Bitcoin traded above $63,000 on Sunday, posting a slight increase over the past 24 hours, as the market absorbed the widening losses of the Coldcard wallet and further Bitcoin sales by Trump Media & Technology Group.
According to Galaxy Research, losses related to a vulnerability in Coldcard's hard wallets amounted to 1,367 bitcoins, worth approximately $89 million. Bitcoin was trading at $63,262.40 as of 9:45 AM, up 0.35%.
A third round of transfers resulted in the withdrawal of approximately 208 BTC from 1,912 addresses between Friday evening and Saturday morning. Across all three waves, funds were withdrawn from 4,585 addresses.
The initial attack on July 30th targeted 1,083 BTC from 1,196 wallets within 41 minutes. More recent transactions targeted smaller balances and employed a different fundraising technique, raising the possibility that the original attacker may have changed tactics, or that another operator has begun searching the same compromised keys.
The vulnerability stems from a firmware release in March 2021 that used a programmatic random number generator (RNG) to predict the outcome of wallet seed generation, instead of relying on the device's hardware. Attackers could potentially reproduce potential private keys without an internet connection and without needing physical access to the wallets.
Institutional sales added another potential source of supply. Trump Media & Technology Group Corp (NASDAQ:DJT) sold an additional 2,628 BTC worth approximately $165 million, according to blockchain analytics firm Lookonchain.
According to reports, the company sold 7,281 BTC after initially buying 11,542 coins for about $1.37 billion, at an average cost of $118,522.00 per coin.
Its remaining holdings of 4,260.73 BTC are pledged as collateral against convertible notes until May 2028 at the latest. Lookonchain estimates Trump Media's total realized and unrealized losses in Bitcoin at approximately $555 million.
In contrast, Strategy Inc (NASDAQ:MSTR), the largest institutional holder of Bitcoin, kept its August dividend for its preferred STRC stock at 12%. The company had previously raised the dividend when STRC was trading significantly below its par value of $100.00.
STRC is currently trading around $89.46, recovering from its June lows of nearly $71.00, following the July dividend increase and some stabilization in Bitcoin prices.
Beyond corporate coffers, Bitcoin ownership is increasingly shifting towards exchange-traded funds (ETFs), financial institutions, and governments. Bitcoin spot ETFs previously saw inflows exceeding $220 million following a period of sustained withdrawals.
The growing institutional presence may provide a source of long-term demand, although portfolio security concerns and institutional selling may constrain momentum in the near term.
Cryptocurrency prices today: Altcoins see slight rise despite slow weekend trading
In terms of broader cryptocurrency prices, most alternative currencies posted gains despite a slowdown in trading on Sunday.
Ethereum, the world's second-largest cryptocurrency, added 0.15% to trade at $1,870.90.
XRP, the world's third-largest cryptocurrency, jumped 2.06% to $1.0830.
Cardano rose by 9.36%, while Solana rose by 0.66%.
Regarding meme coins, Dogecoin rose by 0.62% during the day.
