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Coldcard hack triggers $15 billion Bitcoin migration to safer wallets

Casa CEO Nick Neuman points to about 233,000 BTC leaving long-term holder wallets after the July 30 Coldcard firmware exploit and says some of it came from Ledger and Trezor users switching to multisig.

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The Coldcard firmware exploit has led to stolen Bitcoin and a separate, much larger movement of funds toward safer self-custody setups, according to reporting by Decrypt. The breach began July 30 and has already resulted in theft estimated near $130 million, after the attacker drained about 2,100 BTC across multiple attack waves.

Decrypt reported that on-chain data from Checkonchain shows 233,000 BTC left long-term holder wallets in the days around the breach, with that total valued at roughly $15 billion at current prices. Casa CEO Nick Neuman said he is using conversations with customers to argue that some of that migration came from Ledger and Trezor users, not Coldcard owners, who upgraded to multisig after watching the hack unfold.

The Coldcard incident involved a firmware bug introduced in March 2021 that routed key generation through a weak software random number generator instead of the device’s dedicated hardware chip. That made private keys more guessable, degrading security from 128 bits to roughly 40, which was compared to a bank vault becoming vulnerable to a four digit PIN.

Decrypt also cited Galaxy Research tracking three confirmed attack waves, with losses reaching approximately 1,596 BTC across more than 5,200 addresses. Neuman argued that the on-chain metrics reinforce Bitcoin’s resilience under self-custody, saying self custody did not fail but adapted after the exploit.

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