Ledger is
exploring a public listing in New York or a private financing round in 2026 as
crypto investors rush to secure their holdings amid a surge in digital asset
thefts.
Crypto Theft Epidemic
Fuels Ledger’s IPO Ambitions
The French
company, which manufactures USB-style devices that store cryptocurrencies
offline, reported revenues in the triple-digit millions for 2025, its strongest
performance since launching in 2014. Chief executive Pascal Gauthier said the
firm currently safeguards roughly $100 billion worth of Bitcoin (BTC) across
its customer base.
Crypto
thefts reached $2.2 billion in the first six months of 2025, already
exceeding the total for all of 2024, according to blockchain analytics firm
Chainalysis. Individual wallet holders accounted for roughly 23% of these
attacks, a category that Chainalysis described as growing.
“We’re
being hacked more and more every day … hacking of your bank accounts, of your
crypto, and it’s not going to get better next year and the year after
that,” Gauthier told the Financial Times.
If the initial public offering materializes, Ledger
would join this year’s wave of crypto firms entering public markets, following
similar moves by lender
Figure and the Gemini cryptocurrency exchange. The digital asset trading
platform Bullish
also recently began trading on Wall Street.
Revenue Jumps Before
Holiday Shopping Season
Ledger’s growth
accelerated ahead of its typical sales peaks during Black Friday and the
holiday period. Gauthier attributed the increase to what he called a
realization among users that cybersecurity threats are intensifying.
The
company’s devices compete with offerings from Trezor, based in the Czech
Republic, and Switzerland’s Tangem in the so-called cold storage market. These
wallets allow token holders to keep their assets offline rather than storing
them on exchanges like Coinbase or Binance.
Trezor has introduced its latest Safe
7 device during an October event in Prague. The model features a 2.5-inch
color touchscreen that is 62 percent larger than the previous version, an
anodized aluminum body, and full wireless functionality, including Bluetooth
5.1 and Qi2 magnetic charging.
North Korean Hackers
Target Exchanges and Individuals
Exchange
platform Bybit lost
approximately $1.5 billion worth of tokens to North Korean hackers in
February, the largest heist on record. The FBI attributed the theft to actors
it tracks as “TraderTraitor,” noting that stolen assets were quickly
converted to Bitcoin and spread across thousands of blockchain addresses.
Crypto-related
kidnappings have also increased as prices climb. Ledger’s own co-founder and
his wife were abducted in France earlier this year when criminals demanded a
ransom paid in cryptocurrency. French authorities later arrested the suspects
and froze the funds.
Chainalysis
warned that higher token valuations will likely trigger additional physical
attacks targeting known holders.
New York Focus Reflects
Capital Concentration
Gauthier
said Ledger plans to expand its New York headcount and is spending more time in
the city because “money is in New York today for crypto, it’s nowhere else
in the world, it’s certainly not in Europe”.
The company
raised money from investors including 10T Holdings and Singapore-based True
Global Ventures in
2023, when it was valued at $1.5 billion. Whether Ledger pursues an IPO or
private fundraising will depend on market conditions and investor appetite for
crypto-related listings.
Hardware
wallet adoption among cryptocurrency holders remains below 15%, suggesting room
for market expansion as digital asset ownership becomes more mainstream.
However, Ledger faces questions about revenue sustainability beyond one-time
device sales, with some recent fee-based features drawing criticism from users
concerned about centralization.
This article was written by Damian Chmiel at www.financemagnates.com.
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