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When Self-Custody Is Put on Trial
Could Bitcoin’s latest security failures help powerful institutions bring the boat back for those who arrived late?
Bitcoin has never promised latecomers a polite second chance.
There will never be more than 21 million bitcoin. A meaningful share of that supply is already held by individuals, companies, and governments that understood the asset before most of the world took it seriously. No central bank can print another ten million coins. No board of directors can authorize a stock split. No government can dilute early owners to rescue institutions that arrived late.
That fixed supply is Bitcoin’s profound monetary promise. It is also a serious problem for large pools of capital that failed to acquire enough bitcoin when the price was far lower.
This is why the recent COLDCARD wallet security failure must be examined beyond the defective code and the bitcoin already stolen. The immediate duties are clear: protect affected users, migrate vulnerable funds, identify the attackers, and determine exactly how the failure survived for so long.
But there is a larger question:
Could the political, regulatory, and financial consequences of this failure become more valuable to powerful…
