The post title is a quote of mine from an earlier post. With what been happening in the crypto-verse lately, “happy to have escaped alive”, has taken on a whole new meaning.
Crypto Alchemy - turning that dust into gold
Q day and beyond
It is bad enough having to consider that one day Bitcoin would need to change into a different form of Bitcoin. With all the different scenarios that could play out, disruption is high on the list.
Now we have been warned it may only be months away before some AI agent could steal our Bitcoins.
Bitcoin “Bunker Mode” or “FUD Burger”
Then if that wasn’t bad enough, turns out our trusted Ledger Nano could steal our Bitcoin and the altcoins. That was one thing I wasn’t expecting. Not that we ever bought from a “trusted” reseller, who would trust some one selling a Ledger on Amazon or Ebay. That would be asking for trouble.
Ledger confirms unauthorized hardware implant, says losses may exceed $86M
An authorized Ledger reseller in Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines is at the center of the crypto storm. Cryptobilis was sold in March 2026 to Chinese national Jiaming, based in Heilongjiang.
According to the co-founders Arravind Prabu and Vimalatheethan they were required to sign a Non Disclosure Agreement (NDA), to keep the ownership transition quiet till mid October.
CZ Questions CryptoBilis Ownership Deal After Former Founders Cite NDA
A lot can happen in 7 months. Like adding an extra board as well as an antenna, LTE module and eSIM.
Who Is Planting Backdoors in Ledger Crypto Wallets?
Thanks to security researcher Joe Grand and Mark Karpelès publishing their independent findings online, the news of the implants spread quickly in the crypto community. This may have forced the crypto thieves to act quickly and steal as much crypto as possible from wallets already compromised.
The crypto thieves could have been waiting until they had compromised more wallets with large balances before pulling off a widespread heist of funds.
As the story unfolds it looks like
- Ledger Supply Chain Attack not confined to Asia
- Ledger was notified as far back as December 2025 of device tampering
- the implants were up to revision three
- the implants were a production run not a one off or hobbyist build
NOTE: Mark Karpelès is the “notorious” former CEO of the bitcoin exchange Mt Gox, who was charged with fraud following its collapse. On October 8, the day before the crypto heists went public, Mark started posting messages on twitter about the implants he found. This is when news of the implants began to spread. The next day, news of the crypto heists emerged.
DISCLAIMER: I promise no AI was harmed in the researching, editing and publishing of this (as much as I might have wanted to). But lots of CO2 was produced, doing my bit to make planet earth green.
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