Kevin Durant has had plenty of big wins in his career, but this one didn’t happen on the basketball court. The Houston Rockets forward has regained access to a forgotten Coinbase account holding Bitcoinhe first bought back in 2016, when he was playing for the Golden State Warriors, according to Business Insider.
Back then, Bitcoin was trading for less than $650. Durant and his business partner, Rich Kleiman, jumped in after hearing teammates talk about the new digital currency during the Rio Olympics. What started as a small experiment has turned into one of Durant’s most profitable plays. A $10,000 investment from that summer would now be worth close to $1.8 million as Bitcoin’s value has surged more than 11,000 percent over the years (CoinDesk).
The catch? Durant lost access to the account almost immediately. For years, he and Kleiman tried and failed to reset the password. The irony: Durant’s venture firm, Thirty Five Ventures, invested in Coinbase just a year later in 2017 per CNBC.
A Forgotten Password Turns Into a Fortune
On Wednesday, Durant’s team confirmed that the account is finally unlocked.Coinbase verified the news but didn’t reveal the size of the stash. Kleiman admitted it was “user error” that kept them out, while Coinbase emphasized that password recovery tools have always been available.
The delay may have been a blessing. With no way to sell, Durant held onto his Bitcoin through years of ups and downs. From an all-time high of nearly $69,000 in 2021 to a deep drop in 2022, Bitcoin has since rebounded above $60,000 this year according to Bloomberg.
Durant is no stranger to smart financial moves. He’s invested in tech companies like Postmates, Acorns, and SeatGeek, and built his media platform, Boardroom, into a brand that makes him one of the NBA’s most influential figures off the court. In 2025, Forbes ranked him among the world’s top 10 highest-paid athletes.
For a player with two NBA championships, an MVP award, and a reputation as one of the game’s purest scorers, this crypto windfall is just another reminder: Kevin Durant knows how to play the long game – even when he forgets the password.
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