When a hardware wallet is initialized, it generates a recovery seed that ultimately controls the assets held by the wallet. That seed key is kept in “cold storage” on a device that is never connected to the internet.

That means, at least theoretically, that it should be off limits to attackers.

On Thursday (July 30), however, nearly $89 million disappeared from thousands of addresses associated with Bitcoin’s most security-conscious asset holders. These crypto investors did what they were told to do to keep their assets safe. They moved their assets off exchanges. They bought specialized…