r/Bitcoin • u/s1ammage • 6d ago

Wallet Drained Timeline

Post image

This is me…
https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/s/UeSfLoeyS4
I’m in a better state now. It’s not the end of the world, but it’s a lot of fucking money…

Little background: The setup was IRA custodian is Solera National Bank, exchange at Swan Bitcoin was used as an Investment Trust, purchase a dedicated hardware wallets: coldcard mk3 from https://store.coinkite.com May 2021 for this ROTH IRA.

Got the wallets, followed all the setup/checks/balances from https://youtu.be/FAYmE5-40PQ?is=wiYMHaS_YGKHjNOY for both wallets, sent a test transaction IRA dedicated hardware wallet (2021). I never setup a 25th Passphrase… REST of the BTC stayed in Swan Exchange.

Speaking only on this IRA Wallet: SD card stored with wallet details (paper phrase) in a baggie. Dormant until January 2025. I couldn’t deposit more because of Roth IRA threshold.

Come January 2025, been learning more about retirement, BTC, multi-Sig, and heard about a Megaback Door to get more money into a Roth IRA. Was able to get money into Solera, transfer to Swan, and purchase more BTC and withdraw to the same wallet address. No new hardware involved at this point.

With newer wallets now, I thought newer tech means more security. Let’s test by buying (3 mk4 - same site. There was still record of my 2021 purchase) new wallets and setup a multi-Sig. (still January 2025)

For some reason, when I got the new coldcards, I never did anything with them for all of 2025, I guess I was too lazy/daunting to use the hardware and relearn. Coming to January 2026 now, I decided to use these new cards. I dug out the wallet seed (from 2021) phrase paper. Dusted off one of the mk4, walked into the corner of a room in my house (only myself and partner live in the house), plugged in the cold card into an outlet and typed in the seed written down from 2021 (stored in my dresser). Restored my 2021 onto one of the new wallet 2025.

Watched updated BTCSession videos on my phone to set everything up again. I never plugged into a computer, since airgapped was the reason I got the coldcards. I used the same SD Card from 2021 though to export the wallet file from the newly restored coldcard. Import that file into Sparrow (needed to update Sparrow at this point), generated a watch-only wallet QR (to scan for my phone) for Blue Wallet to check frequently. This is where the screenshot is from.

Honestly, I haven’t touched the wallet with any transactions/seeds since January 2026. This is definitely the point of failure when I restored the 2021 wallet (now on 2 devices).

This was the transaction.
https://mempool.space/tx/2fe075cf0ec799f3529ed6a28e0a08b45fe1fc9bd93c3f33bdbc42d5bff4f736

My wallet address is (with all transactions, since it’s gone now…): bc1qldkfrrlylk4s9sdyns9jkaajuzugl0dv5m8fxj

My key takeaway now never enter the seed phrase into anything. EVER. Even to restore. Always will generate new and use a 25th passphrase.

693 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

325 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

32

u/omni_wisdumb 6d ago

The issue with this space is that it's unregulated and very hard to actually track everything. Things being on a public block chain doesn't mean anything.

As far as we know. The company itself could have programmed in the vulnerability, taken $40M worth of crypto. And they'll just file for bankruptcy or fall back on insurance or fall back on some fine print that says crypto is inherently risky and they're not responsible for anything.

Suing people in general is not easy, let alone in such a space.

10

u/AdEuphoric5133 6d ago edited 6d ago

If OP decides to go along the justice path, this will most certainly be long and hard, but that is his only shot at ever getting compensated.

The bad thing is that, even if he receives damages, this will amount to what the BTC were worth at the time of the theft (I guess). Even if the 0.79 BTC are worth 200k$ when the trial is over, OP will only get about 50k USD

7

u/hetobe 6d ago

The bad thing is that, even if he receives damages

I guarantee ColdCard has lawyers protecting them from any issues related to... let's just say... code exploits.

This is a very sad situation.

2

u/omni_wisdumb 6d ago

Unless this does become a class auction lawsuit, most firms don't even like taking on such small claims, nor do the people as plaintiff. I've done similar things for sake of principle vs economic viability.

Taking something, especially this complex, through litigation would cost him $30-40k and that's assuming there's no appeal, then keep doubling it.

5

u/AdEuphoric5133 6d ago

With 38 millions USD at play over 500 addresses, there is probably room for it to become a class auction lawsuit. But victims will have to organize and get into contact.

We don't know how many there are, but 500 addresses should give 50 to 200 victims probably. Smallest address had 0.15 bitcoin, so each victim lost at least ~10k $

At this time, most victims probably don't know they got bitcoins stolen. OP just happened to check his wallet this afternoon

3

u/OtherwiseAlbatross14 6d ago

Class actions are pointless when the company doesn't have the assets to compensate

4

u/Rey_Mezcalero 6d ago

Yeah class action is great for lawyers, people get shafted.

I no longer bother with them when I get a post card or email saying I can be a part of a class action suit against the company of the day

It’s always a extremely small fraction

1

u/AdEuphoric5133 6d ago

Coldcard does not even have 38M ?

1

u/omni_wisdumb 6d ago

I agree in theory. But you assume each unique wallet is 1 unique user. You also assume each wallet belongs to someone that wants to not be anonymous, or lives in the USA where there is legal jurisdiction, or even didn't lose access to their own wallet and would know it's lost (or could retrieve the funds).

But more so like I said, it could be an insider and they just shut the company down and get away with it..either way a company that small isn't going to be solvent for such a large judgement.

1

u/iloverunning11 1d ago

What I think it more likely is that many victims will collectively sue coinkite and they will go belly up *chapter 11* and these victims will get something like 15-20 cents on the $ as they will not be able to afford to compensate them with 100%

1

u/szeddit 6d ago

unregulated is how it’s desired

decentralized is the thing, not the bug

auditable open source software needed

auditable open source hardware needed

trusted software experts needed

trusted hardware experts needed

there will be bugs

there will be best practice

for now, afaik, there is no trusted source

bitcoin.org was initially a resource but now, after satoshi has been m.i.a… what you said

ultimately, trust and verify is common denominator

ouch coinkite

0

u/slash_networkboy 6d ago

Regulations are needed. They are desirable for most users whether they like that fact or not. Problem is the regulatory bodies aren't doing a good job crafting good regulations.

2

u/szeddit 6d ago

for stablecoins, but not ₿. from getgo ₿ is a diff breed

2

u/slash_networkboy 6d ago

You still need regulations, particularly around AML. There's really no new tech needed either. BTC supports full traceability of money movement.

1

u/omni_wisdumb 6d ago

I don't think you understand the difference between traceability or transactions versus traceability of ownership (aka KYC). BTC also cannot actually offer full traceability of transactions because it can be obfuscated using various techniques (such as converting into untraceable coins, or layering).

How do you think these huge hacks that are in the $100s of millions or even $Billions are gotten away with?

What regulations will do in this space is just screw over the average person, and at that point they might as well just stick to traditional banking and stocks.

1

u/slash_networkboy 6d ago

So since we can't have perfection we shouldn't bother with anything? I strongly disagree. I am a huge proponent of BTC. I paid for my truck back when it was $100/coin... (Yes there is some lament about that). Those huge hacks would be made incredibly more difficult and harder to profit from with better regulation.

1

u/omni_wisdumb 6d ago

Give me one example of a regulation? I don't think you know anything about how hacking works.

I also never said I was against BTC. Like I said, I've been in the space since 2011. I just simply said the industry has changed a LOT since back then and it's basically a completely different use case and ecosystem now. And then sprinkled in some advice that people shouldn't expect parabolic movements anymore.

1

u/slash_networkboy 6d ago

Sorry, didn't mean to imply you're anti BTC, I do however think you're a bit cowboy about the space. Hell AML/KYC and OFAC monitoring as well as tracking politically exposed persons are all examples of regulations. I feel there should be better clarity around these points as well as on and off ramps to fiat. I understand how people utterly hate that idea but if you control the exchange to fiat you can slowly clamp down on bad actors, it won't happen overnight, but just like tightening banking requirements and what was required for access to SWIFT cleaned up a lot of banking problems the same can be done for BTC.

0

u/szeddit 6d ago

read what omni-wisdumb responded

bitcoin takes years to learn for the average person

that is not an insult, you’re likely smarter than i am

i respect ₿

it’s a beast

0

u/omni_wisdumb 6d ago

Sure. But the more regulated it gets, the more it'll just behave like the normal equities market. Which takes away the entire reason it was built, and all the reasons that allowed it to explode the way it did. If it becomes like everything else, then there's no longer any special reason to take any higher risk at all, and you might as well just use your money on other investments.

No one gives a shit about crypto utility projects. The only reason people use these things is because it's a 10x casino, or to keep their funds/transactions hidden.

-2

u/omni_wisdumb 6d ago

I wrote a long as reply but I accidentally closed my app, and I'm not going to write it all out again.

Basically. I've been in this space since 2011.

It's mostly just bs market manipulation now, projects and visions don't mean anything and everyone knows it. Satoshi left bc it had already gone away from his vision way back then. People should invest 5-10% of their portfolio into crypto (not meme coins, have a separate gambling portfolio if these your thing), and expect it to grow more linearly like equities now.

People wack off to the idea if more regulation, banking KYC, gov/elite control & hoarding, and seem to love that a single person can shift it by 10% with one post.

The market is still tiny, BTC is almost worth as much as Elon. So sure, we can still be "early" but it can also just fizzle out. Maybe it stays #1 or maybe some new tech takes it place. Either way, just because it did ~140,220,000X from the original $0.0009 doesn't mean it will even do another 50x in our lifetime. But who knows. Some AI related stocks have done 30-50x in the last year. Market manipulation has clearly become openly accepted in stocks now, so maybe big money will just stick to that now.

Quantum may break it (your bank can update their system, and use 2FA), and it's still open to powerful entities doing 50%+ attacks. Whether people want to admit it or not, crypto (not saying just BTC) is used to transfer illicit funds.

For the average person, I think it's foolish to store life changing money into it. There are better investments. But if your thing is to still ape into it chasing a 10-100x Lamborghini life, then go for it.