Security failures in self-custody and seismic policy moves overseas dominated the day in crypto: a prolonged Coldcard firmware exploit has drained over a thousand bitcoins, Ripple’s XRP Ledger is preparing a multi-part upgrade, and currency-market interventions plus new tax rules in South Korea are affecting trading sentiment.
Coldcard exploit continues to drain wallets
Galaxy Research reported that a vulnerability in Coldcard hardware wallets has now been exploited in three waves, draining a total of 1,367 BTC from 4,585 addresses. The firm said the first wave, on July 30, emptied 1,082.65 BTC from 1,196 addresses in just 41 minutes. A third wave detected early Sunday removed about 208 BTC from 1,912 addresses; Galaxy Research noted the attacker targeted smaller balances in this round using more complex, harder-to-detect transaction patterns. The underlying bug is traced to a March 2021 firmware update that caused devices to bypass the hardware randomness generator and produce predictable seeds, enabling remote reconstruction of private keys without physical access to the devices. Binance founder Changpeng Zhao commented on August 1 that “nothing is 100%” and urged holders to spread funds across multiple wallets.
XRP Ledger readies xrpld 3.3.0 with privacy and fee changes
RippleX Chief Product Officer Jazzi Cooper said xrpld 3.3.0 is expected the week following July 31, 2026, and that five proposed changes will require approval by 80% of validators over a two-week window. The release revisits features previously retired: Batch — removed after a signature validation bug discovered in February by researcher Pranamya Keshkamat and Cantina — and Permission Delegation, which in September 2025 was found vulnerable to fee-related attacks that could let one account empty another’s balance. New additions in the proposal include Confidential MPT, Sponsored Fees and Reserves, and Dynamic MPT. These target private tokenised asset transactions and mechanisms for third parties to fund XRP fees for users. (A brief note: the XRP Ledger is a blockchain focused on payments and tokenisation; validators are the nodes that must agree to protocol changes.)
US buys yen, market ripple effects hit bitcoin
Bitcoin briefly dipped below $63,000 on July 31 after reports that the United States bought Japanese yen for the first time since 1998. The Financial Times reported that the New York Federal Reserve sold euros on behalf of the U.S. Treasury while Japan had intervened first by selling dollars, helping the yen close at 157.40 per dollar — its strongest since early May. A Treasury memo from Secretary Scott Bessent said the U.S. aims to buy $5 billion to $10 billion this year; the last U.S. yen purchase took place on June 17, 1998, when $833 million was spent. Traders and analysts cited the yen’s appreciation as a threat to the carry trade that has financed investments in risk assets, a dynamic that placed downward pressure on Bitcoin even as U.S. stock indexes rose that day.
South Korea confirms 22% crypto tax as volumes fall
On July 29 Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Koo Yun-cheol confirmed a 22% tax on crypto profits to take effect in 2027, with the first tax returns expected in May 2028. The new rule will tax annual profits exceeding 2.5 million won (about $1,740). South Korea has postponed similar measures multiple times since 2022. The policy announcement came alongside a sharp drop in trading volume: the country’s five largest exchanges saw a combined first-half 2026 volume of about $366.58 billion, down 54.6% year-on-year. Market share concentrated further, with Upbit rising to 67.4% from 62.3%. Opposition lawmaker Kim Sang-hoon criticised the tax for not allowing losses to be carried forward.
Security and policy combine to weigh on sentiment
Taken together, the Coldcard exploit, FX intervention and fiscal moves show how technical flaws and macro policy can converge to affect crypto markets and user behaviour. The hardware-wallet compromise has renewed focus on the limits of self-custody, protocol upgrades on the XRP Ledger aim to expand privacy and fee flexibility, and external policy decisions — from central-bank currency moves to taxation — are influencing trading volumes and risk appetite.