Ireland has now clawed back 1,500 BTC from the dealer who famously lost his keys, and 9 of his 12 wallets are still untouched

Quick recap for anyone unfamiliar with this case: Clifton Collins is a former Irish beekeeper who bought bitcoin in late 2011/early 2012 (when it traded for a few dollars) using proceeds from growing and trafficking cannabis. He spread roughly 6,000 BTC across 12 wallets. When he went to prison in 2017, the rented property in County Galway where he'd stored his private keys was cleared out, and the keys were reportedly lost.

For years, this was told as one of the great "lost bitcoin" stories. Not anymore.

Yesterday, Ireland's Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) announced it recovered a third batch of 500 BTC (~$31M) from the stash, working with Europol's European Cybercrime Centre. Europol says it provided technical expertise and decryption resources for the operation. This follows earlier recoveries of 500 BTC in March and another 500 BTC in May.

The running tally:

• Recovered so far: 1,500 BTC (~$92M at current prices)
• Still dormant: ~4,500 BTC (~$275M+) across what appears to be 9 of the original 12 wallets, per Arkham's onchain tagging

Neither CAB nor Europol has explained how they're gaining access, whether physical key material was found or something else. The "decryption resources" phrasing is doing a lot of work here.

A few things I find interesting from a legal standpoint:

• These coins are being seized as proceeds of crime, meaning the Irish state will likely liquidate them. Collins reportedly accepted years ago that the coins were lost.
• The steady 500-BTC cadence (March, May, July) suggests they're working through the wallets methodically rather than having recovered a master seed all at once.
• It's a rare case where "lost forever" coins re-entered circulation, a small but real dent in the assumed lost-supply figure.

Curious what people here think: does the phased recovery pattern suggest brute-forcing individual wallets, recovered backups, or something like flawed key generation from a 2011-era wallet client?