Bitcoin Steadies Near $64k as Coldcard Hack Losses Exceed $100M; July Crypto Thefts Hit $247M

Bitcoin steadied near $64,000 on Tuesday, rising 0.9% to $64,267.64, as investors weighed the impact of a major cold wallet exploit against broader geopolitical and institutional tailwinds. Ethereum gained 0.5% to $1,874.13 and Solana rose 0.6% to $74.13, according to CoinGecko data cited by Nasdaq.

The price recovery came despite the ongoing fallout from the Coldcard hack, which saw attackers steal at least $100 million in Bitcoin from wallets hosted by Canada-based hardware wallet company Coinkite. Blockchain analytics firm Galaxy Digital confirmed three attack waves draining approximately 7,300 wallets, with a suspected fourth wave that could bring total losses to about $130 million, as reported by Cointelegraph.

DefiLlama’s hack tracker estimates losses tied to the Coldcard exploit at $115 million, while Galaxy Research pegged the initial figure at roughly $110 million. The incident was the largest single exploit of July, pushing total monthly crypto thefts to $247.4 million — more than triple the $75 million stolen in June and the second-highest monthly total of 2026 after April’s $644 million.

Exploit Mechanics and Aftermath

The breach exploited a firmware bug dating from March 2021 that weakened seed randomness on certain Coldcard wallets, cutting key strength from 128 bits to 40 bits. Blockchain intelligence firm TRM Labs said this made wallets “brute-forceable without physical access,” according to a report cited by Cointelegraph.

Coinkite warned customers on July 30 that hackers were exploiting a software bug allowing reconstruction of wallet seed phrases — sequences of random words that serve as master keys to offline “cold” wallets. The company declined to estimate total losses, telling Bloomberg it was “not in a position to independently confirm total losses or validate the specific figures being reported by third parties.” Coinkite said it was working on “helping affected customers” and conducting a post-mortem at an unspecified future date.

In an update on its website, Coinkite said it had “temporarily suspended our automated data-blanking process” due to “legal obligations arising from the security incident, including the preservation of records that may be relevant to ongoing and anticipated legal proceedings.”

Multiple Attackers, Fund Movements

Onchain investigations revealed at least 15 different attackers exploited the Coldcard vulnerability, according to Galaxy’s analysis. TRM Labs noted that “differences in transaction construction” during each attack wave suggested multiple actors.

Some stolen funds began moving through cryptocurrency mixing protocols. Blockchain security platform CertiK reported that about 64 Bitcoin — worth $4.17 million — was sent to the Wasabi mixing protocol, and 200 Ether ($380,000) was transferred to Tornado Cash. A CertiK spokesperson told Cointelegraph: “We think it might be a smaller exploiter. There’s likely a few copycats after the initial exploit.”

TRM Labs’ onchain tracing showed that the majority of victim funds remained pooled in a small number of attacker-controlled addresses with limited mixing attempts as of Thursday.

Market Resilience and Whale Activity

Despite the security scare, crypto markets showed resilience. Nasdaq reported that Bitcoin’s rise was supported by renewed optimism that the Strait of Hormuz may reopen soon, which pushed oil prices lower and improved risk sentiment. Institutional inflows into spot Bitcoin ETFs picked up, with over $170 million in net inflows, largely into the iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF. Major Italian bank Intesa Sanpaolo significantly reduced its Bitcoin ETF position while tripling its holdings in the iShares Staked Ethereum Trust ETF. Separately, Hashdex announced it will close its Bitcoin ETF due to insufficient funds.

Blockchain analytics firm CryptoQuant pointed to whale accumulation as a potential bottoming signal. Bitcoin whale holdings, excluding exchanges and mining pools, rose to approximately 3.06 million BTC from 2.87 million BTC in December 2025, with accumulation accelerating after Bitcoin dropped below $60,000 in June. “Rising whale balances into price weakness is the clearest smart-money tell,” CryptoQuant said in its Smart Money report, noting that the pattern has historically preceded market bottoms.

At time of writing, Bitcoin traded above its realized price of $52,900, while Ether traded at $1,858, below its realized price of about $2,450, suggesting Ether may be relatively undervalued by that metric.

Broader Crypto Theft Landscape

July’s $247.4 million in total crypto thefts made it the second-worst month of 2026, trailing only April. Other notable exploits during the month included a $9 million hack against decentralized finance protocol Bonzo Lend, $2.6 million stolen from Cardano-based wallet SecondFi, $24 million stolen from Arbitrum-based perpetual exchange AFX, and $7.5 million drained through the Verus Ethereum Bridge, according to DefiLlama data cited by Cointelegraph.

“July showed that even cold storage does not eliminate technological risks, which can put thousands of wallets at risk simultaneously,” research platform CryptoRank said in a social media post.