Coldcard Exploit Sparks Bitcoin Flight, ‘Bullish’ Crypto Consolidation: Hodler’s Digest,

Cold storage fears after Coldcard users lose $90M in Bitcoin

After $90 million in Bitcoin was drained from Coldcard wallet users, small hodlers desperately sought refuge on centralized exchanges and via alternative custody methods.

Bitcoin transfers below 1 BTC climbed to their highest daily level since 2022 on Friday, with 39,600 BTC moved, according to data shared by CryptoQuant head of research Julio Moreno on Saturday.

The figure was just 300 BTC below the 39,900 BTC transferred on Nov. 16, 2022, days after FTX filed for bankruptcy.

Galaxy Research, the research arm of crypto investment company Galaxy Digital, reported Saturday that the third wave of attacks on users of the hardware wallet on the weekend brought estimated losses to 1,367 BTC ($88.6 million) across 4,585 addresses.

Alex Thorn, Galaxy Digital’s head of firmwide research, warned in an X post on Sunday that the attack was still ongoing and urged users to move funds from Coldcard-generated addresses immediately if they had not already done so. The exploit reportedly targets a flaw in the Coldcard seed generation process, that did not employ a genuinely random number generator.

Source: Alex Thorn

Clarity Act clock running out: No vote, or ‘no’ vote?

President Donald Trump is considering a revised ethics proposal for the Clarity Act that was devised by Senator Thom Tillis and Senator Ruben Gallego.

The original proposal Trump signed off on would have prevented elected officials from endorsing or profiting from crypto projects and would have been enforced by the Department of Justice. The Democrats don’t trust the DoJ and want the State Attorney Generals to enforce it.

The compromise proposal would allow the State AGs to sue the DoJ if it does not properly enforce the rules, rather than allow them to sue elected officials *cough, Trump* directly.

With just five days left on the clock, the chances of any kind of Senate vote on the legislation are receding, much less the multiple separate votes required to pass the bill. Trump’s $1.4 billion in crypto profits are a particular sticking point, with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer introducing a bill (with little hope of passing) called the Anti-Corruption Bureau Creation Act that targets “executive branch corruption.”

Ethics isn’t the only outstanding issue, with the banks still up in arms over paying any kind of yield on stablecoins, and law enforcement groups divided over the impact of the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act. Designed to protect blockchain developers, some argue it would thwart investigations into money laundering and fraud.

Changes to the BRCA proposed by the National Association of Assistant US Attorneys and the National District Attorneys Association look dead in the water. White House crypto advisor Patrick Witt scoffed at the proposals and the claim they resulted from “productive negotiations.”

”This is not even close,” he said.

Crypto ‘no earnings’ reports

Nobody is making much money in crypto right now it seems, at least according to this week’s corporate earnings reports for the second quarter.

Coinbase generated roughly $1.2 billion in net revenue, down 19% from a year earlier. It reported a net loss of $359 million, significantly wider than analysts’ expectations for a $122 million loss. Transaction revenue, subscription and services revenue, and adjusted EBITDA all fell short of consensus estimates.

Strategy’s habit of smash-buying every Bitcoin top, helped it to record an $8.22 billion loss in the second quarter, driven almost entirely by its unrealized losses on its Bitcoin holdings. However, the company also said it has now built a $3.75 billion U.S. dollar reserve, which is enough to cover more than two years of preferred dividend payments and interest obligations. 

Online brokerage Robinhood is making loads of money, but not much of it is attributable to crypto. The firm posted record second-quarter revenue and earnings, even as cryptocurrency transaction revenue fell 38% from a year earlier, from $160 million to $100 million.

Crypto enters biggest consolidation phase in history

ARK Invest analyst Lorenzo Valente says the cryptocurrency industry is entering its biggest consolidation phase yet, with revenue increasingly concentrated among a handful of dominant protocols.

Valente noted that perpetual futures exchange Hyperliquid and memecoin launchpad Pump.fun account for roughly 67% of total crypto application revenue between them. Including synthetic dollar protocol Ethena raises the top three’s combined share to nearly 80%.

Valente added that he expects the trend to accelerate in the coming months, leading to more mergers and acquisitions, Chapter 11 bankruptcies, project shutdowns and acqui-hires. Somewhat surprisingly, he concluded that “this is extremely bullish for the space.”

World Cup generated $20B in blockchain prediction market volume

The 2026 FIFA World Cup drove $20 billion in blockchain-based prediction market volume and $24 million in digital collectible trades, with more than 400,000 wallets participating in blockchain-based betting, according to a report from blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis.

The $20 billion figure includes trading before and during the tournament, with bettors placing roughly $5.7 billion in wagers over the five-week World Cup itself. World Cup-related markets accounted for about 63% of all prediction market activity during that period, the report said.

Winners and Losers

At the end of the week, Bitcoin (BTC) is down 3% to trade at $63,350, Ether (ETH) is down 3.5% to trade at $1,879 and XRP (XRP) is down 2.3% and is changing hands for $1.08. The total market cap is at $2.18 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap.

Among the biggest 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin winners of the week are Cardano (ADA) at 14.7%, Uniswap (UNI) at 8%, and Pi (PI) at 3.2%.

The top three altcoin losers of the week are Stable (STABLE) at -16%, Venice Token (VVV) at -14.6% and Lido DAO (LDO) at -14.1%.

Prediction of the Week

Bitcoin may have bottomed before its traditional cycle low

Crypto-focused asset manager Grayscale said that Bitcoin’s price may have bottomed earlier than the traditional four-year cycle, which would imply a cycle low in September or October. 

Head of research, Zach Pandl, argued that Bitcoin (BTC) has “grown up” as an asset and is increasingly driven by macroeconomic factors. 

“If the Fed forgoes rate hikes and economic growth holds up well, Bitcoin’s price may already have bottomed,” Pandl wrote in a report.

However, people have been peddling this hopium for months now. Earlier in July, crypto brokerage K33 pointed to more than 50% of the Bitcoin supply being held at a loss as another signal of an imminent market bottom. In June, Swan Bitcoin CEO Cory Klippsten told Cointelegraph that the holdings of long-term investors, which reached an all-time high of 14.7 million Bitcoin, were another signal of an imminent Bitcoin bottom.

Sooner or later, someone will be right.

Top FUD of the Week

The Russians… and the Australians… are after Telegram’s Pavel Durov

Russian authorities have placed Telegram founder Pavel Durov on an international wanted list as they escalate a criminal case accusing him of facilitating terrorist activity.

Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Wednesday that it had charged Durov with facilitating terrorist activity and issued an international warrant for his arrest, local news agency Interfax reported.

The FSB alleged that Telegram failed to remove channels, chats and bots that Ukrainian intelligence services, alleged terrorist groups and extremist organizations used to coordinate attacks, recruit operatives and conduct cyber fraud.

A defiant Durov said on Thursday the Russians had become “confused about who can ban whom from the Internet.”

Meanwhile the Australian eSafety Commisioner has launched court proceedings against Telegram seeking civil penalties, alleging the platform failed to remove terrorism-related content.

Pump.fun laid off workers before they received millions in PUMP tokens

Solana-based memecoin launchpad Pump.fun reportedly fired employees two months before they were due to receive PUMP tokens worth millions of dollars.

According to a Friday Sandmark report, at least one Pump.fun worker was due to receive PUMP tokens worth in the seven-figure range.

The employees were reportedly fired in April, just two months before they were due to start receiving the company’s tokens based on agreements signed in 2025.

Trump teleprompter operator accused over Kalshi bets leaves government

A White House teleprompter operator accused of using inside knowledge to profit from prediction market bets on President Donald Trump’s speeches no longer works for the federal government, according to the Associated Press.

Perez was accused of using nonpublic information to make more than $100,000 betting on Kalshi prediction markets tied to Trump’s speeches, according to an earlier ABC News report.

Best Magazine Stories of the Week

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