FTX Collapse Drives Record Hardware Wallet Sales

Hardware-wallet makers Ledger and Trezor reported a substantial rise in device sales amid FTX troubles. Decrypt reports this.

Potential bankruptcy of one of the leading Bitcoin exchanges has rattled investors’ trust in central intermediaries.

“Last week, Ledger posted the highest sales figure in its history. […] Users have realised that we must return to decentralisation and self-custody. “Not your keys, not your coins”. The adage is as old as cryptocurrency itself, but it has never been more relevant,” said Pascal Gauthier, CEO of Ledger.

A similar view is held at Trezor. According to the firm’s Bitcoin analyst Joseph Tetek, sales have been rising exponentially since November 7.

Events around FTX also led many users to shift toward decentralized exchanges.

According to Dune Analytics, last week’s trading volume in the sector stood at $27 billion — 62% higher than the prior reporting period.

The jump occurred on November 8 amid a preliminary agreement to buy FTX by Binance, a competitor. On November 10 the figure surpassed $8 billion — more than four times the monthly average.

From November 7 to 8, Uniswap’s metric tripled—from $1.4 billion to $4.2 billion, and in the following two days it stood at $5.2 billion and $4.8 billion respectively.

According to Glassnode, in November the pace of monthly outflows of bitcoins from exchange balances to cold wallets reached 106,000 BTC.

Former MicroStrategy head Michael Saylor and Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao urged self-custody of crypto assets.

The latter compared the current state of the industry to the 2008 financial crisis. According to Zhao, even more companies could go bust in the coming weeks.

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