Ledger confirmed on October 10 that a device sold by CryptoBilis, a reseller in Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines, contained an unauthorized hardware implant. If you bought a Ledger from this reseller in the last 3 months, this post is directly relevant to you.
What Ledger advises (Ledger Support on X, Oct. 10):
- brand-new device: do not initialize it
- device already in use: transfer your funds to a new Ledger with a new 24-word seed phrase
- never share your recovery phrase, even with someone claiming to be from Ledger
According to Ledger, CryptoBilis stopped all hardware wallet sales during the investigation, and there is no indication that its own systems were compromised.
As for the figures, take them with caution: Ledger has not confirmed any total. The most detailed tally comes from Bitquery (updated Oct. 11): $93.2M siphoned from 315 wallets across six blockchains, including $70.5M in USDT on TRON and 203.8 $BTC ($16.8M). Early public estimates were around $86M (Specter) and $72M (tanuki42). Tether froze $10M in USDT across 20 wallets.
My take: the danger here isn't the cryptography of $BTC or $ETH ; it's the supply chain. A hardware wallet only protects you if nobody has seen the seed before you. So far, the implant has only been confirmed on one device, so its connection to the overall losses remains to be established.
Two possible outcomes: either the investigation confirms an isolated compromised batch at this reseller, and the case remains regional; or other authorized resellers are implicated, making the question of buying outside the official website a real issue for the entire market.
Did you buy your hardware wallet directly from the manufacturer or through a reseller?
#Ledger #CryptoSecurity
What Ledger advises (Ledger Support on X, Oct. 10):
- brand-new device: do not initialize it
- device already in use: transfer your funds to a new Ledger with a new 24-word seed phrase
- never share your recovery phrase, even with someone claiming to be from Ledger
According to Ledger, CryptoBilis stopped all hardware wallet sales during the investigation, and there is no indication that its own systems were compromised.
As for the figures, take them with caution: Ledger has not confirmed any total. The most detailed tally comes from Bitquery (updated Oct. 11): $93.2M siphoned from 315 wallets across six blockchains, including $70.5M in USDT on TRON and 203.8 $BTC ($16.8M). Early public estimates were around $86M (Specter) and $72M (tanuki42). Tether froze $10M in USDT across 20 wallets.
My take: the danger here isn't the cryptography of $BTC or $ETH ; it's the supply chain. A hardware wallet only protects you if nobody has seen the seed before you. So far, the implant has only been confirmed on one device, so its connection to the overall losses remains to be established.
Two possible outcomes: either the investigation confirms an isolated compromised batch at this reseller, and the case remains regional; or other authorized resellers are implicated, making the question of buying outside the official website a real issue for the entire market.
Did you buy your hardware wallet directly from the manufacturer or through a reseller?
#Ledger #CryptoSecurity