Singapore police flag tampered Ledger wallets sold in retail stores
Security & Exploits ·
Authorities say hidden hardware implants in some Ledger devices were used to drain crypto wallets, with two confirmed victims losing a combined $2.7 million.
Singapore police announced on October 28 that certain Ledger cryptocurrency hardware wallets bought from local shops had been secretly modified with implanted components designed to extract a user's recovery phrase or private key, according to an advisory from the Singapore Police Force. Two cases reported since September 10 account for losses totaling roughly S$3.5 million, equivalent to about $2.7 million.
The tampering appears to target the physical device itself rather than software, meaning a wallet could look unopened and legitimate while still carrying a planted chip or circuit designed to siphon the credentials needed to access a user's funds. Because recovery phrases and private keys are the only gatekeepers protecting crypto holdings, a compromised device can let an attacker silently copy that data and later empty the wallet without the owner's knowledge until funds move.
Ledger, described as a leading French hardware wallet manufacturer, is reviewing the reported incidents, while the police investigation into how the implants were introduced into the retail supply chain remains active, per the report circulated by WuBlockchain. The same findings have been corroborated in a separate account describing the wallets as physically tampered with before reaching two confirmed buyers.
Unclear so far is how the implants were inserted — whether during manufacturing, shipping, or at the point of retail sale — and whether additional victims beyond the two disclosed cases exist. It is also not yet known which specific Ledger models or retail outlets in Singapore were affected, or what remediation Ledger plans to offer buyers of potentially compromised units. Police have not said whether the investigation points to a single supply-chain breach or a broader pattern of tampering across multiple sales channels.