Bitcoin Trader Loses 80 BTC After Purchasing New Ledger Device

On Friday, a cryptocurrency trader lost 80 BTC, approximately $6.6 million, in a single transaction. Those coins had been stored for just 10 days on a fresh Ledger hardware wallet — a product marketed for secure offline storage.

According to blockchain tracker Lookonchain, the trader purchased the device from CryptoBilis. Within hours of the theft, Ledger instructed that Southeast Asian reseller to halt sales as it probes the missing funds.

How 80 Bitcoin Exited a 10-Day-Old Ledger Wallet

The trader acquired the bitcoin approximately four months ago, Lookonchain reported, at a price near $65,000 per coin, for a total of about $5.2 million.

Public blockchain data on mempool indicates that the full 80 BTC arrived in his wallet on September 29 and were sent out in a single transaction at 05:54 UTC on October 9.

With bitcoin trading above $83,000, Lookonchain estimated the trader's unrealized profit at $1.38 million prior to the loss.

Poor guy!

4 months ago, he bought 80 $BTC ($5.2M) at a low price of ~$65,000 and was sitting on a $1.38M profit.

But a week ago, he bought a Ledger device from reseller CryptoBillis and deposited all 80 $BTC into it.

Now he's lost everything.https://t.co/b9FeSLqCdy pic.twitter.com/7JYmCkkbq2

— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) October 9, 2026

That transaction block also included at least six other hefty transfers to addresses that blockchain researchers connect to the same drain.

How Much the Ledger Drain Amounts To and What Ledger Has Said

Ledger has suspended the reseller's sales and advised recent purchasers not to set up their devices. The company has not stated whether any devices were compromised.

Loss estimates continue to climb. Blockchain analytics firm Arkham assessed losses at over $80 million, noting that the cause remains unconfirmed.

MistTrack, the tracking arm of security company SlowMist, provided a higher estimate, potentially as much as $90 million. MistTrack also reported that Tether, the issuer of the USDT stablecoin, froze USDT at addresses tied to the incident.

We’re seeing @tether freeze a significant number of $USDT across addresses linked to this incident.

Based on our current tracking, the reported losses are approaching $90 million. Some affected users have contacted us for assistance, and our team is actively following up on… https://t.co/KDffyMx1fv pic.twitter.com/IvOwCu655C

— MistTrack🕵️ (@MistTrack_io) October 9, 2026

Tether has the ability to prevent its tokens from being transferred.

This year has seen several incidents involving hardware wallet manufacturers. In August, a Coldcard firmware flaw allowed thieves to siphon off roughly $70 million in bitcoin. Ledger has stated it will provide updates as its probe advances.