Ledger Received Early Hardware Wallet Tampering Warnings, Former Mt. Gox CEO Says Response Was Insufficient

French hardware wallet maker Ledger received multiple reports of malicious tampering months before its latest security crisis. Former Mt. Gox CEO Mark Karpelès said at least two individuals had contacted Ledger since December 2025 about compromised devices, but no public warning was issued. Security researcher Joe Grand said he reported a malicious implant to Ledger on March 4, 2026, found in a Nano X purchased via Lazada in Thailand in August 2025. Ledger confirmed the finding and said it would launch an internal investigation, but did not proactively alert customers. Mark Karpelès believes the increasing number of reports and the growing technical sophistication of the methods used should have prompted Ledger to take action and at least warn customers to exercise caution. Ledger declined to comment on its handling of Joe Grand's disclosure, only directing attention to its public statement on X. The Ledger security crisis became public on October 9, involving losses of crypto assets from wallets sold by Southeast Asian authorized distributor CryptoBilis; Ledger confirmed one affected device contained an unauthorized implant. Trezor had previously also received reports of tampered devices from unauthorized sellers.