Trader Loses $6.6 Million in Bitcoin After Buying New Ledger Wallet

A crypto trader lost 80 Bitcoin (BTC), worth about $6.6 million, in a single transfer on Friday. The coins had sat for 10 days on a new Ledger hardware wallet, a device sold to keep crypto safe offline.

Blockchain tracker Lookonchain says he bought the device from CryptoBilis. Hours after the theft, Ledger told that Southeast Asian reseller to halt sales while it investigates lost funds.

How 80 Bitcoin Left a 10-Day-Old Ledger Wallet

Lookonchain said the trader bought the coins about four months ago at roughly $65,000 each. That came to around $5.2 million.

Public Bitcoin records on mempool show all 80 BTC reached his wallet on September 29. They left in one transfer at 05:54 UTC on October 9.

With Bitcoin price trading above $83,000, Lookonchain put his paper profit at $1.38 million before the coins disappeared.

The same block of transactions carried at least six other large transfers into addresses that blockchain analysts link to the drain.

How Big the Ledger Drain Is, and What Ledger Has Said

Ledger has paused the reseller’s sales and told recent buyers not to set up their devices. It has not said whether any devices were tampered with.

Estimates of the total keep rising. Blockchain analytics firm Arkham put losses above $80 million and said the cause is unconfirmed.

MistTrack, the tracking service of security firm SlowMist, offered a higher figure, possibly reaching $90 million. MistTrack also said Tether, which issues the USDT dollar-pegged stablecoin, froze USDT at addresses linked to the theft.

Tether can block its tokens from moving.

Hardware wallet makers have faced repeated scares this year. In August, a Coldcard firmware bug let thieves drain about $70 million in Bitcoin. Ledger said it will share updates as its investigation progresses.

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