Katherine Ross

Ledger CEO Pascal Gauthier addressed the “supply chain attack” on its Ledger ConnectKit in a post on Thursday.



“The standard practice at Ledger is that no single person can deploy code without review by multiple parties. We have strong access controls, internal reviews and multi-signature code when it comes to most parts of our development. This is the case in 99% of our internal systems. Any employee who leaves the company has their access revoked from every Ledger system,” Gauthier <a href="https://www.ledger.com/blog/a-letter-from-ledger-chairman-ceo-pascal-gauthier-regarding-ledger-connect-kit-exploit">said</a>.&nbsp;



However, that was not the case on Thursday morning when a former employee was the subject of a phishing attack, giving the hacker an open door to Ledger’s package manager. It’s still unclear how the employee had maintained access to the system. Ledger did not immediately return a request for comment asking for clarification.&nbsp;



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/ledger-attacker-phishes-former-employee">Ledger says attacker conducted phishing attack on former employee</a>



“This was an unfortunate isolated incident,” Gauthier continued. “It is a reminder that security is not static, and Ledger must continuously improve our security systems and processes. In this area, Ledger will implement stronger security controls, connecting our build pipeline that implements strict software supply chain security to the NPM distribution channel.”



Gauthier also said that <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/ledger">Ledger</a> would increase security around dapps that enable browser-based signing. Throughout communications on its X account on Thursday, Ledger’s official account promoted clear-signing transactions.&nbsp;



According to Ledger’s <a href="https://www.ledger.com/blog/clear-sign-your-worries-away">site</a>, “with Transparent and Clear-signing, you are given a transformed version of the original data,” making it easier for the user to understand what they’re signing.



The <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/ledger-wallet-vulnerability-connectkit">incident was first reported Thursday morning</a>, with decentralized exchange <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/sushiswap">SushiSwap</a> raising a red flag. The exchange took its front-end web app offline after the warnings, and told users to refrain from engaging with unexpected “Connect Wallet” pop-ups.&nbsp;



Revoke.cash, which also took its front-end offline, was also impacted according to cybersecurity firm BlockAid.



Soon after, Ledger said that it had deployed the genuine ConnectKit and worked with WalletConnect to take down the malicious code “within 40 minutes of discovery.” According to a timeline from the firm earlier Thursday, the exploit was active for roughly 5 hours.



<a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/tether">Tether</a> CEO Paolo Ardoino also <a href="https://twitter.com/intent/follow?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1735315976827101274%7Ctwgr%5E5288a120da782c7be4fc480718ff976d4d0d50f1%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fblockworks.co%2Fnews%2Fledger-attacker-phishes-former-employee&amp;screen_name=paoloardoino">posted</a> on X that the attacker’s address was frozen.



“Ledger has engaged with authorities and is doing all we can to help as this investigation unfolds. Ledger will support affected users in helping to find this bad actor, bring them to justice, track the funds and work with law enforcement to help recover stolen assets from the hacker,” Gauthier said.



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hacks

Ledger CEO says attack was an ‘unfortunate isolated incident’

PayPal continues to expand its crypto footprint.&nbsp;



Ledger announced an on-ramp integration with PayPal on Wednesday, allowing users to use their Ledger Live app to buy certain cryptos.



Specifically, Ledger users will be able to buy ether (<a href="https://blockworks.co/price/eth">ETH</a>), bitcoin (<a href="https://blockworks.co/price/btc">BTC</a>), bitcoin cash (<a href="https://blockworks.co/price/bch">BCH</a>) and litecoin (<a href="https://blockworks.co/price/ltc">LTC</a>) through their PayPal accounts if they’re linked. 



While users will only be able to buy tokens supported by PayPal currently, Ledger plans to “work with PayPal on new features and should they decide to make more assets available, they’ll be automatically supported” so long as they’re supported by <a href="http://blockworks.co/tag/ledger">Ledger</a>, a spokesperson confirmed to Blockworks.



Purchases made on the app will be sent to a Ledger hardware wallet, which follows other Ledger Live options.



For users who have previously bought crypto on <a href="http://blockworks.co/tag/paypal">PayPal</a> and have it secured in another wallet, they can move the funds to their Ledger wallet address as normal by transferring them.



“Both PayPal and Ledger are focused on creating secure, seamless and fast transactions no matter where you are in the world. PayPal has remained at the forefront of the digital payment revolution for more than 20 years, and we are thrilled to come together in this next period of asset innovation with our integration,” said Pascal Gauthier, CEO of Ledger. 



Last week, PayPal <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/paypal-launches-stablecoin">announced a dollar-backed stablecoin</a> issued by Paxos Trust Co. The stablecoin marked the first time that any large American payments company made a move into issuing stablecoins.



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/paypal-coinbase-stablecoin-arena">PayPal has a stablecoin. Will they take on Coinbase next? </a>



At the time, outgoing CEO Dan Schulman said that the company is committed to “responsible innovation and compliance” with the release of the stablecoin.&nbsp;



Earlier this summer, <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/venmo-crypto-transfers-coming">PayPal also enabled crypto purchases for Venmo</a> users, and allowed users to move digital holdings to external wallets and exchanges.&nbsp;



“Consumers and merchants need choice and there should be more options to get fiat into crypto and it should be us,” Jose Fernandez da Ponte, PayPal’s general manager for blockchain, crypto and digital currencies said at a conference in late April.



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Ledger

Ledger integrates PayPal on its Ledger Live app

Ornella Hernandez

<div id="highlights-block_62b428b299fdd" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Ledger safeguards 20% of the world&#8217;s digital assets, the company says</li>
 <li>“We want to power the NFT revolution,” says Ledger CEO</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Hardware wallet manufacturer Ledger <a href="https://www.ledger.com/blog/ledger-expands-nft-offering-ledger-market-is-coming-soon-enterprise-create-is-now-live" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">announced</a> at NFT.NYC an expansion of security offerings as part of its NFT products and its Ledger Enterprise arm.&nbsp;



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.&#8221;



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">&#8220;Ledger is [now] doing, quarterly, the entire annual revenue of 2020.&#8221;</blockquote>



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.”&nbsp;



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 href="https://cms.blockworks.co/cryptos-future-is-self-custody-dealing-blow-to-exchanges-ledger-vp-says/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">a crypto wallet extension</a> 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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Celsius

Celsius’ Woes Spark Boom in Ledger Sales

Ben Strack

<div id="highlights-block_629fa64dedc85" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>“We’ll see the tokenization of everything” in the next 15 years, Cathay Innovation co-founder says</li>
 <li>The fund seeks to commit investments ranging from $550,000 to $4.3 million</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Crypto security platform Ledger has teamed up with venture capital firm Cathay Innovation to launch a $110 million early-stage fund focused on Web3, DeFi, NFTs and DAOs.&nbsp;



The partnership, Ledger Cathay Capital, is backed by French public investment bank <a href="https://www.bpifrance.com" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Bpifrance</a>. The combined entity seeks to unlock resources, networks and potential partnerships to accelerate Web3 innovation, while maintaining security standards.



Led by <a href="https://cathayinnovation.com" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Cathay Innovation</a> co-founder Denis Barrier, as well as Ledger’s Pascal Gauthier and Michael Louzado, the fund plans to invest in seed to Series A funding rounds. The idea is to make 20 to 25 investments, all-in, with checks ranging from $550,000 to $4.3 million.&nbsp;


<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="alignright size-medium"><a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Denis-Barrier.jpg" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="300" height="200" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Denis-Barrier-300x200.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-22583" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Denis-Barrier-300x200.jpg?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Denis-Barrier-300x200.jpg?w=1024 1024w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Denis-Barrier-300x200.jpg?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Denis-Barrier-300x200.jpg?w=1536 1536w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Denis-Barrier-300x200.jpg?w=386 386w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Denis-Barrier-300x200.jpg?w=392 392w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Denis-Barrier-300x200.jpg?w=329 329w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Denis-Barrier-300x200.jpg?w=80 80w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Denis-Barrier-300x200.jpg?w=50 50w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Denis-Barrier-300x200.jpg?w=2048 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></a><figcaption>Cathay Innovation&#8217;s Denis Barrier</figcaption></figure></div>


The strategy keys in on backing protocols and native tokens, as well as emerging DeFi (decentralized finance) security, infrastructure and digital ownership technologies, which Barrier and Gauthier called a multi-decade investment opportunity.



The fund has not made any investments to date.&nbsp;



“We’re at the beginning of a significant shift in technology as the third iteration of the web emerges, which is being built on blockchains with tokens that enable new use cases in the tokenization of the entire global economy,” Barrier and Gauthier told Blockworks in an email. “Cryptocurrencies are the first case to have scaled.”&nbsp;



Cathay Innovation, created in affiliation with Cathay Capital, is a multi-stage fund with roughly $1.5 billion in assets.&nbsp;



Founded in 2014, Paris-based Ledger is a digital asset management solution that serves retail and institutional clients in 200 countries. The company secures about 20% of digital assets around the world through its Ledger Enterprise Solutions for institutions.&nbsp;



The differentiation from other venture funds comes from combining Ledger’s experts in Web3, blockchain and security with Cathay’s extensive corporate ecosystem, according to Barrier and Gauthier.



“These entrepreneurs and builders need a secured and open security platform in order to design and imagine a new generation of services with easy access,” they said.



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pascal gauthier

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