Coldcard Exploit Triggers Spike in Bitcoin Active Addresses

A recent exploit in older Coldcard hardware wallets has led to a surge in Bitcoin active addresses. According to Glassnode, this number has reached around 980,000 daily, marking the highest reading since December 2024.

The increase is largely driven by users transferring funds and migrating seed phrases following the security incident. Researchers at Block found that the vulnerability was related to the way certain Coldcard devices generate recovery seed phrases, allowing attackers to brute-force predictable seed phrases and gain access to victims' Bitcoin.

Security researchers believe multiple hacker groups are taking advantage of this weakness in affected devices. Coinkite has urged affected users to update their devices and migrate funds to newly generated seed phrases.

The elevated network activity is viewed as security-driven rather than market-driven, with investors responding to the exploit by moving assets to safer custody arrangements. This is evident in the US-listed spot Bitcoin ETFs, which have taken in $620 million since the Coldcard wallet exploit.