Fintech Ledger, a specialist in secure cryptocurrency wallets, has just raised $380 million. With a valuation in excess of $1.5 billion, it becomes France's 15th unicorn.
Ledger and cryptoasset security
After Vestiaire Collective, Alan, Shift Technology and Back Market, startup Ledger is the 5th French unicorn to see the light of day since the start of 2021. Founded in 2014, the fintech headed by Pascal Gauthier is a pioneer in the cryptocurrency market. It offers its customers digital wallets designed to store and manage their cryptoassets. These wallets include the Ledger Nano.
This secure wallet stores the private keys of cryptocurrencies. The private key is essential for sending funds, and must therefore be carefully kept. The Ledger Nano plugs in like a USB key and is capable, for less than 100 euros, of storing the private keys of around twenty cryptocurrencies. Since 2014, Ledger has sold 3 million of them worldwide.
Capitalizing on the growing worldwide appeal of cryptocurrencies, Ledger has just completed a new round of financing, raising $380 million. The deal was led by 10T Holdings, a US investment fund specializing in cryptocurrencies, with participation from Draper, Korelya Capital, which is the investment fund of former French Secretary of State for Digital Affairs Fleur Pellerin, and La Financière Algache, owned by the Arnault group.
Cryptoassets: French banks reticent
Ledger's closed fundraising contrasts with the reticence of French banks when it comes to cryptoassets. Yet the regulatory framework put in place by the Pacte law in early 2019 is favorable to the development of digital assets, thanks to the flexibility and security it offers industry players and investors.
As such, all digital asset service providers, whether various intermediaries, investment advisors or cryptoasset trading platforms, are required to register with the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF).
Cryptocurrency fund-raising, known as Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs), also benefits from an incentive legal framework through the issuance of optional visas, a kind of label awarded by the AMF. This label should make it easier to open a bank account. However, to date, only 3 visas have been issued for 50 projects.
For their part, French banks are very reticent about a possible boom in cryptoassets. Exchange platforms are encountering serious difficulties in opening bank accounts, and private individuals are deterred from making transactions.
Despite discussions initiated at the end of 2020 between the French Banking Federation (FBF), the Association pour le Développement des Actifs Numériques (ADAN) and the Autorité de Contrôle Prudentiel et de Résolution (ACPR), the situation has not changed, nor has the FBF's position.