Latest on the Coldcard Hack — and Two Conversations You Need to Hear This Week

Since Rob Hamilton came on the show to walk through the Coldcard seed-generation flaw, something remarkable has happened — the community didn’t just clean up, it went on offense.

A volunteer group calling itself the Bitcoin Red Team (organized by Calle, with Rob among those running it) spent the past week pointing frontier AI models at the open-source software this ecosystem quietly depends on. In a 27.5-hour sprint on August 4th and 5th, sixteen people spread across the world filed 4,962 findings across 390 projects: 85 critical and 635 high severity, funded by roughly $40,000 from OpenSats. Maintainers have confirmed most of the critical reports.

None of this touches Bitcoin’s protocol. It’s the surrounding layer — wallets, apps, the plumbing everyone uses — much of it built by volunteers who have never had a professional security review and could never afford one.

The Coldcard bug sat in plain sight for five years before anyone found it. It took a small team about a day to surface hundreds of comparable problems elsewhere. The cost of looking has collapsed, for defenders AND attackers. That’s the world we’re in now, and I’m grateful there are people in this community who aren’t waiting for someone else to act.

I will keep covering this as it develops. In the meantime, two episodes worth your time on a completely different subject, both recorded before the Coldcard news.

Parker Lewis is the author of Gradually, Then Suddenly and the founder of Zaprite, a payments company making Bitcoin usable in everyday commerce. He’s been one of Bitcoin’s most thoughtful voices for years, and he came on the show ready to defend a position that some in the industry disagree with.

Parker’s core argument is that Bitcoin is money — full stop. Not just a store of value that needs fiat instruments layered on top of it to become useful, but money in the truest sense of the word. His logic is that you can only store value in something other people will eventually accept in exchange, which means store of value and medium of exchange aren’t opposites. They’re the same thing.

Parker explained why he's been outspoken about Bitcoin treasury companies. His concern isn't with any specific company — it's with how some of these products are being marketed to everyday investors. In his view, when Bitcoin gets packaged into yield-bearing instruments and pitched as a safer or more accessible way to get exposure, it risks distorting what Bitcoin actually is: money that anyone can hold directly, without a middleman. He worries that first-time investors will end up buying complex financial products they don't fully understand, when the simpler path — just buying and holding Bitcoin — was there all along. It's a principled position, and even if you don't agree with all of it, his framing is worth hearing out.

He also pushed back against recent comments that Bitcoin is too volatile for 99% of people. In his view, volatility isn’t a flaw — it’s the natural result of mass adoption happening in real time. Every new wave of people discovering Bitcoin has to price it for the first time, and Bitcoin’s fixed supply can’t respond to that demand the way traditional markets can. That’s what creates the volatility, and it’s exactly what creates the opportunity for people who understand Bitcoin early.

One of my favorite parts of the conversation was Parker’s “ribeye index.” Since 2020, he’s been photographing the price of ribeye steaks at his local grocery store. It was $19.99 then. It’s $37.99 today. That’s roughly 12 to 13% annualized inflation — a lot more than official CPI captures — and it’s exactly the kind of everyday, real-world price erosion that Bitcoin was built to solve.

Whether you agree with Parker or not on every point, the clarity of his thinking is worth the watch.

Coin Stories is powered by our Title Sponsor Ledn

Ledn is the global leader in Bitcoin-backed loans, issuing over $11 billion in loans since 2018, and was the first to offer proof of reserves. With Ledn, you get custody loans, no credit checks, no monthly payments, and more.

Visit LEDN.io/natalie to learn more.

Dylan LeClair is the head of Bitcoin strategy at Metaplanet — Japan’s largest publicly traded Bitcoin treasury company. Metaplanet holds $2.8 billion in Bitcoin on its balance sheet, and Dylan has been through enough cycles to bring a calm, data-driven perspective to a market that hasn’t felt calm in a while.

Dylan told me the sentiment right now is the most hysterical he’s ever seen in Bitcoin — worse than 2022, when Bitcoin was $16,000 and FTX had just collapsed. The difference this time, he said, is that in 2022 the energy in the room was still electric. Now it’s quiet. Exhausted. Sellers are tapped out.

But Dylan isn’t worried. He’s seen this movie before.

His framework is simple: Bitcoin is a 50% volatility asset. Companies leveraged to Bitcoin are going to be volatile too. That’s just math. The real question is whether Bitcoin is right over a five to ten year horizon — and Dylan is fully convicted that it is.

He also gave one of the clearest explanations I’ve heard of what’s actually been happening in the preferred equity market — the mechanics of why some of these Bitcoin-linked instruments got squeezed, why older convertible bonds sitting above them have been creating pressure, and why the path to stability runs through those older debt structures getting resolved. If you’ve been trying to make sense of the headlines around digital credit instruments over the last few months, this is the explainer you’ve been looking for.

What I found most interesting was what Dylan is building at Metaplanet beyond just holding Bitcoin. In Japan, corporate bond markets pay almost nothing and preferred equity barely exists as an asset class. Through their recent acquisition of Metaplanet Securities, Metaplanet now holds a Type One securities license and is positioning itself as a platform for other Japanese companies to issue Bitcoin-backed instruments. There is roughly $7 trillion in cash sitting idle in Japan earning close to nothing. Dylan believes some of that is about to move.

He ended with a market call: he thinks the bottom is in. The sentiment, the exhaustion, the fact that no one wants to buy — those are the conditions that have historically preceded Bitcoin’s next leg higher.

“There’s no sellers left,” he said. “And then one day it goes up 26% and there’s no news.”

I’ve seen that movie too.

Signed copies of Bitcoin Is For Everyone

Quick reminder — signed copies of my book, Bitcoin Is For Everyone, are now available at shop.talkingbitcoin.com, powered by Speed Wallet.

You can pay with Bitcoin or Lightning, which felt like the right way to launch this. Supply is limited.

Up-to-Date Each Week With The News Block

And if you’re not already subscribed to The News Block — every week we break down the biggest stories in Bitcoin and macro in a way that’s fast, honest, and actually useful. New episodes drop every Monday in your inbox and wherever you listen to podcasts. Subscribe at thenewsblock.substack.com so you never miss a beat.

These are the companies that power Coin Stories — and you’ll see why I use them myself!

Borrow against your Bitcoin without selling it Ledn — Ledn has operated through every market cycle since 2018 and has served clients across more than $11 billion in loan volume. Tether Gold is now live on Ledn, so bitcoin and gold can sit side by side on one platform. Hard assets. Real flexibility. Get 0.25% off your first bitcoin-backed loan→ ledn.io/natalie

Offer subject to terms and eligibility. Digital asset lending involves risk, including loss of collateral.

Bitdeer Technologies Group (NASDAQ: BTDR) — powering AI and Bitcoin mining infrastructure with 3 GW of secured global energy — and owns the entire stack, from equipment manufacturing to data centers to proprietary orchestration software. Learn more at bitdeer.com.

⛏️ Fully-managed Bitcoin mining in the U.S with Abundant Mines — You own the miners. You keep 100% of the Bitcoin. Voted #1 mining company by peers. Get 1 month of free hosting → abundantmines.com/Natalie · Watch my episode with the founders

⚡ Send Bitcoin instantly over Lightning Speed Wallet — Send, receive, or swap stablecoins and digital gold into Bitcoin in one app. Run a business? Speed powers Bitcoin payments for Steak ‘n Shake, and it can do the same for you. Code COINSTORIES10 for 5,000 free sats after your first transaction. → speed.app/natalie

🔐 Self-custody your Bitcoin with Bitkey by Block — Download Bitkey today and use my promo code STORIES to get 10% off the new Bitkey. This episode has been sponsored by Bitkey. Code STORIES for 10% off. → Bitkey.world/STORIES

🧠 Get 1-on-1 help setting up self-custody The Bitcoin Way — Personal guidance to master your own keys and sleep soundly at night. → thebitcoinway.com/natalie

🏛️ Hold Bitcoin in a tax-advantaged retirement account BitcoinIRA — Buy Bitcoin 24/7 inside a Traditional or Roth IRA. → bitcoinira.com/natalie

🌎 Kalshi is the largest prediction market in the world. Use code HODL to win up to $500 when you trade $25 → http://kalshi.com/r/HODL

Efani — The most secure mobile service in America. Protects against SIM swaps. Trusted by CEOs and VIPs. → efani.com/natalie

CrowdHealth — One of the best decisions I made for both my heath and my bank account was joining CrowdHealth years ago. I never spend more than $200 on health coverage through my CrowdHealth plan and all my health events have been crowd-funded. Get started with a discounted plan at my link. → joincrowdhealth.com/natalie

Thanks for subscribing, and if this newsletter resonated, forward it to one person who needs to read it.

— Natalie

Disclaimer: This newsletter is for informational and entertainment purposes only and should not be considered financial, investment, tax, or legal advice. I am not a financial advisor. Always do your own research before making any investment decisions and consult a qualified professional for advice specific to your situation. Bitcoin, digital assets, and equities carry significant risk, including the potential loss of principal. Companies, products, and features mentioned in this newsletter may change without notice — including their offerings, availability, terms, financial condition, or regulatory status — and information shared here may become outdated, inaccurate, or incomplete over time. Guests share their own opinions, which do not necessarily reflect mine. Some links in this newsletter are affiliate or sponsor links, meaning I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you.