Ledger Wallets Were Drained of $100 Million. Is Self-Custody Still Safe?

A sophisticated hardware implant that mass-produces seed-phrase theft via eSIM has drained $100M+ from Ledger devices sold through compromised resellers.

• $100M+ drained: Hardware implants inside genuine Ledger devices sold via authorized reseller CryptoBilis (Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines) read 24-word seed phrases off-screen and exfiltrated them via embedded eSIM; Jonty traced theft-address inflows exceeding $100M, with drains dating to September 8.
• Implant has evolved fast: Mark Karpelès says the spy board went from crude wired prototypes (late 2024) to black, clip-in boards custom-built for the Ledger Flex using tiny HiroSA connectors, indicating months of funded R&D.

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