How can one truly grasp the long-term massive returns of those 'bull market' targets in the market?
The answer may be that for a while, you 'forget' that you have this investment, even forgetting the password—NBA superstar Kevin Durant might deeply resonate with this experience right now.
This week, Durant and his agent Rich Kleiman attended an economic forum where they recounted their experiences with Bitcoin. Due to forgetting the password, Durant has been unable to actually access the Bitcoin assets stored on Coinbase, but the good news is that they are not difficult to resolve the account issue, which allows them to 'win' from the astonishing returns of Bitcoin over the past decade...
It is reported that Durant first got in touch with Bitcoin during his time with the Golden State Warriors in 2015. At that time, Ben Horowitz, co-founder of the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz and a die-hard Warriors fan, hosted a birthday party for Durant, where all members of the Warriors team were present, and digital currencies became a hot topic that evening.
"At the end of the night, I told Durant: 'I heard the word Bitcoin 25 times tonight,' and the next day we started investing in Bitcoin," Kleiman recalled while sitting next to Durant at the forum.
Durant subsequently logged into the crypto platform Coinbase and purchased Bitcoin. But the subsequent problem is that he did not bother to remember the account password...
"We have yet to trace his Coinbase account information, so we have never sold any (Bitcoin) assets, while his Bitcoin price has skyrocketed to exorbitant levels," Kleiman stated, "We cannot access the password; it's just too crazy."
"The password is stored in the cloud," Durant joked at the event. Kleiman insisted that they would eventually retrieve the password.
"We just haven't figured out the mechanism yet," he added, "but Bitcoin continues to rise, what's the problem with that? Holding it can only benefit us."
In fact, the inability to conduct cryptocurrency transactions has instead propelled the appreciation of Durant's assets.
The two did not disclose the specific amount invested in Bitcoin during the forum activity. However, industry analysis suggests that considering Durant had a contract worth over ten million dollars annually in 2015, the amount of Bitcoin he purchased might not be small. It is worth noting that on January 1, 2015, the price of Bitcoin was only $320.43, and at its highest during the year, it was only about $1000. As of Thursday's close, Bitcoin was slightly above $117,000.
And there are likely many others with similar experiences to Durant. Statistics show that as of mid-March 2024, approximately 1.75 million Bitcoin wallets have been idle for ten years or longer. It is hard to say how many are in a dormant state and how many are truly lost.
Although the specific numbers are still unclear, David Semer, CEO of California-based digital asset management company Wave Digital Assets, stated that he estimates about a quarter of the mined Bitcoins have already been lost. This mainly stems from the loss of physical hard drives, computers, and storage devices in the early stages of Bitcoin. "There are currently several massive lost wallets," he said.
Recovering the password is not difficult for Durant.
Regarding the Bitcoin locked for Durant, Semer believes: "His financial manager has been somewhat negligent and may not have fully addressed the issue. If they truly valued this matter, it could be resolved within a week. I think they have a rather flippant attitude towards it."
Semer admitted that recovering a lost password from a cryptocurrency exchange is a time-consuming and frustrating process. "It may take hours or even weeks to retrieve, which is the norm for centralized companies. But once all logical verification steps are completed, the account will eventually be restored."
When asked about the Durant incident, Coinbase responded, "We do not comment on specific customer account situations, but we confirm that we have been in contact with the customer. If a user loses their password, they can reset it through the self-service tools in the app, and our support team is available around the clock to provide operational guidance."
Durant's agent, Kleiman, later stated in response to the media: "We have directly collaborated with the Coinbase team to handle the recovery of Kevin's account, which is why I can casually joke about it on stage. This was a user error on our side, and the process has been clear from the start. Both parties have been collaborating for nearly ten years, and Coinbase has always been an important driver of our business growth."
Durant, who just joined the Houston Rockets this summer, is also a savvy investor in the investment field, with his current portfolio covering Coinbase, the food delivery platform Postmates, and the women's soccer team Gotham FC.
