Vitalik Buterin warns that the crypto industry focuses too much on theft prevention while neglecting accidental loss, which leaves many users unprotected and hinders adoption, with billions in crypto trapped due to lost keys, device failures, or user mistakes

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Supposedly billions in crypto have been locked away due to private key loss, mistaken transactions, or physical destruction of wallets or private keys.

In his recent post on X, Vitalik Buterin brought the crypto community’s attention to the fact that many people lose their crypto through actual loss (due to forgotten passwords, software bugs, or lost devices) rather than theft. While conversations about crypto fraud have been rife, particularly in the wake of the $1.5 billion theft from Bybit (although the exchange fully covered the loss through loans, whale deposits, and Ether purchases), Buterin emphasized that actual crypto loss is overlooked in discussions of crypto security.