Hardware-based cryptocurrency wallet provider Ledger has experienced some issues due to massive outflows from cryptocurrency exchanges amid the FTX bloodbath, according to its chief technology officer.
Ledger saw “mass usage” of its platforms and suffered “some scalability challenges” on Nov 9, Ledger CTO Charles Guillemet reported in a statement on Twitter.
Guillemet reasoned for Ledger’s problems by the results of the ongoing crisis of a major global cryptocurrency exchange, FTX. The CTO said that crypto investors have increasingly been offloading their holdings from crypto exchanges to Ledger, stating:
“After the FTX earthquake, there is a massive outflow from exchanges to Ledger self-sovereignty and security solutions.”
According to Guillemet, Ledger should have resolved the outages as of 5:30 am UTC.
ledger first reported the wallet goes live on November 9 around 11:00 pm UTC, officially announcing that its Ledger Live hardware wallet interface app was experiencing server performance degradation.
“Specific issues may vary, including connecting to the My Ledger tab and performing a Genuine Check,” Ledger said in a tweet, adding that the client’s assets were safe.
The hard wallet company subsequently took to Twitter to announce which fixed the server outage within about an hour of detecting the issue. “Our server outage has been resolved and all systems are operational,” Ledger said, adding that their server outage has been resolved and all systems are operational.
Previously ledger support also Announced which also temporarily stopped FTX and FTX.US swaps on Ledger Live. Ledger launched the exchange integration with FTX in July 2022.
According to Ledger’s Twitter thread, the blackouts caused some users will not be able to submit any transactions using Ledger Live, including withdrawals.
The crypto community was quick to react to the issues despite many trusting Ledger’s operations amid major market issues. Some industry watchers criticized Ledger for choosing the wrong wording to communicate with his clients amid the current issues at FTX. Apparently, people got excited about Ledger’s “assets are safe” line, as FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried made a similar statement on Twitter on Nov. 7, only to delete it a day later.
“FTX is fine. Assets are fine,” Bankman-Fried stated in his tweet, just hours before the exchange halted all cryptocurrency withdrawals after failing to process such transactions.
The recent issues on Ledger Live came as Ledger saw one of its “highest traffic days,” Ledger CTO told Cointelegraph. “Traffic has increased significantly over time, even without major industry events,” he noted, adding that Ledger also previously experienced many spikes in traffic after the Celsius bankruptcy, Solana attack and FTX bank run. .
Guillemet also said that Ledger Live had an “unusual load on the device manager service,” which is likely attributed to users updating their device for the first time in a long time or using a new device for the first time. “It was quickly resolved and the team is already working on improving automatic detection and restoration,” she added.
Related: The ongoing saga of FTX and Binance: everything that has happened so far
Trezor, a major rival cold wallet provider, has not recorded any issues due to FTX issues so far, Trezor executive Josef Tětek told Cointelegraph. “The only way to avoid these massive explosions is to understand self-custody as a necessity,” said the executive. “It’s not an option, a real necessity,” he emphasized.
Even though self-custody is associated with its own set of risks, many crypto folks, including Tether and Bitfinex CTO Paolo Ardoino, still advise users to “always self-custody in cold storage” if they want to keep their Bitcoin. (BTC) and crypto.