Benzinga - As the Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) price continues to surge, investors who have lost access to their accounts are turning to crypto wallet recovery firms in droves.
What Happened: The increase in bitcoin prices has led to a spike in calls to wallet recovery services, Reuters reported on Wednesday. These calls are primarily from retail investors who have lost access to their digital wallets where their cryptocurrencies are stored. This loss of access is often due to forgotten passwords or loss of access to two-factor authentication devices.
Steve Sosnick, chief strategist at Interactive Brokers., said, “What would be driving this trend is the fact that bitcoin prices are at $60,000, not $30,000… it’s just pure economics.”
A Swiss firm that uses Nvidia’s graphic processing unit cards to run AI models to access stranded wallets saw a tenfold increase in requests in the first quarter, compared to the same period last year. Similarly, Germany-based ReWallet reported a 334% increase in requests in the previous quarter.
These services are not cheap, with firms charging a 20% fee on the wallets’ contents, payable only upon successful retrieval. However, the high price of bitcoin seems to be incentivizing investors to recover their lost access.
See Also: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin Under Pressure From Macro Data: ‘Healthy Corrections Are Part Of The Game,’ Says Trader
Why It Matters: The recent surge in Bitcoin prices can be attributed to a number of factors. Bitcoin has been maintaining the $60,000 support level, a stability that has been sustained since early May.
This stability, coupled with the reimbursement of customers by FTX, the cryptocurrency exchange that filed for bankruptcy in November 2022, has likely boosted investor confidence.
However, the recent slide in cryptocurrency markets following the release of April’s Producer Price Inflation (PPI) data serves as a reminder of the volatility of the sector.
Price Action: At the time of writing the article, Bitcoin was trading 3.48% higher at $63,783.18 on Wednesday, according to Benzinga Pro.
Read Next: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin Price And Sentiment Up, As Banks Disclose BTC Holdings: A ‘GME Moment’ Coming
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