Authorities tracking the proceeds of crime in Ireland removed another 500 Bitcoins from crypto assets linked to Clifton Collins. With the last transfer made on July 2, 2026, the total amount received back during the year reached 1,500 Bitcoins. The current market value of this amount is approximately 92 million dollars.
Access to the third wallet was provided with Europol support
At the time of the last seizure, Bitcoin was priced at approximately $61,749. Accordingly, the value of the newly issued 500 BTC was calculated as approximately 30.9 million dollars. Irish authorities did not disclose the method by which the wallets were accessed.
Europol’s European Cyber Crime Center provided technical support in the investigation. The agency held coordination meetings at its headquarters in the Netherlands and offered technical assistance for decryption. Europol is known as the institution that coordinates the European Union’s law enforcement agencies in the fight against cross-border crimes.
The technical support provided by Europol played a critical role in the Irish authorities’ access to encrypted wallets.
This development was the third successful extraction from the structure of 12 wallets, which initially held a total of 6,000 Bitcoins. Authorities took 500 Bitcoins in March and another 500 Bitcoins in May. With the last transaction, the total amount accessible increased to 1,500 Bitcoins.
| History | Amount extracted | Total |
|---|---|---|
| March 2026 | 500 BTC | 500 BTC |
| May 2026 | 500 BTC | 1,000 BTC |
| July 2, 2026 | 500 BTC | 1,500 BTC |
Lost keys came to the fore again after years
The wallets were traced to Clifton Collins, a Dublin man who was convicted in 2017 of crimes linked to large-scale cannabis production in three different Irish counties. It was reported that Collins collected approximately 6,000 BTC between the end of 2011 and the beginning of 2012, when Bitcoin was traded at a few dollars.
Collins distributed his assets across 12 separate wallets and stored the private keys by writing them on paper. It was stated that these papers were hidden in the aluminum lid of a fishing equipment container in a house he rented in County Galway. It was noted that after the detention, the homeowner emptied the belongings and sent them to the dump, and the keys were lost in the process.
Collins told authorities he had permanently lost access to the majority of his Bitcoin holdings.
The Supreme Court defined these assets as proceeds of crime in approximately 2019. However, at that time, the authorities did not have the technical means to actually move the coins in the wallets. On-chain records also showed no movement in wallets between Collins’ capture in 2017 and the first retrieval in March 2026.
4,500 BTC still unavailable
Nine out of 12 wallets are still inaccessible. These wallets hold approximately 4,500 Bitcoins, bringing the total amount to over $275 million based on current market capitalization. Irish authorities retain legal authority over these assets thanks to the confiscation order in force.
Blockchain analysis company Arkham Intelligence monitors the cluster of relevant wallets and records new transactions. The recovered coins have been transferred to the corporate custody system for future liquidation.
Before this investigation, Irish authorities had sold a total of approximately 6.5 million euros of crypto assets in all files over the last decade. The amount reached in the Collins investigation already significantly exceeds that total.
