I’m sure you’ve heard the saying,… “One man’s Doom, is another man’s Boom.”
That’s exactly what Pascal Gauthier, CEO of hardware wallet crypto firm Ledger is experiencing in this current crypto bear market (unlike the crypto winter of 2018).
With Coinbase’s declaration of losses exacerbated by large crypto lending firms like the struggling and now defunct Celsius Network, BlockFi, 3AC, Vauld, etc. freezing withdrawals, we are seeing a mass exodus of crypto withdrawals from centralized exchanges.
Hardware wallet manufacturer Ledger announced at NFT.NYC an expansion of security offerings as part of its NFT products and its Ledger Enterprise arm.
In response to growing security issues around cryptocurrency and digital assets, the company developed Ledger Market to be a multi-chain NFT (non-fungible token) distribution platform that prioritizes safe NFT mints, sales and storage.
Launch partners include decentralized finance protocol Babylon, Tag Heuer of LVMH and the DeadFellaz NFT project, among others. Later this summer users may obtain the Ledger Market Pass, a Genesis NFT with access to exclusive collaborations, limited edition hardware and airdrops of art NFTs from Ledger’s artist-in-residence programs.
Also announced in New York was Ledger Enterprise Create, an NFT management platform for brands to scale their Web3 operations. The goal is to provide end-to-end, creation-to-distribution security for fashion and luxury brands, charities and financial institutions. Ther offering will integrate with Ledger Market, as well as secure treasury management and smart contract creation and ownership capabilities.
When asked about the impact of the market downturn on the company, Ian Rogers, Ledger’s chief experience officer, told Blockworks in an email that sales “jumped 4.5x day-over-day on the Celsius news, and continue to be strong to this day.”
“Ledger is [now] doing, quarterly, the entire annual revenue of 2020.”
Rogers added that sales are highly correlated with outflows from exchanges because the more people get educated, the “more they come to value security and self-custody as a result.”
Education is part of Ledger’s mission. As part of a Web3 education initiative, the company also launched Ledger Quest, a learn-to-earn platform with gaming quests and NFT rewards for Web3 entrants. Additionally, the firm has partnered with NFT projects World of Women, Cool Cats and Deadfellaz to expand its materials on the Ledger Academy educational platform.
During the Ledger Op3n conference at NFT.NYC on Wednesday, Ledger’s CEO Pascal Gauthier compared a hardware wallet to a smartphone, calling it a “critical digital device” when it comes to interacting safely with the digital asset ecosystem.
He also revealed on stage that nearly a third of NFT marketplace OpenSea’s trading volume involves a Ledger customer as a buyer, seller or both. And 45% of the top 100 transactions ever on OpenSea involved a Ledger-secured Ethereum wallet.
Additionally, he touted the use of clear-signing for NFTs, as opposed to blind-signing “where you don’t even know where you’re sending your NFTs to.”
Recently, the firm added a crypto wallet extension on Safari in beta called Ledger Connect. Users can link their Nano X to confirm transactions, and Connect will warn users of bad actors or flagged scams, as well as reveal a user’s resulting balance prior to validation.
To put this in perspective, Gauthier shared that the company shipped the most units of Ledger hardware wallets to date following Coinbase’s declaration of losses, which further suggested that users are not protected in the case of bankruptcy. “We did $2 million a day in revenue following the release of this report, but it was just a peak because nothing bad actually happened to Coinbase. People just realized that their crypto wasn’t safe,” he said.
Gauthier elaborated that once Celsius froze users’ funds and rumors began circulating that BlockFi may do the same, Ledger, yet again, saw a major boost in business. “People were rushing to our products to move funds to somewhere secure. We have now been seeing about six-times an increase in revenue week-on-week,” said Gauthier. Ariel Wengroff, head of global communications and marketing at Ledger, further told Cointelegraph that the company recently formed a partnership with Best Buy, allowing consumers to buy Ledger products directly in-store, which has also increased sales. “We are launching in 256 more stores this July,” she said.
So what’s the LESSON here, folks? 🤔
That’s right. *Minimize your risks of becoming the next unprepared victim of scams, hacks, crypto firm bankruptcies, unscrupulous centralized exchanges, and overall crypto loss heartache.
Prioritize the Security, Self-Custody, and Control over your coveted crypto assets!
*Get yourself a Ledger Hardware Wallet ASAP (or any other trusted, vetted hardware wallet), if you haven’t already.
–Via: Celsius’ Woes Spark Boom in Ledger Sales
–Via: Hardware crypto wallet sales increases as centralized exchanges scramble
*Relevant Reddit Review: “New Ledger Nano S Plus USA 2022 Reddit Review – The Smartest Way to Secure, Buy, Exchange and Grow Your Crypto Assets“
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