The Ledger Implant Factory: Mark Karpelès on Who's Building Spy Chips at Scale

Former Mt. Gox CEO Mark Karpelès has spent two weeks opening Ledger hardware wallets bought from third-party sellers in Japan, Singapore and Germany. What he found inside wasn't a one-off: the boards carry revision markings, regional antenna variants and a design that has moved from hand-soldering to something built for volume.

Ledger says every confirmed theft traces back to a single Malaysian reseller. Karpelès's own devices didn't come from that reseller — and separate research suggests implants were transmitting seed phrases to overseas servers months before the drains became public.

Camila Russo talks to Karpelès about who is manufacturing these implants, how many are still sitting unopened in drawers and on shelves, why a security researcher's March warning to Ledger produced no public alert, and what a company does when it's holding a report it doesn't want to be true.

Date: Tue Oct 20, 10am ET

Guest: Mark Karpelès, former Mt. Gox CEO — X: @MagicalTux

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