Coinbase announces support for hardware wallets starting with Ledger

Major exchange Coinbase announced that it will start supporting encrypted hardware wallets, starting with Ledger. The two companies made the announcement at the Ledger Open conference in Paris on December 9 and 10.

Ledger is a major provider of hardware wallets, which store users' private keys more securely than hot wallets.

Users of the Coinbase Wallet Browser extension will be able to connect their Ledger hardware wallets, maintaining self-custody and full control of their assets.

The partnership will be rolled out in phases starting from the first quarter of 2022. In the future, the Coinbase mobile app will also support Ledger hardware wallets.

“We’re excited to share more announcements about how we’re making Coinbase Wallet the safest and most reliable way to participate in Web3 in the coming months,” said Max Branzburg, Vice President of Product at Coinbase.

Coinbase stores 12% of all cryptocurrencies

Meanwhile, Coinbase CFO Alesia Haas made some big announcements during her testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives Financial Services Committee on Dec. 8. She claimed that Coinbase stores about 12 percent of all cryptocurrencies in more than 150 asset types, and said cryptocurrencies are moving beyond simple token swaps.

“Nearly 50% of our trading clients are doing something other than buying and selling cryptocurrencies, which shows us that cryptocurrencies are moving beyond their initial investment phase and into their long-anticipated utility phase,” she said.

Coinbase claims to have more than 73 million customers worldwide, including 10,000 institutions and 185,000 app developers.