Cold wallet Ledger raises $108M as self-custody wallets gain popularity

Hardware crypto wallet company Ledger announced raising $108 million in its recent funding round, according to TechCrunch.

The company raised a total of €100 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 €356 million in a funding round, which equates to over $385 million with the current exchange rate. Despite the additional €100 in funding, the company’s valuation remained the same at €1.3 billion, which equates to  $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.