Bitcoin’s Most Active Day Since 2024. What Happened On-Chain During the Coldcard Panic

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 highest 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 knowledge reveals. Three on-chain charts reveal what holders truly did throughout a weekend of extreme stress for self-custody.

Nearly 1 Million Addresses Moved, the Most Since December 2024

Glassnode knowledge reveals about 980,000 lively addresses on July 31, up greater than 50% in a single day. The soar got here days after attackers started draining Coldcard {hardware} wallets via a flawed random quantity generator.

Three confirmed assault waves have been linked to 1,367 BTC, value $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. Same metric, reverse emotion.

CryptoQuant Head of Research Julio Moreno famous on X that sending addresses drove practically all of the development. Receiving addresses barely moved in proportion, which suggests consolidation. Thousands of wallets emptied towards a a lot smaller set of locations.

Historically, lively addresses had churned between 550,000 and 750,000 for many of 2026. Therefore, the spike reads as a one-off occasion fairly than a brand new pattern.

Small Holders Moved the Most BTC Since the FTX Collapse

CryptoQuant’s Spent Output Value Bands level to who panicked. Transfers under 1 BTC totaled 39,600 BTC on July 31. The solely 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 person base. One holder misplaced 18.25 BTC, value $1.6 million, in beneath seven minutes. Stories like his pushed 1000’s of customers to behave.

Moreno framed the migration as a wholesome reflex fairly than capitulation.

“The Bitcoin plebs had not transfer[d] this quantity of BTC in a day since the FTX collapse… I prefer to see that individuals appear to be taking motion.”

He shared the statement on X on August 1.

However, the course of journey has reversed since 2022. Back then, customers pulled cash off exchanges and into chilly storage. This time, a chilly storage failure despatched cash the different 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, an area spike however removed from a report. Prior peaks on December 13, 2024, April 19, 2025, and May 9, 2026, all cleared 1 million transfers.

The divergence issues. Active addresses hit a 20-month high whereas switch counts stayed inside their bizarre vary. In different phrases, an unlimited variety of wallets moved, however every made just one or a couple of transactions.

That is the anatomy of a mass emergency sweep, not an exercise increase. In distinction, earlier switch data got here from concentrated, high-frequency churn by far fewer entities.

Galaxy Research head Alex Thorn noticed sweep transactions operating at 13.8 per block, roughly 45 instances the pre-incident baseline. The shock even reached protocol politics, as builders postponed the BIP-110 comfortable fork activation, citing the incident.

The Chain Recorded Fear, Not a Trend

Raw on-chain metrics will look distorted for days. Analysts could choose entity-adjusted knowledge till sweep exercise fades, and lively addresses may normalize simply as sharply as they spiked.

Notably, the value barely reacted. Bitcoin held close to $60,000 via its most lively day in 20 months. That calm suggests the moved cash fled danger fairly than sought exits.

The subsequent sign to observe sits on the alternate books. If migrated cash keep put, the episode stays a safety story. If they begin promoting, the Coldcard panic may but grow to be a market story.

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