Cold wallet Ledger raises $108M as self-custody wallets gain popularity Cold wallet Ledger raises $108M as self-custody wallets gain popularity
Hardware wallet ledger raised another $385 million in 2021, and its current valuation sits at $1.41 billion.
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Updated: Mar. 30, 2023 at 9:58 pm UTC
Cover art/illustration via CryptoSlate. Image includes combined content which may include AI-generated content.
Hardware crypto wallet company Ledger announced raising $108 million in its recent funding round, according to TechCrunch.
The company raised a total of โฌ100 million, which equates to $108 million based on the exchange rate at the time of writing, as the TechCrunch article noted.
The funding round
In 2021, Ledger raised another โฌ356 million in a funding round, which equates to over $385 million with the current exchange rate. Despite the additional โฌ100 in funding, the company’s valuation remained the same at โฌ1.3 billion, which equates toย $1.41 billion with the exchange rate at the time of writing.
Companies like True Global Ventures, VaynerFund, and Digital Finance Group were amongst the ones who restrained from the first funding round but participated in the second one. Cathay Innovation, Morgan Creek, 10T, and Korelya Capital were some of the names that made significant contributions to both funding rounds.
Hardware wallets
Ledger is one company that produces USB-like devices that can store crypto assets. These devices are also addressed as cold wallets to indicate that they don’t have an active internet connection. Therefore, these wallets provide an extra layer of protection against hacks that can potentially access and exploit all wallets connected to the internet.
Ledger’s CEO, Pascal Gauthier, shared a note to thank the investors who participated in the funding round, where he highlighted the importance of hardware wallets by stating:
“Within the next five to ten years, my conviction is that the rise of the Internet of Value will reshape how billions of people own and manage their assets, redefining how we interact with the Internet, the role of intermediaries, the global economy, and every industry.
As we enter this new era, the smartphone in your pocket and the laptop on your desk lack fundamental security properties.”
According to Gauthier, the future where devices designed explicitly for owning and trading assets in a decentralized internet are vital is very near.
FTX collapse promotes hardware solutions
Since 2014, Ledger has sold over 6 million hardware wallets. The company’s sales only increased after the bear market and the FTX collapse. Between June 2022 and Feb. 2023, the company sold around 1 million devices.
According to CryptoSlate research from December 2022, over 450,000 Bitcoin (BTC) held on an exchange or a hot wallet before 2022 were moved to a cold storage device throughout the year. At the time of writing, this indicated that less than 12% of the BTC supply was held on wallets connected to exchanges.
Some crypto companies have also noticed hype around cold wallets and rolled their sleeves to answer the community’s demands. In Nov. 2022, crypto exchange Binance entered the field by having its investment arm Binance Labs lead a series A investment round in hardware wallet maker NGRAVE. In Jan. 2023, decentralized crypto exchange 1inch (1INCH) announced it would launch its multi-coin hardware wallet later in the year.
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Posted In: Investments, Wallets
Author 
Zeynep Geylan
Zeynep is an academic who turned to crypto in 2018. Originating in social sciences, she is especially interested in the social impact of blockchain and cryptocurrencies and strongly believes in their transmuting power.
In this article
Bitcoin, a decentralized currency that defies the sway of central banks or administrators, transacts electronically, circumventing intermediaries via a peer-to-peer network.
1inch
$0.43117
1inch is a decentralized exchange (DEX) aggregator that sources liquidity from various exchanges and is capable of splitting a single trade transaction across multiple DEXes.
FTX
FTX is a defunct cryptocurrency exchange, currently in bankruptcy proceedings, that was founded by Sam Bankman-Fried and Zixiao “Gary” Wang in May 2019.
Binance
Binance is a global cryptocurrency exchange that provides a platform for trading more than 100 cryptocurrencies.