South Korea’s largest crypto exchange, Bithumb, has revealed that more than $200 million worth of customer crypto has been sitting untouched across millions of inactive accounts. This finding offers a clear look at how much early retail money remains idle on centralized exchanges, even after many crypto market cycles.
The data comes from a dormant account recovery campaign aimed at users who had not logged in or traded for more than a year. Bithumb identified around 291.6 billion Korean won (about $201.8 million) spread across nearly 2.6 million inactive accounts.
Dormant Crypto Accounts Show Early Adoption Trends
Many of these inactive accounts date back to the early days of crypto adoption. According to Bithumb, the longest dormant account had not been accessed for nearly 4,380 days, close to 12 years. The largest single inactive balance was worth around $2.84 million.
This suggests that many early retail investors entered the crypto market, made small or experimental investments, and then stopped paying attention. Some may have lost interest during market crashes, while others may have simply forgotten about their holdings as the industry evolved.
Centralized exchanges like Bithumb now act as long-term records of early crypto activity, holding assets from users who exited long before institutional investors entered the space.
Forgotten Crypto Assets Outperformed Bitcoin
One of the most surprising findings is the performance of some inactive assets. Bithumb reported that certain dormant tokens recorded gains of more than 61,000% over time.
For comparison, Bitcoin was trading near $767 in early 2014 and has since increased by roughly 114 times. Some lesser-known tokens held in these inactive accounts delivered even higher returns simply because they were bought early and never sold.
This shows a unique aspect of crypto investing: long-term inactivity combined with early exposure can sometimes lead to very large gains, even when investors are unaware of it.
Inactive Crypto Funds Could Impact the Market
Bithumb has started reaching out to affected users to help them recover access to their accounts. The exchange has run similar campaigns in the past, recovering about $50 million in dormant assets during an earlier effort.
This time, the amount is much larger, reflecting both the growth of the crypto market and Bithumb’s long operating history.
Dormant crypto balances also have wider market implications. These unused funds represent potential liquidity that could return to the market in future cycles. Even a small portion becoming active again could affect prices, especially for tokens with lower trading volumes.
Questions Around Exchange Custody and User Awareness
The discovery raises broader questions about how exchanges manage inactive accounts and how well users track their digital assets over time. As the crypto industry matures, long-term custody, account recovery, and user communication are becoming more important topics.
Bithumb’s findings highlight how much hidden value still exists on centralized exchanges—and how early retail participation continues to shape today’s crypto market.
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FAQs
Dormant crypto accounts are user accounts with no login or trading activity for over a year, but still holding cryptocurrencies on the exchange.
Bithumb found about $200 million worth of crypto spread across nearly 2.6 million inactive accounts during its dormant account review.
Yes. If recovered funds re-enter trading, they could add liquidity and impact prices, especially for smaller or low-volume crypto tokens.
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