Bitcoin Whales Load Up as Retailers Sell Off Amid Hardware Wallet Bug

A recent firmware bug in hardware wallets has led to a significant shift in Bitcoin holdings. Since July 29, wallets holding between 10 and 10,000 BTC have collectively added 19,610 coins to their stacks, a 0.14% increase, according to on-chain data from Santiment.

This is in stark contrast to the smallest retail wallets, which hold under 0.01 BTC and have trimmed their positions by 0.55% over the same window.

The catalyst for this shift was not a macro event or Fed decision, but rather an exploitation of a critical vulnerability in Coldcard hardware wallets on July 30.

Over 1,367 BTC were stolen from compromised addresses, valued at roughly $87 to $89 million at the time of the thefts.