Ledger

Ledger is a hardware wallet maker headquartered at 106 rue du Temple in Paris and operated by Ledger SAS. It was launched in 2014 by eight founders with backgrounds in embedded security and cryptocurrency, according to its own history page, which does not list their names. The company says it employs more than 600 people across offices in Paris, Vierzon, Grenoble, Montpellier, London, Geneva, Zurich, Singapore and Portland, and that it has raised $463 million since 2014.

Its products fall into two groups. The first is the hardware: devices Ledger now markets as signers, because their job is to sign transactions with keys that never leave the chip. The second is software, chiefly the Ledger Wallet app (renamed from Ledger Live), plus paid services such as Ledger Recover. On its homepage the company claims more than 8 million signers sold and availability in more than 700 retail stores. Those are company figures without an audit behind them.

Ledger is privately held. In January 2026 The Block, citing the Financial Times, reported that it was weighing a New York listing at a valuation above $4 billion, and in March 2026 it hired Circle's former CFO Ian Taylor and opened a New York office. No listing documents had been published as of October 2026. The Block identifies Pascal Gauthier as chief executive.

A Ledger device generates your private keys on a secure element, a tamper-resistant chip of the kind used in bank cards and passports, and signs transactions there. Your computer or phone only sees the signed result. When you set the device up it shows a 24-word recovery phrase, which is the master backup: anyone who has those words can rebuild the wallet on any compatible device, and Ledger cannot restore it if they are lost.

The device runs Ledger OS (also called BOLOS) and small per-blockchain apps that you install from Ledger Wallet. Ledger Wallet, available for Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS and Android, shows balances and builds transactions; the device displays what you are about to approve and asks for a physical confirmation. Ledger says the app covers more than 15,000 coins and tokens across more than 100 blockchains, and that it can connect directly to decentralized apps without a browser extension.

The current range, from Ledger's comparison page:

Ledger also takes reservations for the Ledger Atom, a phone-like signer with built-in 5G that runs everyday apps on a screen controlled by Ledger OS. The reserve price is $849 with a refundable $100 deposit, and Ledger says shipping is expected in the second quarter of 2027, calling that an estimate rather than a commitment. Device prices for the rest of the range vary by region and are listed on the official shop.

Partly. Ledger says the Ledger Wallet app is open source under the MIT licence, and that the Wallet API, its SDK, the embedded blockchain apps and parts of its operating system can be reviewed. What it does not publish is the low-level code that talks to the secure element. Ledger states that its agreement with the chip maker, STMicroelectronics, legally prevents it from exposing that code.

Ledger's case for this trade-off is that a secure element resists physical attacks (side-channel and fault injection) better than a general-purpose chip, and that the price is closed firmware. It points to a genuine check that proves a device is authentic, and to a third-party audit of the operating system before each release. Those are company statements. The practical consequence is that no outside researcher can read the full code path that handles the keys, so the claim that keys never leave the chip rests partly on Ledger's own word and on its auditors. Wallets from Trezor and some other makers take the opposite approach and publish all firmware.

Ledger Recover is an optional subscription that backs up your recovery phrase so you can restore a wallet without the 24 words. It is provided by Coincover. When you enrol, the device encrypts the secret behind your phrase inside the secure element and splits it into three encrypted fragments, held by Coincover, Ledger and EscrowTech; any two can restore the wallet. To recover, you prove your identity with a passport, national ID card or, in the US and Canada, a driver's licence, and confirm a one-time code shown on the device.

Ledger does not list a monthly price on its Recover page; it mentions a one-month free trial and says renewals are charged in euros. Eligibility depends on the country that issued your ID. The service is for individuals only and can be cancelled at any time.

Recover is the clearest public evidence of what Ledger firmware can do. Because the fragments are produced on the device and sent out, signed Ledger firmware is capable of exporting an encrypted form of the wallet secret when the user opts in. Ledger's position is that this only happens with the user's consent and on-device approval. Readers who want a device that cannot do this by design should weigh that point before buying.

The Ledger Wallet app is free and has no subscription. Ledger makes money mainly from device sales, from Recover subscriptions and from services inside the app run by partners.

Buying, selling and swapping in Ledger Wallet go through third-party providers, and each carries a provider fee that varies by provider and payment method; the app compares quotes and shows the rate, network fee and any service fee before you confirm. Ledger's developer documentation describes swap quotes as net of fees, but Ledger does not publish a single fee percentage for swaps or purchases. Ledger says it charges no fee for staking itself, though validators and staking providers take a commission. Network fees go to the blockchain, not to Ledger.

None of the incidents Ledger has disclosed involved keys being pulled out of the secure element. The losses came from around the device instead: its customer database, its software supply chain and, in 2026, its retail distribution.

In July 2020 a researcher reported an exposed e-commerce and marketing database. Ledger's own account says more than 1 million email addresses were taken, and in December 2020 a file with about 272,000 full records, including names, postal addresses and phone numbers, was posted publicly. Customers have faced phishing letters, calls and threats ever since. This is the reason Ledger owners should treat any message that knows their name and address as suspicious.

On 14 December 2023 attackers phished a former employee, published malicious versions of the Ledger Connect Kit library to npm, and used them to show a drainer on websites that relied on it. Ledger says it published a fixed version within 40 minutes of learning of the attack and estimates that active draining lasted under two hours. It did not publish a total loss.

In October 2026 users who bought devices from CryptoBilis, a reseller in Southeast Asia, began reporting drained wallets. Ledger's security team found an implant that reads the recovery words off the screen during setup and sends them out over a mobile connection. In its 15 October statement Ledger said a criminal group had bought genuine devices over many months, modified them and returned them to distribution, and that there was no flaw in its chip, operating system or servers. On-chain researchers estimated losses above $86 million; Ledger said it had not verified those figures. Ledger asked resellers in Southeast Asia and Hong Kong to suspend sales, banned the resale of returned units and told retailers to keep stock off open shelves. MediaMarkt Saturn paused Ledger sales in Europe after a German customer reported a tampered unit, according to The Block. Ledger had not announced compensation as of 29 October 2026.

• Bug bounty: Ledger Donjon runs a programme covering devices, web infrastructure and Ledger Wallet, paid in bitcoin at Ledger's discretion, with no published maximum.
• Insurance: Ledger does not describe any insurance for funds held on its devices.
• Proof of reserves: not applicable; Ledger does not hold customer crypto.

Buy from Ledger's own shop or a reseller Ledger lists as authorized, and treat any device that arrives with a recovery phrase already written down, a scratch card with words on it, or signs of opening as compromised. The 2026 implant attack used genuine devices with clean packaging, so a sealed box is no longer proof on its own. Ledger has said returned units must never be resold, which makes open-box and second-hand Ledger devices a poor choice.

Set-up takes a few steps: install Ledger Wallet from ledger.com or the official app store, connect the device, choose a PIN on the device, write down the 24 words the device shows, confirm them on the device, then run the genuine check in the app. Ledger staff will never ask for the 24 words; no legitimate process needs them typed into a computer or phone. Our guide to setting up a first hardware wallet covers the same steps for other brands.

You can leave Ledger at any time because it never holds your coins. To move funds, send them from Ledger Wallet to an exchange or another wallet address. To switch wallets without moving coins, enter the 24-word phrase into another wallet that supports the same standard (BIP39); most hardware and software wallets do. Doing that on a phone or computer turns the funds into a software wallet, so it is safer to restore onto another hardware device or to send the coins to a fresh wallet instead.

If you subscribe to Ledger Recover and later cancel, Ledger's page says you can cancel at any time; your 24-word phrase continues to work regardless of the subscription.

Ledger support runs through support.ledger.com, linked from the footer of ledger.com, and the company also links a public status page there. Any phone number, Telegram account or form that claims to be Ledger support but is not reached from support.ledger.com should be treated as a scam.

Because of the 2020 leak, impersonation is a constant problem. Fake Ledger emails, letters and calls have asked owners to reset or verify their wallets. Ledger asks people to report phishing sites to [email protected]. The rule that covers all of these is the same: Ledger never needs your recovery phrase.

Key dates from Ledger's own posts and the reports cited above:

• 2014: Ledger launched in Paris.
• July 2020: e-commerce database breach reported; full records dumped in December 2020.
• December 2023: Ledger Connect Kit supply-chain attack.
• January 2026: reports that Ledger is weighing a New York IPO; New York office and new CFO in March 2026.
• October 2026: implant attack on devices resold through CryptoBilis; Ledger Atom announced on 15 October.

For how the Flex compares with other devices, see how it compares with other hardware wallets. Ledger's closest competitor, Trezor, has its own profile.