German Ledger reseller pauses sales following $86M draining incident
Official European Ledger reseller MediaMarkt is no longer selling the wallets following reports that some of the devices may have been fitted with physical spyware, leading to an $86 million draining incident.
The German company told Cointelegraph that it has “removed all of the manufacturer’s products from its stores and online platforms” and that it’s in contact with Ledger. “We take this incident very seriously,” it added.
Ledger wallets bought from Malaysian reseller CryptoBilis were drained of millions of dollars worth of funds last week.
Since then, former Mt. Gox CEO Mark Karpelès has been helping to identify spyware in Ledger wallets that have been dismantled, photographed, and shared on X by their owners.
Karpelès has reportedly found spyware in Ledger wallets sold by MediaMarkt, official Philippine reseller LazMall, CryptoBilis, and more recently, in a wallet sold at Metapod in Singapore’s airport.
Ledger hasn’t linked other resellers to $86M drain
Despite these discoveries, Ledger’s newest statement only confirmed that wallets sold by CryptoBilis were involved in the draining incident.
It said, “We have not verified a drain linked to a signer bought elsewhere,” and adds that it’s “reviewing reports of implants in other signers and locations.”
Read more: Ledger sued for $500M over its many data breaches
Ledger also announced that its security team is investigating the tampered devices sourced from CryptoBilis. The team deduced that the spyware was able to record a Ledger wallet’s 24-word recovery phrase and transmit it with the attached eSIM.
The company noted that CryptoBilis isn’t selling wallets while the investigation continues.
Protos has reached out to LazMall for comment and will update this piece should we hear anything back.
Got a tip? Send us an email securely via Protos Leaks. For more informed news and investigations, follow us on X, Bluesky, and Google News, or subscribe to our YouTube channel.