913,111 ETH, Around $3.43 Billion, Permanently Lost Due to User Errors and Bugs

Coinbase’s head of product, Conor Grogan, released an updated analysis on July 20, 2025, revealing that approximately 913,111 ETH, valued at around $3.43 billion, has been permanently lost due to user errors and bugs in Ethereum transactions. This figure represents about 0.76% of Ethereum’s circulating supply, which stood at approximately 120.7 million ETH at the time.

Grogan’s research highlights a 44% increase in the lost ETH amount since his previous analysis in March 2023, when it was estimated at 636,000 ETH. The losses are attributed to various issues such as funds being locked in dead smart contracts, wallets with unknown private keys, and ETH accidentally sent to burn addresses or incorrect destinations.

Significant Cases Of ETH Destruction

• The Parity Multisig Bug, where approximately 306,000 ETH was frozen due to a destroyed contract governing access, valued at $95 million at the time.
• The QuadrigaCX scandal, where 60,000 ETH became inaccessible after the exchange’s founder died without sharing wallet credentials.
• The Akutars NFT mint failure, which resulted in the loss of 11,500 ETH due to a faulty minting process.
• Various burn address transfers, with 25,000 ETH mistakenly sent to burn or null addresses, a slight increase from 24,000 ETH in the 2023 report.

Grogan stressed that the $3.43 billion figure is a conservative estimate, as it only accounts for confirmed cases of permanently locked ETH and excludes broader inaccessibilities like lost private keys or forgotten wallets from the Genesis era. The total amount of destroyed ETH, including that burned via Ethereum Improvement Proposal 1559 (EIP-1559), rises to 6.2 million ETH, valued at $23.4 billion. This amounts to over 5% of all ETH ever issued.

The report underscores ongoing challenges in Ethereum’s ecosystem, particularly around wallet usability, the risks posed by immutability, and the need for enhanced safety features like social recovery or account abstraction. Despite Ethereum’s lack of a hard supply cap (unlike Bitcoin), it has become increasingly deflationary due to the implementation of EIP-1559 and the transition to proof-of-stake in September 2022.

Grogan’s findings have sparked discussions on improving user protections while maintaining the decentralization that Ethereum is known for. This update went viral on platforms like X and has received significant media coverage, amplifying the conversation about Ethereum’s ecosystem and user protections.