Bithumb Identifies $200 Million in Forgotten Crypto Across 2.6 Million Dormant Accounts

South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb has revealed that approximately $201.8 million in digital assets remains dormant across 2.6 million inactive user accounts, highlighting the significant amount of retail capital that has been abandoned on centralized platforms.

The disclosure forms part of Bithumb's ongoing dormant asset recovery initiative, which focuses on users who have neither logged in nor conducted trades for more than one year. The exchange identified the largest single dormant account holding at around $2.84 million, while the longest period of account inactivity reached 4,380 days—nearly 12 years.

Remarkably, certain inactive holdings have generated returns exceeding 61,000%, or 610 times their original value, surpassing Bitcoin's own performance over the same timeframe. Bitcoin has risen approximately 11,338% over the past 12 years, from roughly $767 in January 2014 to current levels around $87,726.

Bithumb conducted a similar recovery campaign during its 11th anniversary last year, when 36,000 users successfully reclaimed approximately $50 million in forgotten assets. The exchange plans to contact eligible account holders directly and provide support for asset recovery as part of its customer protection efforts.

The substantial volume of dormant funds raises broader questions about how exchanges manage inactive customer communications and protect long-forgotten deposits, while also representing unrealized liquidity that could potentially reenter cryptocurrency markets.