AI Helps Bitcoin Holder Recover 5 BTC From Wallet Locked for 11 Years

A Bitcoin investor known as “cprkrn” on X (formerly Twitter) revealed that he successfully recovered 5 BTC from a crypto wallet that had been inaccessible for more than 11 years by using Anthropic’s Claude AI. The recovered Bitcoin, worth nearly $400,000 at current market prices, has sparked major discussion across the crypto community and highlighted the growing role of artificial intelligence in cryptocurrency recovery.

According to the user, he uploaded files from an old college computer to Claude AI as a final attempt to regain access to the wallet. The AI reportedly discovered an encrypted wallet file hidden within the archived data and then used the open-source recovery tool btcrecover to help decrypt it.

Screenshots shared on social media showed Claude analyzing the wallet’s password logic and identifying an issue in the decryption process. The AI found that btcrecover combined a “sharedKey” value with the original password during encryption. After correcting the process, the private keys were successfully decrypted and converted into Wallet Import Format (WIF), allowing access to the Bitcoin wallet.

Before using AI, cprkrn claimed he had spent around $250 per attempt on professional recovery services without success. The breakthrough came after he rediscovered a mnemonic phrase connected to the wallet, which he had originally created during his college years before later changing the password.

The story quickly gained traction online, generating more than one million views on X. Prominent crypto figures, including Castle Island Ventures partner Nic Carter, reacted with surprise to the successful recovery. Many experts now believe advanced AI tools like Claude can significantly improve crypto wallet recovery, password debugging, and blockchain forensic analysis.

The case also highlights the massive amount of dormant Bitcoin still locked away in forgotten wallets. Blockchain analytics firms estimate that a large percentage of Bitcoin’s total supply has remained inactive for years. As AI technology advances, more long-lost cryptocurrency wallets could potentially be recovered by users who still possess old files, backups, or password clues.