Bitcoin rises toward $64,000 as Coldcard exploit, Strategy sales recede. ADA advances
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- Bitcoin advanced to just below $64,000 after a firmware exploit on Coldcard wallets drained roughly 1,816 BTC (~$114 million) from more than 5,200 addresses since July 30, while Strategy sold 1,638 BTC between July 27 and Aug. 2 at an average of $63,957 — its third sale of year and below its $75,419 cost basis.
- Cardano (ADA) ripped to $0.195, its highest since July 4, lifting its market cap 24% on the week, with futures open interest hitting a record 2.79 billion coins and the highest 24-hour cumulative volume delta among majors — all while non-empty wallet counts dropped by 7,070 over two months.
- ATOM futures open interest sat near a record 80 million tokens alongside a nearly 9% price rally, but negative annualized funding rates and negative OI-adjusted CVD signal the spot move is heavily hedged with bearish bets, and the token remains in a broader downtrend after a 12% three-day bounce off record lows.
- Spot bitcoin ETFs saw $61.5 million in outflows last week before pulling in $170 million on Monday, while ether ETFs recorded $27.4 million in weekly inflows followed by $11.4 million in outflows Monday, as the Crypto Fear & Greed Index sat at 25 ('extreme fear').
- Bitcoin's 30-day implied volatility index (BVIV) dropped to roughly 36%, its lowest since May 31, while Deribit options activity clustered around $60,000 puts and $70,000–$72,000 calls — the boundaries beyond which BTC volatility and directional speed could accelerate.
- The yen slumped nearly 4% after U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent confirmed coordinated U.S.-Japan intervention reviving August 2024 carry-trade comparisons, though bitcoin's -0.90 correlation with USD/JPY frames dollar strength as the larger macro risk.
Why it matters: The Coldcard exploit — the first major breach of an air-gapped hardware wallet — strips away the assumption that offline cold storage is breach-proof, exposing roughly $114 million across 5,200 addresses and forcing institutional and self-custody users to reassess firmware-trust models. Meanwhile, Strategy's third 2025 BTC sale at a price below its cost basis signals that even the largest corporate holder is selling into weakness to fund preferred-stock dividends, while ADA's rally on a shrinking holder base shows how thin conviction can still move prices in a fear-driven tape.
