Bitcoin (BTC) Active Addresses Hit 980,000 After Coldcard Hack

Bitcoin News

Bitcoin (BTC) recorded its most active on-chain day since Dec. 10, 2024, after daily active addresses climbed from about 645,000 on July 30 to roughly 980,000 on July 31. The surge was not driven by fresh demand. It followed a security incident involving Coldcard hardware wallets, where attackers exploited a flawed random number generator and forced users to move funds quickly. On-chain data shows the increase exceeded 50% in one day, making it the clearest stress print in network activity since the late-2024 rally. Three confirmed attack waves were linked to 1,367 BTC, worth about $88.6 million, taken from 4,585 addresses, while a suspected fourth wave moved more than 380 BTC. The contrast with the prior activity peak is stark: when address counts last reached this zone, Bitcoin was trading near $100,000 during a euphoric push toward the cycle’s all-time-high narrative. This time, the same level of network participation appeared alongside defensive behavior, not speculative acceleration. Sending addresses accounted for most of the jump, while receiving addresses did not expand at the same pace. That structure points to consolidation, with many wallets emptying into fewer destinations. For a market watching Bitcoin as a settlement layer, the pattern reads as an emergency response rather than organic growth. The network produced a burst of participation, but the behavior behind it was risk reduction. In that sense, the address spike measured fear moving through the chain, not new capital arriving. The episode exposed how quickly self-custody assumptions can change when a device failure becomes systemic. Users did not appear to be chasing upside; they were reorganizing custody. That distinction matters because raw address growth can look bullish if stripped of context, while the underlying flow may be defensive. The chain therefore logged a Bitcoin security shock, not a clear usage boom, during the incident.

The second signal from the same July 31 window came from small holders, whose behavior produced the largest retail-sized BTC movement since the FTX collapse. On-chain value-band data showed transfers below 1 BTC totaled 39,600 BTC on that day. The only comparable daily print in the current cycle was 39,900 BTC on Nov. 16, 2022, when exchange failure pushed users toward self-custody. This time, the trigger ran in reverse: a cold-storage vulnerability pushed coins away from hardware devices and toward alternative destinations. One widely cited case involved a single holder losing 18.25 BTC, worth about $1.6 million, in less than seven minutes, underscoring why thousands of users acted quickly. The transaction mix also supports the emergency-sweep interpretation. Total transfers reached 761,796, a local increase but not a record, because prior peaks in December 2024, April 2025 and May 2026 exceeded 1 million. In plain terms, many wallets moved once, rather than a few large entities churning repeatedly. Sweep activity reportedly ran near 13.8 transactions per block, about 45 times the pre-incident baseline. The stress even touched protocol timing, with developers postponing BIP-110 activation while the network absorbed the aftermath. For bear-market watchers, the important point is that price did not break down during the busiest retail relocation period. The market absorbed the coins without a visible rush to exits, suggesting the movement was custody-driven rather than sell-driven. The reversal also reopened a familiar debate around exchange custody and personal key control, a discussion Binance founder Changpeng Zhao reignited this week. In 2022, users moved coins off exchanges; in this episode, a hardware wallet failure pushed funds away from cold storage. That inversion is the core lesson: custody risk can appear on either side of the self-custody equation. Still, the next signal will come from whether these relocated funds remain idle or begin to trade.

COINOTAG’s proprietary 42-indicator composite S/R scoring engine places Bitcoin near a sideways pivot, with spot at $63,953.78. Immediate support at $63,711.95 scores 81/100, driven by SMA 50 and Pivot Point, while deeper support at $61,898.13 scores 89/100 from Ichimoku Senkou A and POC. The nearest resistance at $64,358.87 scores 56/100 from SMA 20 and Ichimoku Kijun, with $66,878.15 the major hurdle at 78/100 from Keltner Upper and EMA 100. Funding is positive at 0.0046%, open interest near $12.86 billion and a 1.41 long/short ratio show mild long bias. Fear & Greed at 25 signals Extreme Fear; reclaiming $64,358.87 could open $66,878.15, while losing $63,711.95 invalidates the bullish case. Bitcoin’s 69.6% COINOTAG-tracked share shows caution versus the altcoin segment.