Coldcard Panic Sends Bitcoin Active Addresses Near 1M After $88.6M Theft

Key Point

Glassnode data shows Bitcoin active addresses rose from 645,000 on July 30 to about 980,000 on July 31, the highest reading since December 10, 2024. The jump followed attackers draining Coldcard hardware wallets through a flawed random number generator. Three confirmed attack waves were linked to 1,367 BTC worth $88.6 million stolen from 4,585 addresses, and a suspected fourth wave has since swept more than 380 BTC. CryptoQuant Head of Research Julio Moreno said sending addresses drove nearly all of the growth, and transfers below 1 BTC totaled 39,600 BTC on July 31. Galaxy Research head Alex Thorn observed sweep transactions running at 13.8 per block, and developers postponed the BIP-110 soft fork activation, citing the incident.

Why it matters: A wallet-security failure can become a market event if emergency migration turns into exchange selling.

Market Sentiment

Cautiously Bearish, Stress-on, Event-driven, Volatile.

Reason: Confirmed Coldcard attack waves stole 1,367 BTC, which creates security stress even though Bitcoin held near $60,000.

Similar Past Cases

In the 2022 Slope wallet incident, Solana Foundation said 9,231 wallets were drained of about $4.1 million after private keys for affected wallets were leaked or compromised. (Solana Foundation) The difference is that the Coldcard incident involves Bitcoin hardware-wallet users and a larger confirmed loss.

Ripple Effect

A self-custody breach can move from security risk to liquidity risk if emergency sweeps concentrate coins at trading venues. If migrated coins start selling, then the incident may shift from wallet-security stress to spot-market pressure.

Opportunities & Risks

Opportunities: If migrated coins stay put, then the episode may remain a contained security shock. Waiting for sweep activity to fade can reduce the risk of reading distorted on-chain metrics as new demand.

Risks: If migrated coins start selling, then reducing exposure to leverage-sensitive positions can limit downside from spot-market pressure. Exchange-book changes are the key watchpoint.