Bitcoin ETFs notch strongest week since April after Coldcard hack

Bitcoin ETFs had their strongest week for inflows since April, pulling in approximately $1 billion and ranking as the third-best weekly performance since the market was disrupted by the “Silent IPO” in October, according to Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas.

Data tracked by Farside Investors shows that investors poured about $865 million into US-listed spot Bitcoin funds this week amid growing attention around the Coldcard hack, which has exposed a long-running weakness in the hardware wallet’s seed-generation process.

BlackRock’s flagship IBIT led the group with around $693.5 million in net inflows during the stretch, followed by Fidelity’s FBTC at $116.5 million.

The flaw enables attackers to identify and target wallets created from vulnerable seeds without gaining physical access to the devices themselves.

Multiple waves of theft have so far been estimated at up to 1,816 BTC, with the highest estimate worth around $116 million. By Aug. 5, TRM’s tracking had identified more than 5,200 affected addresses, although the number of compromised wallets and total losses remain subject to change.

The incident has renewed the debate over the relative risks of self-custody versus professional custody through spot Bitcoin ETFs, and the run of consecutive inflows into Bitcoin ETFs has fueled speculation that the hack may have shifted some investors toward professionally managed custody.

However, analysts have cautioned that there is not enough evidence linking the security incident directly to the buying.

Not all spot Bitcoin ETFs benefited from this week’s positive performance. Invesco and VanEck posted combined net outflows of approximately $66 million, while Franklin Templeton and WisdomTree ETFs ended the week with zero flows.