Hardware Wallet Maker Ledger Seeks New Funding Round
Coinspeaker
Hardware Wallet Maker Ledger Seeks New Funding Round
Cryptocurrency hardware manufacturer Ledger is looking to raise new funding up to $100 million as it looks to bolster its business operations across the board. The funding report was first broken by Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the startup’s plans.
According to the report, the proposed $100 million funding will largely prop up the firm which was previously valued at about $1.5 billion following its last funding round where it accrued $380 million from prominent investors.
While it was immediately unclear when the funding round will be closed, or those billed to back the company, the proposed Ledger funding is a testament to the readiness of investors to take positions in businesses deemed to be profitable or have prospects for growth in the mid-to-long-term.
Thus far this year, the combination of global economic forces, and the individual governmental response has not helped the financial ecosystem, and by extension the crypto industry in any way. Prices have continued to slump with more firms facing a liquidity crisis, and even bankruptcies including Three Arrows Capital (3AC), Voyager Digital, and Celsius Network.
For a number of times over the past few months, KuCoin exchange’s Chief Executive Officer Johnny Lyu has had to allay fears that the trading platform is insolvent. The lack of trust in centralized players in the industry has been earmarked as one of the basic reasons whereby Ledger believes its business is about to record a more massive boost.
Amid the broad-based uncertainty, investors and traders are now exploring alternative avenues to store their own digital assets by themselves, rather than leave them on an exchange or a platform that may fold up at a later time. This growing switch comes off as a big business boost for Ledger which controls a relatively large portion of the crypto hardware wallet market.
Ledger was founded in 2014 and has since grown to become one of the most prominent players in the space. Since its inception, it affirmed it has sold over 3 million hardware wallets as it has continued to update its technology and coverage for prominent digital tokens across the board.
Ledger Funding and NFT Marketplace
Alongside the potential Ledger funding news, the company has also floated its Non-Fungible Token (NFT) marketplace, which it touted as being as secure as its hardware wallets. Alongside the platform launch, Ledger said it has sold 10,000 Genesis Passes in a complementary move, thus establishing its foothold in the NFT world.
“The NFT world is moving fast, but these digital treasures must be kept secure forever,” said Sebastien Badault, Vice President of Metaverse at Ledger. “With [ LEDGER ] Market, our new NFT Distribution platform, we bring the best of both worlds. On the one hand, Ledger’s world-class security with the world’s first-secure mint, and on the other hand, the world’s most exclusive drops. The success of our first Genesis pass drops really shows that we bring meaningful and safe solutions for creators and users.”