A second wave of attackers began moving stolen Bitcoin through mixers this week. The sum was small, roughly 64 BTC, but the timing signals desperation among those involved in the broader Coldcard wallet exploit.
The largest single haul, 1,159 BTC spread across seven addresses, hasn't budged since the coins arrived there 41 minutes after the initial breach. That's roughly $50 million in today's prices, and it's essentially trapped.
Galaxy Research traced that cluster to one attacker working alone. The Bitcoin sits untouched because moving it would trigger immediate scrutiny. Exchanges run anti-money-laundering checks on large deposits. Law enforcement and blockchain analytics firms have flagged some 600 addresses tied to the theft, making any exchange deposit a near-certain arrest warrant.
Bitcoin transactions can't be frozen at the protocol level, but the attacker knows better than to try. The protocol doesn't care about stolen coins, but the compliance department at Kraken does.
The 64 BTC that's moving tells a different story. Roughly 10 BTC entered a Wasabi Wallet CoinJoin transaction, with 54 BTC returning as change. The attacker then split the funds into 7 BTC chunks for repeated mixing cycles.
CoinJoin obscures the link between inputs and outputs, but it's not magic. Investigators can still track funds by studying transaction timing, output sizes, and later consolidations. Mixing buys time. It doesn't buy freedom.
Multiple attackers hit the same Coldcard vulnerability, meaning this 64 BTC cluster likely isn't connected to the larger 1,159 BTC stash. Each group took their own approach to the problem: one chose patience, the others chose risk.
Estimates of total losses from the Coldcard breach have climbed toward $100 million, though final counts depend on which address clusters researchers can definitively link to the exploit.
This material is for informational purposes only and should not be considered financial advice or guidance on cryptocurrency security. Always verify security updates directly from official sources.
