The activation of BIP-110, a temporary soft fork meant to limit Bitcoin transaction data, has been called off after a Coldcard wallet exploit left user funds vulnerable and shattered miner consensus. The bug, disclosed by Coinkite on July 30, 2025, caused seed phrases to be generated with only about 72 bits of entropy instead of the intended 128 bits, making them easier to guess. Thieves have already drained wallets tied to the flaw, though the total amount lost hasn't been disclosed.
How the Coldcard bug broke BIP-110's momentum
Wallets running firmware released since March 2021 are most affected. Updating the device doesn't fix already generated seeds — Coinkite advises moving funds to a new wallet. The exploit directly undermined confidence in the security assumptions underpinning BIP-110, which required 55% of blocks in a two-week period to activate. With miners already wary, the bug gave opponents a concrete reason to withhold support.
Miner votes: 30 out of 1,068
BIP-110 needed 1,109 yes votes out of roughly 2,016 blocks in the voting window. So far only 30 blocks (2.63% of 1,068) have voted yes. Even if every remaining block voted yes, the total would reach about 48% — still short of the 55% bar. The second phase of BIP-110, due at block 961,632 (about six days away), would have rejected any block not voting yes. That enforcement is now moot.
Next steps: switching back to normal nodes
Udi Wertheimer announced the delay and urged anyone running BIP-110 software to switch back to a normal Bitcoin node. No new activation date was given. The delay is a request, not a command — no one owns Bitcoin's rules. Whether operators comply will indicate actual support for the proposal.
Saylor and Back weigh in
Michael Saylor warned about Bitcoin neutrality, noting that almost all yes votes come from one mining pool. Adam Back flagged chain split risk, calling the 55% bar too low to be safe. Their warnings, combined with the Coldcard incident, appear to have solidified opposition. For now, BIP-110 is on ice, and the community waits to see if a revised proposal emerges — or if the idea is abandoned entirely.
