A fraudster who operated a task‑scam transferred about 60 BTC, valued at roughly $4.8 million, into three Ledger hardware wallet addresses on September 22, according to Chainalysis data.
On October 9, thieves emptied each of the three addresses in a single transaction, effectively stealing the entire balance and prompting reports that the loss amounted to "almost $5 million" or "nearly $5 million".
Ledger confirmed that the devices had been tampered with by implants capable of reading seed phrases, and the company opened an investigation after customers in Southeast Asia reported losses linked to a Malaysian reseller, CryptoBilis.
The incident underscores a rare but significant breach of hardware wallet security, a sector typically regarded as the most secure offline storage method for cryptocurrency.
Bitcoin was trading at $81,671, down 0.8% over the past 24 hours, a modest move that may reflect broader market caution following the high‑profile theft.
This story was compiled by the Tradexus News Desk with the help of AI.
