Bitcoin has held close to $64,000 despite a damaging week for the cryptocurrency market, which has included losses of more than $116m from a Coldcard wallet hack, further bitcoin sales by Strategy and growing doubts over the Clarity Act in the United States.
The price remains well below its recent highs but has shown notable resilience during a news cycle dominated by negative developments. Bitcoin gained 0.8%, trading between $63,300 and a session high of $64,360, while maintaining support above $63,500.
The most serious incident has been the continuing theft from Coldcard hardware wallets. A firmware flaw dating back to March 2021 meant some devices produced recovery seeds with about 40 bits of entropy, rather than the intended 128 bits. That weakness left some long-term holders vulnerable to brute-force attacks.
The exploit emerged on 30 July and the thefts have continued in successive waves. More than $116m worth of bitcoin has now been taken. A fourth wave of transfers moved 388.9 BTC, worth about $29m, during one Sunday evening.
The attack is being monitored publicly. Bitcoin developer James O’Beirne has created a live dashboard to track the theft and has placed deliberately vulnerable unspent transaction outputs, known as UTXOs, on the network. These use the compromised default seeds with different amounts of additional entropy.
One of O’Beirne’s control wallets, with no extra entropy, was emptied within an hour. That suggests attackers are continuously scanning the vulnerable seed space rather than conducting isolated attacks.
Coinkite, the Canadian manufacturer of the affected devices, has stopped shipments and destroyed its remaining inventory made with the vulnerable firmware. The company told customers: “Money that took years to save, gone. Trust that took years to build, broken.”
It has advised users with affected wallets to transfer their funds immediately to new wallets. Coinkite has also warned that installing a firmware update on its own will not eliminate the danger. Bitcoin.com News has published a detailed breakdown of the people who lost coins and those who may still be at risk.
Elsewhere, Strategy disclosed that it had sold 1,638 BTC for about $104.7m. It was the company’s third bitcoin sale of the year. Wallets linked to the company also moved a further 1,030 BTC on Wednesday, raising concerns that another, fourth sale could follow.
Strategy still has $5bn in authorised sales available, adding to the potential pressure on bitcoin if further disposals take place.
Political uncertainty has also weighed on sentiment. A cloture vote on the Clarity Act is expected to fail after Senate Democrats objected to the handling of ethics discussions. Prediction-market odds on the legislation becoming law in 2026 have fallen from 27% to 23%.
A failed vote before the August recess would provide another negative headline for bitcoin and could put further pressure on its value. Exchange inflows have already increased as worried Coldcard users move their holdings, adding to concerns about near-term selling.
There is, however, a possible valuation floor supporting the market. Charles Edwards, founder of Capriole Investments, has pointed to bitcoin’s production cost – the total expense miners face in producing one coin – which he says is currently about $54,000. The electricity component alone is estimated at $40,000.
Bitcoin has historically fallen below its production cost at the bottom of each market cycle. At around $64,000, it is therefore still trading at a premium, although the mining-cost measure provides a clearly defined level beneath the current price.
