Bitcoin cold-wallet attack spreads to 4,500 addresses as losses near $89 million

[sharon sanders]

My understanding is that a "cold-wallet" is a digital wallet that has never been connected to the internet, which is supposed to be safer.




Bitcoin cold-wallet attack spreads to 4,500 addresses as losses near $89 million

Galaxy Research flagged a third wave of sweeps tied to weak Coldcard-generated keys, with the attacker now targeting smaller balances and changing how funds are collected onchain.


By Shaurya Malwa
Aug 1, 2026, 4:10 p.m.​


The attacker working through Coldcard-generated keys is now emptying wallets worth a few thousand dollars each.

Galaxy Research flagged a third wave of sweeps early Sunday, roughly 208 bitcoin drained from 1,912 addresses between Friday midday and Saturday morning UTC.

That is just over a tenth of a bitcoin per victim. The July 30 opening wave averaged close to a full coin, 1,083 bitcoin from 1,196 addresses in 41 minutes.

Observed losses across all three waves now total 1,367 bitcoin, nearly $89 million, from 4,585 addresses.
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• A vulnerability in a March 2021 Coldcard firmware release has enabled attackers to systematically drain bitcoin from thousands of wallets by reproducing keys generated with weak software-based randomness.
• Three distinct waves of attacks have now swept 1,367 bitcoin—nearly $89 million at recent prices—from 4,585 addresses, with the latest wave targeting smaller balances and using more complex, harder-to-trace transaction patterns.
• Galaxy Research believes each wave is the work of a single operator, but cannot determine whether the same attacker is behind all three, as the blockchain does not reveal whether separate sweeps are coordinated.

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https://www.coindesk.com/tech/2026/...-4-500-addresses-as-losses-near-usd89-million

 

[sharon sanders]

Unlike the FTX collapse, the $89 million Coldcard exploit has investors sending bitcoin back to exchanges

The Coldcard vulnerability has smaller bitcoin holders moving funds onto exchanges for safety, according to blockchain analytics firms. This is opposite of the trend seen following the FTX collapse in late 2022.


By Omkar Godbole
Aug 2, 2026, 8:03 a.m.​

snip

Data from CryptoQuant shows a clear response involving a movement of coins to exchanges, the opposite of what happened in the aftermath of FTX's collapse.

As noted earlier, on July 31, daily bitcoin deposits to exchanges in transactions under 10 BTC jumped to 7,300 BTC, the highest level since Feb 6.

The number of daily active addresses spiked from 645,000 on July 30 to almost one million on July 31, the highest since Dec. 10, 2024. Most of the growth was due to addresses sending coins to exchanges.
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more...https://www.coindesk.com/markets/20...s-investors-sending-bitcoin-back-to-exchanges

 

[sharon sanders]

Please see:


New Security Obligations for Broadcasters Required by September 29 – Strong Passwords, Updated Software and Hardware, and Firewalls to Protect All Parts of the Program Chain​

US gov. : Malicious Cyber Actors Targeting Water and Wastewater Sector Internet- Facing Programmable Logic Controllers, Causing Operational Disruptions​