Roughly 200,000 BTC have moved from long-term holder wallets over the past week, indicating a possible shift in storage practices rather than a typical wave of selling.

The impact of the Coldcard security breach is now becoming visible through Bitcoin’s on-chain activity.

According to Glassnode data, around 210,000 BTC have left long-term holder (LTH) wallets in the last week, representing the largest decline in this group since December 2024, when Bitcoin was approaching the $100,000 mark.

Glassnode categorizes long-term holders as entities that have held their Bitcoin for at least 155 days. These investors are often considered “smart money” because they generally maintain their positions during short-term market swings and tend to act with a longer-term outlook.

Long-term holder supply has now fallen to approximately 14.7 million BTC, compared with just under 15 million BTC before the Coldcard incident, when holdings were near record highs.

Historically, significant declines in long-term holder supply have often occurred during periods of strong market momentum or near cycle peaks. Similar distribution patterns were seen around Bitcoin’s highs in March 2021, March 2024, and December 2024, when veteran investors sold portions of their holdings into strong market demand.

However, the latest movement is occurring under very different conditions. Bitcoin is currently trading near $64,000, roughly 50% below its October record price.

This time, the activity does not appear to be driven mainly by profit-taking. Instead, it may reflect Bitcoin holders moving their assets into different custody solutions after the Coldcard security issue. Bitcoin also avoided a fresh decline following the breach, suggesting the transfers have not created major selling pressure.

The Coldcard exploit was caused by weak randomness in certain firmware versions, which allowed attackers to potentially reconstruct wallet recovery phrases and access affected funds. Thousands of addresses were impacted, with losses estimated at up to $114 million. Coldcard urged affected users to create new wallets and move their Bitcoin, explaining that simply updating firmware would not protect keys that may already have been exposed.

Some of the decline in long-term holder balances may therefore come from users transferring coins into newly generated wallets with improved security. Other holders may be shifting their Bitcoin to regulated custodians or spot ETFs as they reassess the risks of self-custody.

ETF activity also points to continued demand. U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs attracted around $754 million in inflows over the past week, with BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) receiving the majority of the inflows.

The important takeaway is that Bitcoin moving between addresses does not necessarily mean investors are selling. In this case, the reduction in long-term holder supply may reflect a broader change in custody behavior rather than a loss of confidence among long-term Bitcoin holders.