A hardware wallet glitch drove a surge in Bitcoin network activity while exchange inflows remained below July levels.
Bitcoin active addresses reached 978,570 on July 31, 1.6 times the monthly average, due to a Coldcard hardware wallet bug. The spike persisted into August, averaging 720,000 daily addresses from August 1–6, up from July’s 610,000.
Exchange inflows averaged $1.55 billion in early August, down from July’s $1.67 billion, signaling wallet migration rather than increased selling pressure. Santiment’s sentiment balance dropped to -540 on August 1, its lowest since February.
The activity surge occurred without a corresponding rise in major exchange deposits, suggesting users moved funds between wallets rather than liquidating holdings.