Celsius’ Woes Spark Boom in Ledger Sales

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.

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