Bitcoin Slips Despite Iran Hopes as Coldcard Exploit Rattles Market

Bitcoin slipped beneath the $63,000 mark on Monday, ignoring improving macroeconomic conditions fueled by hopes of a US-Iran deal, as the market remained shaken by a Coldcard wallet exploit showing no signs of containment.

Coldcard Exploit Deepens as Losses Near $89 Million

The downward pressure is stemming from internal security breaches rather than external economic factors, with a third wave of exploit sweeps detected over the weekend.

■A total of 1,367 bitcoin, valued at nearly $89 million, has been drained across 4,585 addresses generated by Coldcard wallets.

■Data suggests the attacker is exhausting large balances first; the first wave took 1,083 BTC from 1,196 addresses, while the third wave yielded only 208 BTC from 1,912 wallets.

■This systematic emptying of wallets, moving from high-value targets to smaller retail holdings, has rattled confidence in hardware security solutions.

Macro Tailwinds Fail to Lift Digital Assets

Typically, falling oil prices and rallying treasuries provide a lift for crypto assets, but the sector ignored these positive signals due to the specific drag of the wallet exploit.

■Brent crude futures for October dropped as much as 7.3% to $81.55 a barrel after President Donald Trump called off a strike on Iran and signaled fresh talks.

■The 10-year Treasury yield fell four basis points to 4.69% as inflation worries eased, while Nasdaq 100 and European futures both gained 0.8%.

■Ether funds saw small inflows on Friday, contrasting with outflows from Bitcoin funds, marking an unusual split in market sentiment.

■BNB was the only major in the green, up 1.6% on the week, while Hyperliquid's HYPE suffered the steepest drop among the top ten, falling 12.8%.

As a blockchain researcher, I see a clear divergence here: the market is currently pricing in a security premium that overrides macroeconomic optimism. Hardware wallets are touted as the gold standard for self-custody, yet this exploit exposes a critical vulnerability in the supply chain or firmware architecture that can negate the benefits of holding one's private keys. The fact that Bitcoin ignored a drop in oil yields and rising stock futures indicates that institutional and retail capital is more spooked by the possibility of unseen technical vulnerabilities than by geopolitical tensions.