Is Coldcard in trouble? (2026)

In its August 2, 2026 update Coinkite said shipments were halted when the vulnerability was confirmed and that it destroyed its remaining Coldcard inventory manufactured with the vulnerable firmware. The same post names Bitkey, Ledger, Trezor, Jade and BitBox as reputable alternatives while customers decide next steps, and asks owners to keep affected devices and old backups because they may become essential if funds are recovered.

On July 30, 2026 Coinkite published a security advisory: a build integration error introduced in firmware 4.0.1 (March 2021) made Coldcard devices generate wallet seeds with a software PRNG instead of the hardware TRNG, leaving about 72 bits of entropy instead of the expected 128 on Mk4/Mk5/Q; TRM Labs (August 5, 2026) put effective strength at as little as 40 bits. Attackers drained about 1,816 BTC (roughly USD 116 million) from over 5,200 addresses in four waves starting the same day, per TRM Labs and Fortune. Fixed firmware is out for every model line (Mk2/Mk3 4.2.0+, Mk4/Mk5 5.6.0+, Q 1.5.0Q+). Any seed generated on affected firmware (roughly March 2021 to July 2026) must be treated as compromised unless it came from at least 50 independent dice rolls or is protected by a strong, unique BIP-39 passphrase. Coinkite's instruction: update the firmware, generate a new seed on the updated device, verify the backup, then move all funds now.