Ledger CEO says sales doubled after Binance hack

Increased concerns around security following Binance's $40 million hack last week may have given crypto custody hardware and software provider Ledger a sales bump. Pascal Gauthier, CEO of Ledger, told the audience at The Block’s Atomic Swap conference in New York today that sales doubled in the wake of the hack.

“Binance got hacked, and the day Binance got hacked, our sales doubled,” said Gauthier.

Binance reopened today a week after the hack. The exchange said the attackers exploited the API, 2FA and withdrawal validation areas, and that it is making “significant changes” in response.

Gauthier addressed Ledger’s sales increase during a panel discussion on the future of money, when the conversation turned to the importance of security on exchanges and holders maintaining their keys. Security is crucial to the growth of optimism surrounding crypto, according to Gauthier.

“We at Ledger believe that there is not enough security to protect those cryptos,” he said. “We think that it’s great technology, there’s probably one weakness which is the [securing] of the end point and the private keys.”

In fact, he said the fact that the Binance theft happened in the first place serves as an example of how young the tech supporting the market actually is.

“We believe the security needs to happen, and we are very excited about building the security layer for the industry,” he said.

However, he said it can be stressful delivering a product so crucial to security. In the event of a drastically increased market cap, from the billion to trillion territory, security becomes even more challenging. In the event of a stark increase, he said Ledger would need additional investment to match the security concerns.