Coinbase Director Conor Grogan revealed that 913,111 Ethereum (ETH), valued at approximately $3.4 billion, have been permanently lost due to user errors. This represents 0.76% of ETH's total supply, highlighting systemic vulnerabilities in cryptocurrency handling.
The losses stem from smart contract bugs, mistaken transactions to unrecoverable addresses, and failed multisig wallets. Notable incidents include the Parity wallet freeze (306,000 ETH), QuadrigaCX exchange collapse (60,000 ETH), and the Akutars NFT project failure ($34 million loss). Additionally, Grogan confirmed 25,000 ETH were accidentally sent to burn addresses.
Grogan emphasized these figures likely underestimate actual losses, excluding private key mishaps. He advocates for fund recovery efforts but acknowledges the irreversibility of most cases. The disclosure follows Ethereum's EIP-1559 upgrade, which burned 5.3 million ETH since 2021, further reducing supply.