Bitcoin and Ether Decline as Coldcard Hardware Wallet Exploit Enters Fifth Day

The drop in cryptocurrency prices appears relatively restrained given the scale of losses in the Coldcard wallet hack and the broader erosion of confidence in cold storage solutions.

Bitcoin and ether came under pressure as the $114 million Coldcard hardware wallet hack entered its fifth day, shaking confidence in self-custody and pushing some holders to move coins back to exchanges. Coldcard, manufactured by Canada-based Coinkite, is widely regarded as one of the most secure bitcoin storage devices on the market because it operates entirely offline — making the breach particularly unsettling for users who chose the product precisely for its air-gapped design.

Derivatives markets offered mixed signals. BTC futures open interest climbed to a one-month high, the long-short skew tilted slightly bearish, and options volatility held steady as call bets clustered around the $68,000 and $70,000 strike prices.

Separately, NEAR Protocol reported more than $24 billion in lifetime volume for its Intents system and introduced quantum-safe cryptography, dynamic resharding, and AI compute staking.

Coldcard Hack Weighs on Sentiment

Bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH) faced selling pressure as the multimillion-dollar Coldcard hack extended into a fifth day, raising questions about the safety of direct custody as a holding strategy. The incident has sent shockwaves through crypto social media, with numerous small holders reporting the loss of long-term holdings and reconsidering their commitment to the asset class. Hardware wallet breaches are relatively rare compared to exchange hacks, which have dominated headlines for years; the Coldcard incident stands out because it targets a product category that the industry has long promoted as the gold standard for personal asset protection.

"Worse for sentiment, it [the hack] has spooked holders into sending coins back to exchanges, the opposite of the self-custody trend crypto is built on," analysts at Marex said. "When the thing wobbling is cold storage itself, a cheaper barrel does not fix it."

Given the gravity of the situation and the $114 million in bitcoin stolen, the price reaction of the largest cryptocurrency has been comparatively muted. BTC was recently down 1.5% over 24 hours to $62,595, a level it has revisited several times in recent weeks. Ether declined nearly 2% to $1,842. The CoinDesk DeFi Select Index fell 2.5%.

Bitcoin's 200-week simple moving average, currently situated above $63,000, returned to focus after Michael Saylor-led Strategy (MSTR) indicated it is monitoring the long-term average and hinted at resuming purchases following a five-week pause — its longest — funded by preferred stock held at a steep 12%. The 200-week SMA has historically served as a closely watched long-term support level, having marked cycle bottoms in prior bear markets.

Geopolitical Backdrop

Geopolitical developments remained contradictory. President Donald Trump stated that new talks with Iran would begin today, a claim Iran swiftly rejected. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said there are no plans to receive a U.S. delegation or send an Iranian one. The standoff adds another layer of uncertainty for risk assets already navigating a backdrop of rising Treasury yields, which tend to pressure bitcoin and other non-yielding assets by raising the opportunity cost of holding them.

Derivatives Positioning

Long-short ratio skews bearish: Crypto long-short futures volume for takers is leaning more bearish than late last week, with over 52% in shorts. A taker is an entity that removes liquidity from an exchange's order book by executing an order immediately against a resting order.

BTC open interest rises: Activity has picked up slightly in BTC futures, with open interest (OI) climbing to a one-month high of 772K BTC. Positioning leans bullish, with annualized funding rates moderately positive at 4%. However, the 24-hour cumulative volume delta is slightly negative, indicating that bears are being more aggressive and trading at market prices rather than through passive limit orders.

Mixed action in altcoins: ADA, ETH, and BCH are other notable OI gainers, while open interest in SOL continues to slide. TRX, DOGE, CC, and GRAM stand out with negative funding rates, signaling a growing bias toward bearish short positions. Still, rates are not deeply negative, suggesting these markets are not yet crowded with bearish bets.

Steady volatility index: Despite the Coldcard hack and rising Treasury yields, there are no signs of stress or panic in the crypto options market. The BVIV, a 30-day implied volatility index, has been hovering near 37% for four consecutive days. Implied volatility is influenced by demand for options or hedging instruments that offer protection from uncertainty and price swings.

Calls dominate trading: In Deribit-listed options, calls at $68,000 and $70,000 are the most heavily traded positions. A call option represents a bullish position on the underlying asset.

Token Talk: NEAR Protocol Advances

NEAR's Intents system has surpassed $24 billion in lifetime volume, according to the protocol's monthly development recap. Intents function as a transactional method where a user specifies a desired outcome — such as swapping one token for another across different blockchains — and the network determines how to execute it, eliminating the need for users to manually route each step.

The volume milestone followed the network's deployment of protocol version 2.13 last month, which introduced two standout features. Quantum-safe signing upgrades the cryptography that secures transactions so it can withstand future quantum computers — a threat still years away but one that a growing number of chains are preparing for. Dynamic resharding enables the network to automatically split its workload across more lanes as traffic grows, providing a scaling mechanism without manual intervention.

NEAR is also deepening its involvement in artificial intelligence. The protocol launched staking for AI compute, allowing holders to lock up NEAR tokens to help provision computing power for AI applications and earn from it, directly tying the token's utility to AI demand.

NEAR recently traded around $1.72, according to CoinDesk data.