Bitcoin (BTC) each day lively addresses jumped from 645,000 on July 30 to just about 1 million on July 31. The studying was the best since December 10, 2024, and the Coldcard panic, not new demand, drove it.
BTC traded at $60,347 at press time, up 1.24% in 24 hours, BeInCrypto information reveals. Three on-chain charts reveal what holders really did throughout a weekend of extreme stress for self-custody.
Almost 1 Million Addresses Moved, the Most Since December 2024
Glassnode information reveals about 980,000 lively addresses on July 31, up greater than 50% in a single day. The bounce got here days after attackers started draining Coldcard {hardware} wallets by way of a flawed random quantity generator.
Three confirmed assault waves have been linked to 1,367 BTC, price $88.6 million, stolen from 4,585 addresses. A suspected fourth wave has since swept over 380 BTC extra.
The final time this many addresses moved, on December 10, 2024, bitcoin traded close to $100,000 throughout a euphoric rally. This time, the identical exercise arrived with BTC round $60,000. Similar metric, reverse emotion.
CryptoQuant Head of Analysis Julio Moreno famous on X that sending addresses drove almost all the development. Receiving addresses barely moved in proportion, which suggests consolidation. Hundreds of wallets emptied towards a a lot smaller set of locations.
Traditionally, lively addresses had churned between 550,000 and 750,000 for many of 2026. Subsequently, the spike reads as a one-off occasion reasonably than a brand new pattern.
Small Holders Moved the Most BTC For the reason that FTX Collapse
CryptoQuant’s Spent Output Worth Bands level to who panicked. Transfers under 1 BTC totaled 39,600 BTC on July 31. The one comparable each day studying got here on November 16, 2022, at 39,900 BTC, days after FTX failed.
These bands seize retail-sized wallets, precisely the profile of Coldcard’s consumer base. One holder misplaced 18.25 BTC, price $1.6 million, in below seven minutes. Tales like his pushed 1000’s of customers to behave.
Moreno framed the migration as a wholesome reflex reasonably than capitulation.
“The Bitcoin plebs had not transfer[d] this quantity of BTC in a day because the FTX collapse… I prefer to see that individuals appear to be taking motion.”
He shared the remark on X on August 1.
Nevertheless, the path of journey has reversed since 2022. Again then, customers pulled cash off exchanges and into chilly storage. This time, a chilly storage failure despatched cash the opposite means. The reversal feeds the self-custody debate that Binance founder Changpeng Zhao reignited this week.
Many Wallets, Few Transactions. The Anatomy of the Coldcard Panic
The third chart completes the image. Glassnode counted 761,796 transfers on July 31, a neighborhood spike however removed from a file. Prior peaks on December 13, 2024, April 19, 2025, and Could 9, 2026, all cleared 1 million transfers.
The divergence issues. Energetic addresses hit a 20-month excessive whereas switch counts stayed inside their unusual vary. In different phrases, an unlimited variety of wallets moved, however every made just one or a number of transactions.
That’s the anatomy of a mass emergency sweep, not an exercise increase. In distinction, earlier switch information got here from concentrated, high-frequency churn by far fewer entities.
Galaxy Analysis head Alex Thorn noticed sweep transactions working at 13.8 per block, roughly 45 occasions the pre-incident baseline. The shock even reached protocol politics, as builders postponed the BIP-110 mushy fork activation, citing the incident.
The Chain Recorded Concern, Not a Development
Uncooked on-chain metrics will look distorted for days. Analysts could want entity-adjusted information till sweep exercise fades, and lively addresses may normalize simply as sharply as they spiked.
Notably, the worth barely reacted. Bitcoin held close to $60,000 by way of its most lively day in 20 months. That calm suggests the moved cash fled threat reasonably than sought exits.
The following sign to observe sits on the change books. If migrated cash keep put, the episode stays a safety story. If they begin promoting, the Coldcard panic may but turn into a market story.
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