Coldcard Q: custody score 49%
Coinkite · Bitcoin-only · checked 2026-11-05. 68 of 85 points from sourced facts. User losses in the last 12 months: capped at 49%
Capped at 49%: users lost funds in the last 12 months.
Official store (store.coinkite.com) →
Score, input by input
| Input | What we found | Points | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Supply chain and authenticity | On the device: Shows GENUINE at boot and the bag number to match against your sealed bag. | 10/10 | source |
| Supply chain and authenticity | Sold direct only: No official resellers by design: buy from store.coinkite.com. | 5/5 | source |
| Supply chain and authenticity | Strong: Numbered tamper-evident bag recorded in the secure element. | 5/5 | source |
| Supply chain and authenticity | No incident: Sold direct, no resellers. | 5/5 | — |
| Key protection | Uncertified chip: Two secure elements from different vendors (Microchip ATECC608, Maxim DS28C36B); certification not stated. | 4/6 | source |
| Key protection | Open, reproducible: Published firmware source with a reproducible-build procedure. | 9/9 | source |
| Signing safety | Yes: Shows the destination address on its own screen before signing. | 15/15 | source |
| Customer data exposure (36 months) | None found: No customer-data breach found for the last 36 months. | 15/15 | |
| Incident record (24 months) | User losses: July 30, 2026: seeds made on firmware 4.0.1–4.1.9 had weak randomness; about 1,816 BTC (over $112M) was drained from 5,200+ addresses. Patched in 4.2.0; affected seeds stay weak. | 0/15 | source |
Incidents
- 2026-07-30 Weak-randomness seeds (firmware 4.0.1–4.1.9) brute-forced; ~1,816 BTC drained; fixed in 4.2.0 on July 31. source
Where to buy safely
- Buy from the maker: store.coinkite.com.
- Resellers: No official resellers by design: buy from store.coinkite.com. source
- On arrival: check the packaging, run the genuine-device check, and reject any device that already has a PIN or recovery phrase set.
Keep it away from your bots
A hardware wallet is the vault. Don't connect it to a trading bot, an API key or an agent wallet: give the bot a separate trading float and sweep profits back to the vault's address. How to split vault, float and sweeps. Set up Coldcard Q as cold storage, step by step.
Questions
Is Coldcard Q safe?
Coldcard Q scores 49% on our custody score (68 of 85 points from sourced facts, checked 2026-11-05). It is capped at 49% because users lost funds in the last 12 months. Weakest point: July 30, 2026: seeds made on firmware 4.0.1–4.1.9 had weak randomness; about 1,816 BTC (over $112M) was drained from 5,200+ addresses. Patched in 4.2.0; affected seeds stay weak.
Has Coinkite had a security incident?
July 30, 2026: seeds made on firmware 4.0.1–4.1.9 had weak randomness; about 1,816 BTC (over $112M) was drained from 5,200+ addresses. Patched in 4.2.0; affected seeds stay weak.
Where should I buy Coldcard Q?
From the maker's store (store.coinkite.com). Resellers: No official resellers by design: buy from store.coinkite.com. On arrival, run the genuine-device check and reject any device that already has a PIN or recovery phrase set.
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