Rain Lõhmus is a multimillionaire - at least on the blockchain. The founder of Estonian bank LVH has 250,000 Ethereum, about US$470 million, in his wallet. The problem: He has lost his private key and therefore cannot access his assets.

In an interview with the radio station ERR, he has now appealed for help. "I can't solve this on my own. If someone is in a position to do so, I will listen to the offers." Lõhmus dropped the bomb a few years ago. A Coinbase employee did some research and eventually found the wallet address of the entrepreneur.

One mystery solved: This address (which now holds $450M of crypto) belongs to Rain Lohmus, founder of LHV Bank

Unfortunately he lost his keys and can't access these 100s of millions. If you can help him recover them somehow, he's willing to split them with you https://t.co/wYLAU9gKzb pic.twitter.com/0A1nIjFSyn
— Conor (@jconorgrogan) November 6, 2023

Lõhmus himself invested in Ethereum in its early days. It is not unusual for him to forget his password: "I lose passwords very often," he says. This is one of the drawbacks of the decentralized tech approach. "There are risks you hadn't thought of before." Est has already come up with an unusual contingency plan. "My own plan is to build my own AI. Maybe it can remember the password."

Not the only one to lose his private keys

Lõhmus, however, is not the only one in his predicament. Time and again, scary news like this haunts the crypto space. The former CTO of Ripple, Stefan Thomas, for example, has only two attempts left to access a wallet containing more than 7,000 Bitcoin. More on this here: Ex-Ripple CTO fears for 7,002 Bitcoin

In addition, Briton James Howells has also been searching for years for a hard drive containing more than 8,000 Bitcoin in a landfill in England - with the help of robot dogs.

Even if you don't trade millions of dollars, let these stories be a lesson and always make sure you keep your private keys safe.