Scale of the Breach Expands
The Coldcard hardware wallet security incident has grown significantly, with total losses now estimated at over $114 million, according to multiple reports from Bitcoin Magazine and CoinDesk. The breach, which entered its fifth day at the time of reporting, appears to involve multiple coordinated theft waves targeting users of the popular self-custody device.
Researchers tracking the exploit have identified patterns suggesting a possible fourth wave of attacks may be emerging, according to Decrypt. Small bitcoin transfers—those under 1 BTC—have spiked to levels not seen since the immediate aftermath of the FTX collapse, indicating a sustained and widening attack surface.
Technical Details and User Vulnerability
Analysis from Galaxy Research and other blockchain observers indicates that pending transactions associated with the thefts are using replace-by-fee mechanisms, giving affected users only minutes to intervene once their addresses appear in the mempool, according to CoinDesk. This technical characteristic suggests the attacks may involve compromised seed phrases or private key exposure rather than device firmware vulnerabilities.
