- Metaplanet CEO Simon Gerovich sympathized with victims of the Coldcard Bitcoin wallet exploit.
- He ensured that their own BTC reserves are protected under regulated, institutional-grade custodians.
- Gerovich also highlighted that the recent Bitcoin exploits are due to a third-party product, not in the asset or protocol.
Simon Gerovich, CEO of Metaplanet, has shared his take on the ongoing debate surrounding crypto custody. It comes in response to the alarming Coldcard hardware wallet drains plaguing Bitcoin (BTC) over the past few days.
How Metaplanet Safeguards Its Bitcoin Reserves
Gerovich admitted that the Coldcard exploit has significantly contributed to a painful week for the Bitcoin community. He sympathized with victims who initially had a false sense of security in their self-custodied, air-gapped hardware wallets.
Coldcard wallet thefts are still ongoing, and the losses have already surpassed $100 million. Meanwhile, attackers have even reportedly found new ways to exploit its vulnerabilities, thus amplifying the risk for users who have yet to migrate their Bitcoin stash.
The CEO of the leading publicly listed Bitcoin treasury company on the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) highlighted that the event is a reminder that self-custody places a heavy burden on individuals as they bear every operational risk, including hardware defects, loss of keys, inheritance issues, and recovery problems. Additionally, even the most careful ones can be exposed to a flaw they had no way to see.
Gerovich emphasized that the aforementioned factors are reasons why Metaplanet has decided to implement layer upon layer of safeguards for its Bitcoin reserves. He revealed that their BTC is maintained by regulated, institutional-grade custodians across segregated cold storage, multi-party controls, and independent oversight.
Moreover, he stressed that managing a corporate treasury requires a control environment that no single device can provide.
The Problem is Not Bitcoin Itself
Furthermore, Gerovich underscored that the exploit was not within Bitcoin itself or its protocol. The asset is safe, and the root cause of the problem is a vulnerability in a third-party device.
“The lesson is not to doubt the asset,” said Gerovich. “It is to be honest about how demanding it is to secure, and to choose the custody model that fits the responsibility you carry.”
Metaplanet’s Bitcoin Holdings
Metaplanet ranks third among the largest public Bitcoin treasury companies globally. It currently holds 43,000 BTC, trailing closely behind Twenty One Capital’s 43,514 BTC portfolio.
With Bitcoin fluctuating between $62,501.66 and $64,163.36 over the last 24 hours, the value of Metaplanet’s BTC holdings ranged from $2.69 billion to $2.76 billion over the same period.
