Ledger's Cryptocurrency Advancements Gather Major Interest

On April 24, it was announced that the South Korean electronics conglomerate Samsung had invested nearly $3 million in Ledger, which manufactures various cryptocurrency wallets.

A spokesperson for Ledger confirmed that Samsung had made the investment but would not provide any further details about the transaction.

The announcement of the investment comes on the heels of Ledger naming Pascal Gauthier — who was previously its president — the CEO of the company. Eric Larchevêque, who was the CEO of the company, is now Executive Chairman of the company's board of directors. In announcing the move, Larchevêque said that its purpose was to allow him to focus on things such as the vision of the company and its strategy. He will further be responsible for dealing with government agencies and regulators as well as dealing with clients, partners and other business relationships. Finally, he will also focus on what he calls "technology thought leadership."

According to an anonymous source, Samsung may soon develop a private-public blockchain that would utilize its own token. The company's blockchain division is managing the project, which would run on top of Ethereum. The token, according to the report, would be called the Samsung Coin. The source of the report also indicated that while the company is committed to bringing the coin to market, it has not yet decided what direction it will take.

On April 22, Samsung announced that it was delaying the launch of its much hyped folding phone. The $2,000 Galaxy Fold was pulled because of a number of issues relating to screen breakage. Many reviewers of the product reported that, within a few days of use, the screen flickered, froze and then completely died. There were also reports that substances within the device were affecting the performance of the display.

Ledger, too, has had issues of late with its products. In December of last year, a group of researchers demonstrated that they were able to break into a number of cryptocurrency wallets, including the Ledger Nano S and the Ledger Blue. Though Ledger insisted at the time that the security vulnerabilities exposed were not so critical.