At least 15 different attackers have exploited the Coldcard vulnerability, according to Galaxy Digital’s head of research, Alex Thorn, citing new victim reports received since the incident.Thorn said Tuesday that the victim reports helped the company label new attackers that would have gone undiscovered, as the nature of the exploit was different from a hack on a centralized exchange. “Due to one single victim’s report of less than 1 BTC stolen, we identified a new attack with 12 BTC siphoned from 126 addresses,” Thorn wrote in a Tuesday X post.The estimated losses from the Coldcard exploit have grown to $100 million across three confirmed attack waves, according to Galaxy Research. The company also identified a suspected fourth wave that could bring total losses to about $130 million in Bitcoin (BTC).The ongoing attack reignited debate about the security of cold storage wallets and whether users are safer by holding their own Bitcoin. $2 worth of AI hardening could have prevented the exploit: Dragonfly partnerRoughly “$2 of AI hardening” could have prevented the Coldcard exploit, wrote Dragonfly managing partner Haseeb Qureshi, citing social media reports that some AI models rediscovered the vulnerability that led to the attack in less than 20 minutes.Qureshi’s remarks came in response to multiple social media users claiming that Claude was able to regenerate the vulnerability in just eight minutes. He argued that these results may have been contaminated by web search and added that open-source AI model GLM 5.2 was able to rediscover the attack in 20 minutes with web access turned off.However, it is unlikely that AI models would have independently discovered this vulnerability before it was made public, crypto analytics platform Tokenomist’s data lead, Tatsapat Saerejittima, told Cointelegraph. He said:“The claim that AI found it in 2 mins came from a pseudonymous Reddit user who scanned the code after the vulnerability had already become public. There was no blind test, no documented methodology, and no assessment of the model’s false-positive rate.” Related: AI has not triggered DeFi ‘hackpocalypse,’ Dragonfly partner saysVulnerability seen in private key setupCrypto research company Castle Labs’ co-founder, Francesco, said that the growing capabilities of AI models are drastically reducing the cost and time it takes to discover new cryptocurrency vulnerabilities, but added that Coldcard’s private key may have played a role in the vulnerability. Coldcard used a “level of private key entropy (40 bits) much lower than the standard adopted by other wallets (a 12-word seed is 128 bits), a result of a firmware bug, making the job easier,” he told Cointelegraph.Francesco, who asked that Cointelegraph not use his last name, said he expects the cost of bug discovery to continue decreasing as AI models gain more capabilities and become more prominent in both cybersecurity and exploits.Magazine: Does Botanix’s failure prove Bitcoiners don’t care about DeFi? 

Bitcoin miners with operations in Texas are not expected to be impacted by a moratorium on approval of data center projects connected to the state’s grid operator ordered by Governor Greg Abbott, Bernstein analysts said Tuesday.Abbott on Monday directed the Public Utility Commission of Texas and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) to audit all data centers seeking to connect to the state’s power grid. The duration of the audit was not specified and comes amid increasing public backlash to the pace of data center build-out across the state, The Texas Tribune reported.Bernstein analysts told clients on Tuesday that as most of the Bitcoin (BTC) miners operating in Texas are under contract for approved electric capacity, those operations are unlikely to be impacted by the moratorium.“However, we believe, this audit throttles speculative data center pipeline and makes genuine sites with development history more valuable,” the research team led by Gautam Chhugani said in its note. “Bitcoin mining sites are favorably placed with the longest gestation, self-funding infra and local community management,” they said.They said that the local operations of Cipher Digital (CIFR), Core Scientific (CORZ) and CleanSpark (CLSK) could be the miners most exposed to future public opposition to data center expansion, particularly during ERCOT’s approval process to convert their pipeline assets into grid-connected power capacity.“We believe with increasing political opposition to new data center projects and fresh capacity being throttled by moratoriums/state directives, the approved MWs become more valuable,” they said, highlighting the Texas mining operations of IREN (IREN), which is fully ERCOT grid approved, as are the operations of Riot Platforms (RIOT).CIFR shares were down more than 7% in Tuesday’s premarket trading, according to Yahoo Finance data. The miner reported second-quarter results earlier Tuesday, posting a loss of $0.65 per diluted share, widening from last year’s loss of $0.12 per diluted share. Related: Bitcoin may find bear market bottom in August: 10x ResearchCointelegraph is committed to independent, transparent journalism. This news article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and aims to provide accurate and timely information. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently.

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