Coldcard Hack Devastates Self-Custody Advocates with $114M BTC Loss
A group of Bitcoin investors who followed self-custody best practices had their life savings drained in minutes after attackers exploited a flaw in the Coldcard hardware wallet. The victims, who used air-gapped devices, steel seed plates, and safety deposit boxes, lost over $114 million worth of BTC.
Coldcard user Jonathan Goodman reported that his 18.25 BTC was stolen between 9:36 pm and 9:43 pm on July 29, amounting to about $1.6 million Canadian dollars. Goodman stated, 'Perhaps the hardest part about this is that I did everything right.'
The attackers used a firmware bug that made Coldcard-generated seeds guessable, rendering all of the victims' precautions ineffective. Over 5,200 addresses across four waves of coordinated sweeps were affected.