Why we stopped recommending Coldcard
On 21 August 2026 we removed Coldcard from every place on this site that recommended a hardware wallet, and made a seed rolled with dice the default instead of a seed generated by the device. Coldcard is still in the hardware wallet comparison, with a warning, and the instructions for people who already own one are still here; we no longer suggest buying one.
What happened?
Between 30 July and 4 August 2026, attackers drained about 1,816 BTC from more than 5,200 addresses whose seeds had been generated on Coldcards. A firmware build error present since March 2021 had made the devices generate seeds from a predictable software generator instead of their hardware random number generator. The incident page has the timeline, the cause, and what to do if a Coldcard made your seed; this note covers only what the incident changed here.
What did we change?
| Before 21 August 2026 | After |
|---|---|
| Coldcard was the security pick on the comparison and in the setup chooser | Listed with a warning, in no recommendation slot |
| A seed generated by the device was the default; dice were an extra for the careful | Dice first; the device's random number generator is the fallback |
| "Air-gapped" and "open source" read as guarantees | Both carry their limits: the drained devices were air-gapped, and the bug sat in public code for five years |
| The comparison listed the 2024 lineup | Redone for the August 2026 lineup, with three new criteria: dice entropy, whether the entropy can be verified, and how the vendor handled a crisis |
Sixteen other pages that pointed at Coldcard or the old lineup were updated the same day, and each now links to the incident page rather than retelling it.
Why stop recommending it, rather than wait for the fix?
Every hardware wallet maker ships bugs, and Coinkite shipped fixed firmware the day after the first theft. The decision rests on two other facts. The flaw silently produced weak seeds for five years in a device whose reputation rested on security, and a developer had warned Coinkite about that code in May 2025 and been dismissed. Recommending a device is a claim that its maker can be trusted with the one step nobody else can check, seed generation, and as of October 2026 we cannot make that claim for Coldcard.
What does it mean for you?
The change that matters most is the second row of the table. A seed made from dice you rolled yourself does not depend on any manufacturer's random number generator, which is why Coldcard seeds made with the dice option were not affected. The dice seed guide shows how to make one, and the comparison shows which devices let you add your own dice rolls.