117 Partners Explores Two Legal Paths for Coldcard Security Incident

ME News reports that on August 3 (UTC+8), Thomas Braziel, founder of 117 Partners—an agency involved in claims related to multiple cryptocurrency insolvencies including FTX, Mt. Gox, and Celsius—published a statement regarding the aftermath of the security incident involving Coldcard manufacturer Coinkite, disclosing that two parallel recovery pathways are being explored to maximize compensation for victims. The first pathway involves filing a product liability lawsuit against Coinkite in Canada, based on the argument that the company should not have sold defective security products that caused significant losses to customers. If the facts are substantiated, the anticipated class action lawsuit would operate on a contingency fee basis (approximately 33%), with victims required to pay no upfront legal fees, and is expected to take 1 to 3 years. The second pathway involves an asset recovery strategy targeting the hackers, including evaluating the possibility of applying for a temporary restraining order (TRO) in the United States, identifying relevant wallets and intermediary accounts, obtaining judgments where appropriate, and pursuing recovery from third parties who may hold or have handled the stolen assets; this approach may require litigation funding but is expected to proceed more rapidly. Braziel stated that recovery cannot be guaranteed at this time, and the strategies are still evolving through ongoing discussions with additional legal teams. (Source: Foresight News)