Ledger Investigates CryptoBilis-Sold Devices After Reported Wallet Losses

Ledger is investigating cryptocurrency losses tied to devices sold by Southeast Asian reseller CryptoBilis after former Mt. Gox CEO Mark Karpelès said he found a suspected cellular implant inside a Ledger device shipped from Malaysia.

Ledger asked CryptoBilis to pause all sales and shipments and advised customers who bought devices during the previous 90 days not to set up unused units. Customers who already initialized their devices were urged to consider moving assets to a new Ledger signer with a new recovery seed.

Loss estimates vary. One tally put the drained funds at $93.2 million from 315 wallets across six networks as of Oct. 10, while another estimate exceeded $86 million across Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH) and TRON (TRX).

Karpelès said the device contained an LTE module, antenna, eSIM and microcontroller concealed near the screen padding. “My spy-implanted ledger came from Malaysia, and had flawless shrink wrap,” he wrote Oct. 9.

Ledger has not confirmed that the suspected implant caused the losses or that it was connected to CryptoBilis. Binance co-founder Changpeng Zhao warned that a compromised reseller could expose customers to counterfeit or tampered devices.