Ledger Received Hardware Wallet Implant Warnings Early On, Former Mt. Gox CEO Says Response Was Insufficient

Odaily News: French hardware wallet manufacturer Ledger received multiple reports of malicious implants months before its latest security crisis occurred. Former Mt. Gox CEO Mark Karpelès stated that at least two people had contacted Ledger since December 2025 to report tampered devices, but no public warning was found to have been issued.

Security researcher Joe Grand stated that on March 4, 2026, he reported a malicious implant to Ledger. The implant was found in a Nano X purchased through Lazada in Thailand in August 2025. Ledger confirmed the findings and said it would launch an internal investigation, but did not proactively alert customers.

Mark Karpelès believes that the increase in the number of reports and the growing sophistication of the techniques used should prompt Ledger to take action and at least remind customers to remain cautious. Ledger declined to comment on how it handled Joe Grand's disclosure, only directing people to view its public statement on X.

The Ledger security crisis became public on October 9, involving the loss of crypto assets from wallets sold by Southeast Asian authorized reseller CryptoBilis; Ledger confirmed that one affected device contained an unauthorized implant. Trezor had also previously received reports involving devices tampered with by unauthorized sellers. (Cointelegraph)