Crypto Theft Spree: July Sees Estimated $247.4 Million Stolen as Coldcard Exploit Dominates
The month of July saw a significant surge in cryptocurrency thefts, with hackers stealing an estimated $247.4 million, more than triple the losses recorded in June and four times those in May.
The largest incident was the Coldcard hardware wallet exploit, which affected around 7,300 Bitcoin wallets and resulted in over $115 million in stolen BTC, accounting for roughly 46% of all crypto stolen during July. The vulnerability was linked to how affected versions generated wallet recovery information.
Around $48 million was lost through the AFX and Ostium exploits, with the former involving a private-key compromise on Arbitrum's bridge that resulted in approximately $24.15 million being stolen, while the latter saw Ostium lose around $23.75 million after its off-chain price infrastructure was compromised.
Other notable incidents included the Bonzo Lend hack, which lost about $9 million on July 11 through a third-party oracle's vulnerability, and the Triple-A hot wallet compromise, where attackers gained unauthorized access to company hot wallets across multiple blockchains, with initial estimates placing losses around $9.7 million.