More than 5,500 Bitcoin linked to former users of Intersango, an early cryptocurrency exchange that disappeared more than a decade ago, may have been traced by CEL Solicitors.
At Bitcoin’s current price of about $78,824, the coins would be worth approximately $433.5m.
The potential recovery has been highlighted by the successful return of 61 BTC to a former UK customer. The investor instructed CEL on 20 January, and the case was settled on 28 May, with all 61 coins returned. At today’s price, that holding is worth about $4.81m.
CEL says other former Intersango customers may also have claims against the more than 5,500 BTC it has identified. However, each claimant must provide evidence linking an old exchange account and balance to the assets being sought.
That makes early records particularly important. Emails, bank statements, support tickets and account details that once documented balances worth only a few dollars could now support ownership claims worth millions.
Intersango operated when Bitcoin was trading in the low double digits. In October 2012, the exchange announced plans to shut its US-dollar market because trading volumes had become too low to justify continuing.
At the time, Intersango offered 625 BTC at $12.10 per coin, giving the batch a total value of about $7,563. Those same coins would now be worth approximately $49.3m.
A single Bitcoin is currently worth almost $79,000. A balance of 10 BTC would therefore be worth about $788,000, while 100 BTC would be approaching $7.9m.
CEL says Intersango began winding down in late 2012 after its GBP and USD trading operations ended. Its website had disappeared by early 2014, while Companies House records show that Intersango Ltd ceased to exist on 22 March 2016.
The firm says potentially useful evidence includes the email address registered to an account, correspondence with Intersango and bank statements showing transfers made to the exchange.
In the 61-BTC case, securing bank records dating back almost 15 years proved a significant obstacle to establishing ownership.
The recovery efforts form part of a wider legal dispute over customer Bitcoin connected to Intersango. California court records, including a 2025 Court of Appeal opinion in Norman v. Strateman, set out allegations that Patrick Strateman closed the exchange, retained its assets and refused to return customers’ Bitcoin.
The litigation included a proposed settlement intended to protect and return customer assets. The appeal sent that settlement back for judicial review of its fairness, creating a documented legal framework for unresolved claims involving property connected to Intersango.
A separate 2025 court filing refers to another alleged customer balance of 15.46306965 BTC. According to the filing, Intersango’s customer ticketing system confirmed the balance before the platform vanished. That holding would now be worth almost $1.22m.
Together, the 61-BTC recovery and the 15.46-BTC court claim show how identifiable customer balances can remain supported by records more than a decade after an exchange disappears.
Rising Bitcoin prices are likely to encourage former customers to search old inboxes, request archived bank statements and consider the cost of legal action over balances they may have abandoned.
If Bitcoin reached $100,000, the recovered 61 BTC would be worth $6.1m. The alleged 15.46-BTC balance would rise to about $1.55m, while CEL’s traced pool of more than 5,500 BTC would be worth approximately $550m.
Even smaller balances could justify extensive searches at that level. Five BTC, for example, would represent $500,000.
Blockchain analysis provides another element of the recovery process. Investigators can follow movements between wallets using the public ledger, which has preserved transaction data since Intersango was operating.
But tracing coins is not enough to establish individual ownership. Claimants must still produce evidence connecting a particular person to an exchange account and a specific balance.
Former users who retain emails, support tickets or bank statements are therefore in the strongest position to pursue a claim. The 61-BTC settlement offers a practical example of how such a case can be resolved despite the exchange having disappeared more than 10 years ago.
The potential value would remain substantial even if Bitcoin fell to $50,000. CEL’s traced pool would then be worth about $275m, the 61-BTC recovery $3.05m and the alleged 15.46-BTC balance roughly $773,000.
However, lower prices could make smaller claims less attractive once legal fees, record retrieval costs and cross-border proceedings are taken into account.
The age of the evidence remains the central challenge. Former customers may no longer have access to old email accounts, may have thrown away bank statements or may have deleted correspondence from a period when their Bitcoin holdings had little financial value.
Blockchain records can show where coins moved, but a successful ownership claim requires documentation tying those assets to a specific user. Customer claims may also overlap with shareholder disputes, court procedures and competing allegations over assets associated with the former exchange.
CEL’s figure of 5,500 BTC indicates the possible scale of the property it says it has traced. The amount ultimately recovered by former users will depend on how much of that total can be connected to balances supported by reliable evidence.
Bitcoin was down 2.21% over the previous 24 hours and remained the cryptocurrency ranked number one by market capitalisation.
