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More than $200 million in crypto was stolen in recent months from tampered Ledger devices and from Coldcards whose seeds were not truly random, according to a Cointelegraph magazine piece published Oct. 21, 2026. The article, written by Christina Comben and edited by Andrew Fenton, argues that holders who bought from official sources and stored seed phrases correctly still lost funds, and it sets out five storage routes that do not depend on a hardware wallet.
Key facts
- Cointelegraph reports over $200 million in crypto stolen in recent months from tampered Ledgers and Coldcards with non-random seeds.
- Physical attacks are rising: the piece cites a $5 wrench attack in France every 2.5 days this year.
- Ophelia Snyder, co-founder of 21Shares, told the publication that exchange-traded products suit “most people most of the time” for tax, estate planning and security reasons.
- PlanB, creator of the stock-to-flow model, moved his BTC into ETFs in 2025 and said after the incidents he had “Zero regrets of my ETF decision. Peace of mind.”
- Casa chief executive Nick Neuman told CoinPulseHQ earlier this month that even multisig users should spread risk across multiple providers.
The five options and their trade-offs
The first alternative is not custody at all. A crypto ETF swaps Bitcoin for shares in a product held through a custodian, leaving the investor with a claim on net asset value in dollars. That removes seed-phrase and backup chores but introduces provider trust, third-party custody, fees and possible gaps between share price and the underlying asset price. Snyder said choosing a provider’s wallet infrastructure should be a major factor.
Also read: Ledger Probes $86M Theft as CZ Flags Supply Chain Attack
Passkeys, the second route, store a cryptographic credential on a device, typically a phone, often unlocked by fingerprint, face scan or PIN. Examples cited include Coinbase Wallet’s Smart Wallet, Clave and Infinex. The article warns that losing a device or passkey still causes problems, and recalls Adam Back of Blockstream questioning Coinbase’s Smart Wallet in June 2024, saying it sounded like a hosted wallet with a better sales pitch.
Multisig wallets require several keys to approve a transfer, commonly two of three. Casa offers such custody for individuals and families, combining a hardware wallet, a phone and a Casa-held key. Safe, formerly Gnosis Safe, underpins many large Ethereum treasuries. Drawbacks include signer availability, smart-contract bugs and the slower pace of coordinated approvals.
Also read: MediaMarktSaturn Pulls Ledger Devices After Tampering Reports
Centralized exchanges, the fourth option, shift key management to a company and are convenient for active traders. The article notes that exchange operational security has improved, with proof-of-reserves reports and emergency funds, but that such reports do not establish full financial health, and identity and tax reporting duties under the OECD’s Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework can lead to account restrictions.
Paper wallets, the fifth, keep keys offline without a dedicated device, but safe generation is hard. A compromised computer, a malicious generator or weak randomness can expose the key before printing, and paper is easily lost, damaged or compromised when the key is imported into an online wallet.
Why it matters
The article’s central point is that no single method removes risk, and that holders who treat one device or one provider as sufficient can lose everything to a single failure. Spreading a stack across addresses and methods limits the damage if one route is compromised. For long-term holders shaken by the hardware wallet incidents, the practical choice is less about finding a perfect vault than about matching custody to personal circumstances.
What to watch
The piece closes on Snyder’s remark that self-custody users split into crypto natives with firm personal security practices and everyone else, suggesting some holders may add exchange and ETF exposure to a portfolio. Further detail on the Coldcard seed investigation and the fraud cases behind the reported losses would sharpen the picture.
This article reports on custody methods and does not constitute financial advice. Crypto markets are volatile and uncertain, and readers should make their own enquiries.
Reported by cointelegraph.com.
Source: Cointelegraph