A German programmer has 2 chances to guess the password to his hard drive correctly, or he’ll lose $220 million

A German programmer has 2 chances to guess the password to his hard drive correctly, or he’ll lose $220 million

Stefan Thomas, a German-born programmer living in San Francisco, told The New York Times he has two chances left to guess his digital password before IronKey seizes his $220 million worth of Bitcoin.

The Times reported that 20% of existing Bitcoin "appear to be in lost or otherwise stranded wallets."

After sliding as much as 21% over the last two days, the price of Bitcoin recovered back to around $36,000 on Tuesday.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Bitcoin has recorded historic growth after increasing 92% in a month and around 340% in a year, but one investor is locked out of accessing his riches because he forgot his password.

German-born programmer Stefan Thomas told the Times he forgot the password to IronKey, an secure flash drive has access to 7,002 Bitcoin “” $220 million worth. IronKey gives users 10 guesses for their passwords before seizing its contents. 

"I would just lay in bed and think about it," Thomas told the New York Times Nathaniel Popper. "Then I would go to the computer with some new strategy, and it wouldn't work, and I would be desperate again."

As many investors get rich, some have had trouble accessing their Bitcoin investments due to forgotten passwords,