A UK resident has regained access to Bitcoin he'd considered lost for over a decade, according to local media reports. His original investment of £1,500 has, over that time, grown into £3.3M.
The coins had been sitting in a wallet on the Intersango trading platform, which ceased operating in 2014. The return of the funds was made possible by lawyers who gathered evidence proving Chris's ownership of the coins.
How Access to the Wallet Was Lost
In 2011, Chris put £1,500 into Bitcoin through the Intersango exchange. By early 2014, the platform had stopped responding to clients, and Chris's account was locked — by that point, the Bitcoin inside had grown to roughly £4,000 in value. The first emails from the exchange's co-founders asking him to get in touch arrived in 2018, but Chris mistook them for a scam and deleted them.
Because Intersango wasn't regulated by the UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), Chris's options for recovering his funds were limited.
How Lawyers Got the Funds Back
In 2026, Chris turned to CEL Solicitors, a law firm specializing in recovering lost crypto assets. Ryan Sweetnam, the firm's Director of Financial Litigation, put together documentation proving Chris's ownership of the coins, including materials intended for use in US courts.
"The case was resolved through negotiation, without going to trial," he said.
Intersango's three co-founders have been tied up in litigation over the platform's shutdown for several years now. During the proceedings, it emerged that one of the founders is holding 5,500 BTC worth around £500M — some of which, in Sweetnam's view, belongs to former UK clients of the exchange. The lawyer noted that the founders bear financial responsibility for these assets and appear intent on returning them, though the process could take a long time.
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