Bitcoin Slips Near $62K on Coldcard Wallet Hack Concerns

Bitcoin (BTC) declined 1.3% to $62,591 after security researchers raised concerns about a possible Coldcard wallet exploit. The warning placed custody safety at the center of short-term market discussion, because hardware devices are widely treated as a primary defense for long-term holders. Coinkite, the firm associated with Coldcard, urged customers to move assets after researchers said the vulnerability might have given attackers the ability to steal nearly $70 million within an hour. The advisory did not establish that user funds were already lost, but it described a potential attack window severe enough to justify immediate precautions. Hardware wallets are generally intended to keep signing keys separated from internet-connected environments, so any claimed weakness in that boundary is treated as a high-severity issue. The available update did not include on-chain confirmation of the alleged loss, which left traders weighing a serious warning against incomplete evidence. That uncertainty weighed on sentiment, particularly among traders who view self-custody infrastructure as one of the network’s most important operational safeguards. In bear market conditions, even an unconfirmed security issue can trigger defensive selling because market participants have less confidence that dips will be bought quickly. The price drop therefore reflected both the direct concern over wallet safety and the broader caution that emerges when a widely used custody product is questioned. Coldcard users were told to act before further technical details became public, while the company’s recommendation itself became a signal that the threat was being treated seriously. The episode also highlighted how quickly risk can travel through crypto markets when a hardware provider, security researchers and price action all intersect within a single trading session. For now, the key question is whether the alleged flaw was exploited at scale or identified before any large, confirmed theft took place. Market participants typically seek clarification before committing new capital.

A second pressure point came from Bitcoin exchange-traded funds, which recorded outflows on Friday. The flow data mattered because ETF products have become a major route for regulated exposure to Bitcoin, and redemptions can signal that investors are reducing risk rather than adding fresh capital. The update did not specify the size of the withdrawals, but even a modest negative print can influence sentiment when the market is already reacting to a security advisory. In practice, ETF outflows can require authorized participants to sell the underlying asset during the redemption process, adding a mechanical source of supply to an already cautious tape. That relationship is not absolute, because flows can reverse quickly, but traders often treat a shift from inflows to outflows as a short-term demand warning. Friday’s move suggested that some fund investors were choosing to step aside while the Coldcard issue was assessed. This created a two-layer market structure: spot traders reacted to the wallet warning, while ETF flow data hinted at weaker institutional-style demand at the same time. The absence of a large, disclosed inflow offset left the market more vulnerable to negative headlines. When creation activity is positive, new shares can absorb selling from other market participants; when redemptions dominate, that buffer weakens. With no fresh flow strength visible in the update, traders were less willing to assume that the next leg higher would quickly challenge prior peaks or set a new all-time high. For an AI crypto wallet user or any custodial participant, the episode reinforced that operational risk and fund-flow risk can compound rapidly. Until ETF data shows renewed creation activity or the wallet advisory is resolved with clear technical evidence, short-term participants are likely to treat rallies as fragile. The key point is not that Friday’s outflows alone caused the decline; rather, they removed a supportive bid at a moment when confidence needed support. That left the asset more exposed to any additional negative catalyst.

Galaxy Research has since confirmed that the Coldcard vulnerability was actively exploited, with verified losses rising to approximately 1,367 BTC—valued at roughly $88.6 million—after researchers detected a third wave of attacks that drained an additional 207.73 BTC. The firm identified 4,585 affected wallet addresses and warned that any single-signature wallet generated by the vulnerable firmware remains at risk of being emptied. Galaxy Research compiled around 600 suspected attacker addresses and notified U.S. federal law enforcement. Research head Alex Thorn stated the campaign is ongoing and urged users to relocate funds immediately. The stolen coins had sat dormant for an average of 3.18 years before being swept, indicating that long-term holders bore the brunt of the theft, and the funds have not yet been moved from hacker-controlled addresses.

The latest developments revealed that Anthropic's AI coding tool Claude Code independently identified the vulnerability during a source code security review in approximately eight minutes, pinpointing a flaw in the firmware's cryptographic randomness generation that weakened entropy for private key creation. Galaxy Research head Alex Thorn subsequently flagged a fourth organized wave of attacks between Bitcoin blocks 960,778 and 960,792, documenting 218 suspicious transactions that affected 462 victim addresses and moved roughly 389 BTC. Community estimates of total losses have since climbed above $100 million. BlockTower Capital founder Ari Paul characterized the incident as a sector-wide weakness rather than a single manufacturer's failure, while affected users were advised to raise transaction fees to improve the odds of confirming fund transfers before attackers can sweep remaining balances.

The macro backdrop offered a potential tailwind that crypto failed to capture. Brent crude futures fell as much as 7.3% to $81.55 per barrel after U.S.-Iran talks raised expectations of the Strait of Hormuz reopening, while the 10-year Treasury yield dropped four basis points to 4.69% and equity futures gained roughly 0.8%. Typically, falling oil prices and easing inflation fears support risk assets including digital currencies, yet bitcoin slipped from a Sunday high of $63,600 to $62,800, extending a 4% weekly decline. The divergence suggested that selling pressure was driven by the Coldcard security failure rather than broader economic conditions. Per-wave data reinforced that assessment: the attacker's average haul shrank with each sweep, indicating larger balances had already been drained and later waves targeted smaller wallets holding only a few thousand dollars each.

Multiple international reporting channels simultaneously confirmed the same core data points from the initial Coldcard advisory, reinforcing that the 1.3% decline to $62,591 and the concurrent Friday ETF outflows were treated as a combined negative catalyst rather than isolated events. The rapid cross-market dissemination of Coinkite's recommendation and the researchers' estimate that attackers could have accessed approximately $70 million in under an hour suggested the warning reached a broad audience quickly, limiting the window for affected users to act before further exploitation. The convergence of the security advisory with redemption pressure on regulated fund products was consistently framed as a dual-layer risk event, underscoring that neither factor alone fully explained the speed of the move lower.

(as of 21:02 UTC) COINOTAG's proprietary 42-indicator composite S/R scoring engine rates the $63,966 resistance at 75/100, driven by Flip S→R, Ichimoku Kijun, R2 and BB Middle, while the $63,712 support scores 78/100 from Fibo 0.236, S1 and POC. As of the latest snapshot, Bitcoin spot at $63,755 is up 0.43% over 24 hours, with a bearish MACD and RSI at 48.83. Derivatives show a mild 0.0021% funding rate, $12.81 billion open interest and a 1.56 long/short ratio (60.9% long), indicating a moderate long lean amid the Fear & Greed Index at 28. Holding $63,712 keeps a push toward $63,966 possible; a decisive break below it opens $61,904, while reclaiming $63,966 could open a path toward $66,921.