Coinbase Head of Product Conor Grogan revealed that at least 913,111 Ethereum (ETH), worth approximately $3.43 billion, has been permanently lost due to user errors and technical mishaps. This represents 0.76% of ETH's total supply, stemming from incidents like the 2017 Parity Multisig bug that trapped 513,746 ETH ($1.93 billion), including 306,000 ETH belonging to the Web3 Foundation.
Other significant losses include 250,000 ETH ($939 million) inaccessible after entrepreneur Rain Lõhmus lost his private keys, 60,000 ETH from Quadriga's faulty contract, and 11,500 ETH from the failed Akutars NFT mint. Grogan's research also documented 36,419 ETH sent to wrong addresses due to typos, 26,814 ETH intentionally burned, and 654 ETH trapped in wrapped ETH contracts.
When combined with the 5.3 million ETH burned through Ethereum's EIP-1559 upgrade since 2021, the total permanently removed from circulation exceeds 5% of all ETH ever created – valued at $23.42 billion. Grogan emphasized this figure "significantly undershoots the actual lost/inaccessible ETH amount" as it excludes unreported cases of lost private keys and forgotten Genesis wallets.
For context, approximately 20% of Bitcoin's capped 21-million supply is estimated to be lost. While Bitcoin's fixed supply amplifies the impact of lost coins, Ethereum's uncapped issuance dilutes the effect despite larger absolute losses.