Bitcoin activity has surged sharply over the past week, with 712,000 addresses active in the past seven days, according to Santiment’s findings. That marks a three-month high.
Whale activity also hit a five-month high. 61,800 transactions worth more than $100,000 were recorded during the period.
Coldcard Fallout Drives Network Activity
Santiment flagged the recent security incident involving Coldcard hardware wallet as the obvious catalyst behind the rise in activity. Reports linked the late-July attacks to weak keys generated by affected devices. Santiment estimates losses at above 2,055 BTC, or about $130 million. It said affected users rushed to move funds, consolidate wallets and reduce their exposure.
Meanwhile, Galaxy Research identified that the tokens were stolen from 7,300 addresses across three confirmed waves of attacks. It also found 14 smaller security incidents. The firm also said the exploits linked to an issue affecting seeds generated on Coinkite’s Coldcard Mk3, Mk4, Mk5 and Coldcard Q firmware versions.
Coinkite later released emergency firmware updates for all affected models and confirmed destroying the remaining vulnerable inventory. The issue became public on July 30. The incidents appeared to involve automated, programmatic sweeps, with possible assistance from large language models.
Galaxy Research said it suspects the losses could be higher if a potential fourth wave of attacks is confirmed. The firm, however, did not receive specific confirmation from victims.
Santiment also warned that Bitcoin volatility could remain elevated over the next few weeks. Fear could push retail investors to sell. At the same time, continued whale accumulation and “security-driven” movement of coins could reduce liquid supply over the coming months if stronger holders continue absorbing the panic.
Cash-Out Hurdles
The stolen Bitcoin may not be easy to turn into cash, Trace Finance co-founder and CTO Leone Parise told CryptoPotato. On the monetization prospects of the stolen funds, Parise said,
“Not at anything close to face value. These are the most heavily surveilled UTXOs in BTC’s history: dormant for years, then moved in a burst, which is exactly the kind of signature that makes clustering trivial. Bitcoin can’t be frozen, but every regulated on-ramp can refuse these coins.
That leaves mixers, cross-chain bridges, OTC desks in weak jurisdictions, and peer-to-peer channels, all of which cost real money and introduce counterparty risk. They’ll extract a fraction, over years, with heavy leakage. $100M on-chain is not $100M in the bank.”
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