Bitcoin Hardware Wallet Hack Sparks Mass Fund Migration

A security flaw in the firmware of Coldcard hardware wallets has been exploited by attackers, resulting in more than $116 million in stolen bitcoin. The breach has triggered a wave of activity across the bitcoin network, with 2.27 million new wallets created and 751,000 active wallets recorded this week — the highest level of onchain activity so far in 2026.

The spike reflects holders rushing to move their funds off compromised Coldcard devices and into new, presumably safer wallets. Hardware wallets are widely marketed as one of the most secure ways to store cryptocurrency because they keep private keys offline, so a firmware-level exploit undermines a key selling point of this security model.

While this incident centres on cryptocurrency holders rather than traditional business systems, it is a reminder that even purpose-built security hardware can contain exploitable flaws, and that firmware updates and vendor advisories should never be ignored.