Coldcard hack losses: How investigators trace stolen Bitcoin

The Coldcard hack is testing crypto investigators’ ability to measure losses from self-custody wallets, where victim reports are critical to establishing the scale of the theft.Blockchain analytics platform CryptoQuant currently puts confirmed losses at 1,432 Bitcoin, while other analysts have traced substantially more funds to the attack.Galaxy Research and blockchain intelligence company TRM Labs both say their analysis points to a higher toll, while distinguishing between losses directly confirmed by victims and funds attributed to the attack through on-chain patterns.That makes self-custody attacks difficult to quantify: Unlike an exchange hack, there is no complete list of affected accounts, leaving investigators to build estimates rather than pin down a definitive toll.Galaxy traces losses beyond victim reportsGalaxy’s Alex Thorn told Cointelegraph the platform’s earlier estimate of as much as 1,816 BTC was a potential figure rather than a confirmed loss total.As of Tuesday, Galaxy put its high-confidence minimum at 1,730 Bitcoin, with Thorn saying the figure could still increase as more victim reports corroborate attack patterns.Source: Galaxy Research“We have directly confi...