was the first time these coins moved in over a decade, and at that time, bitcoin’s price was around $382 per coin. That means the cache of 500 was only worth $191,217 in contrast to today’s $38 million.
The Missing Fishing Rod and the Mystery of Collins’ Seed Phrase
On Arkham Intelligence, the funds are flagged with the name “Clifton Collins.” Bitcoin.com News reporter Kevin Helms first reported on Collins close to six years ago on Jan. 4, 2021. Collins was a cannabis dealer who got busted, and he forfeited around $3 million worth of BTC to Irish authorities. However, Helms also noted that CAB could not access 6,000 BTC that belonged to Collins. According to Collins, the seed phrase was written on paper hidden inside a fishing rod.
CAB and Europol’s European Cybercrime Centre have never officially stated that they had found the fishing rod despite the funds they have seized so far, over long periods of time. The last time CAB moved Collins’ BTC was during the first week of July; the time before that was in March.
To date, with the latest 500 BTC move, CAB has recovered 2,000 BTC valued at $155 million using current bitcoin prices. As of Friday evening, neither Irish officials nor Europol’s cybercrime unit has confirmed a fourth recovery as they have in past recoveries. Arkham data shows the funds were moved to Coinbase Prime.
Blockchain Records Reveal What Irish Authorities Haven’t
The biggest mystery of this case is how the police managed to get the seed phrase. Europol or CAB has never stated, “We found the rod.” In fact, the law enforcement agency’s official line was that they leveraged “highly complex technical expertise and decryption resources,” according to The Irish Times reporter Conor Lally. But was this really the case? Maybe Collins had a backup he did not disclose to the CAB immediately, or maybe they actually found the fishing rod years later.
At the time, Collins told the police that the rod was at a house he rented, but when the cops went searching for the pole, it was missing, and nobody knew its whereabouts. Maybe another renter found the rod and told Irish authorities about it when they discovered the pole. The fact is, the public will probably never get a transparent story. That is, except for the bitcoin transfer that just occurred, because the blockchain never tells tall tales.
