Redditor’s hacked Bitcoin is a lesson on the hidden dangers of paper wallets

"My Bitcoin was taken. How?" A Reddit user thought they were following best practices until two days ago when their Bitcoin wallet was completely cleaned out.

A Reddit user has become the latest example of why crypto users should be more careful when using wallet generators — after the user lost a few thousand dollars worth of Bitcoin (BTC) from their “secure” paper wallet.

On July 24, a Redditor by the name /jdmcnair posted on the r/Bitcoin subreddit, asking for an explanation on how a hacker could have been able to steal over $3,000 worth of Bitcoin from their supposedly secure paper wallet — which was even generated on an offline computer.

“I was doing self-custody, generated my key and printed it on paper on an offline computer, transferred my BTC to this offline wallet, and kept it stored in a safe that only I have the key for,” the user wrote.

Hackers managed to snatch over $300 million in Q2 2023, according to CertiK, a 58% decline from the same period last year.