Clifton Collins: Fifth 500 BTC ($40M) Transfer from Drug Dealer's Lost Stack

‍

The "lost" Bitcoin stash of Clifton Collins has woken up for a fifth time this year, transferring 500 BTC worth $41.5 million out of an address linked to the former drug dealer turned honeymaker.

On-chain data from the Clifton Collins entity on Arkham shows this is the third consecutive transfer sent to the same address. Arkham labels show this as a deposit address for Coinbase Prime - Coinbase's institutional custody and trading arm.

The last movement from Collins' stack came on August 28th, meaning the entity had been dormant for almost two months before this latest transfer.

Collins, a former security guard and cannabis cultivator from Dublin, accumulated 6,000 BTC between 2011 and 2012 using the proceeds from his drug-dealing activities. Following his arrest in 2017, his landlord disposed of his belongings, sending a hidden fishing rod case containing his printed private keys to a landfill in County Galway. Read our full bio on Collins here.

‍

Who Is Clifton Collins?

For years, the crypto community assumed the keys were lost forever. However, in March 2026, a 500 BTC transfer to Coinbase Custody occurred that aligned exactly with a Garda announcement confirming the seizure of "approximately €30 million in cryptocurrency."

Since then, the outflows have kept coming: a 500 BTC transfer to a Wintermute Binance deposit address in May, followed by what is now a hat-trick of 500 BTC transfers to the same address, with the funds landing at Coinbase Prime.

In total, 2,500 BTC has now moved out of Collins' wallets in 2026. The remaining 3,500 BTC stack is worth approximately $288 million at today's prices, still making Collins one of the richest on-chain individuals in the world, according to Arkham data.

‍

Who is Moving the Funds?

Early theories suggested that Collins - now out of prison - might have retained a backup of his private keys, or that burglars from a reported 2020 break-in at his house were cashing out. However, institutional law enforcement remains the most likely actor.

The first transfer directly matched a press release from the Garda (Ireland's national police), confirming a cryptocurrency seizure executed alongside the Criminal Assets Bureau and Europol. Whilst none of the four transfers since have been accompanied by an official announcement, the systematic pattern - identical 500 BTC chunks, sent to the same address before ending up with Coinbase Prime - strongly suggests this fifth transfer is a continuation of the Garda seizure.

This is a developing story.

You can interact with the TXID page for the transaction in the Arkham Intel window below: