Odaily Planet Daily reports that Alex Thorn, Research Director at Galaxy Digital, stated that based on new victim reports received after the incident, the number of attackers exploiting the Coldcard vulnerability has reached at least 15.
Thorn said that the information provided by victims helped the research team identify previously unrecognized attack activities. Because the attack method for this vulnerability differs from those seen in centralized exchange breaches, connections between the attackers must be confirmed through on-chain analysis and victim feedback.
He said that a report from just one victim about less than 1 BTC being stolen helped the team uncover a previously unknown attack that stole approximately 12 BTC from 126 addresses.
According to prior estimates by Galaxy Research, the Coldcard vulnerability has led to at least three rounds of attacks, resulting in approximately $100 million in BTC losses; additionally, Galaxy has identified a suspected fourth attack, which could raise the total loss to around $130 million.
Meanwhile, the incident has sparked discussions about the security of Bitcoin self-custody. Haseeb Qureshi, Managing Partner at Dragonfly, stated that an AI security enhancement costing approximately “$2” could have prevented this vulnerability, noting that some AI models could rediscover the flaw within a short time. However, industry experts point out that claims about the speed at which AI can detect vulnerabilities lack rigorous blind testing and verification.
Researchers believe that as AI model capabilities improve, the cost of discovering and exploiting vulnerabilities in the crypto industry may continue to decline, requiring wallet developers to further strengthen code audits and security protections. (Cointelegraph)