Who Is Planting Backdoors in Ledger Crypto Wallets?
Sophisticated hardware backdoors have been discovered in Ledger crypto wallets, leading to the theft of over $100 million in assets. The implants have been found in devices sold through both authorized resellers and major retail chains, raising concerns about supply-chain security.
Why it matters
This represents a major security failure in the crypto hardware industry, threatening the trust users place in cold storage solutions.
The theft last week of an estimated $100 million in crypto using a hardware backdoor planted in Ledger wallets points to a sophisticated and systematic attack aimed at subverting crypto wallets sold by legitimate resellers in Asia and Europe
Kim Zetter Oct 13, 2026 14 min read comment-1 Created with Sketch Beta. A Ledger Nano X showing an implant (below right) discovered in the device. (Image: Courtesy of Joe Grand) After crypto wallet maker Ledger announced Friday that a backdoor embedded in a handful of Ledger wallets sold in SouthEast Asia allowed thieves to hijack around $102 million in crypto from their owners, news has emerged of other Ledger wallets sold in Germany also having implants.
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