How a $20 Spy Chip Gets Inside a Ledger Wallet

Video Tuesday, 20 October 2026

Former Mt. Gox CEO Mark Karpelès opens a Ledger Nano X and walks through how the spy implant is installed. The board clips onto test points that carry everything sent to the screen, including your seed phrase. Installing it takes three solder joints, and the parts cost less than $20.

Implants like this are linked to more than $90 million drained from Ledger users. Watch the full interview on The Defiant.

Explore The Defiant ✨

📰 Website

https://thedefiant.io/

✉️ Free Daily Newsletter

https://thedefiant.io/newsletter/defi...

🤑 Weekly Premium Newsletter

https://thedefiant.io/newsletter/defi...

✊ Follow The Defiant

X/Twitter: https://x.com/DefiantNews

📬 Contact our Newsroom

editorial@thedefiant.io

🤝 Sponsorships & Partnerships

sponsors@thedefiant.io

#TheDefiant #DeFi #Decentralized #Finance #Blockchain #Web3

Watch on YouTube ↗

Video Coin Bureau 1h ago Short

WOULD YOU TRUST THIS XRP UPDATE??

XRP Ledger’s lending feature isn’t live yet—and its code already needs fixing. A reassuring sign that checks are working, or a reason to worry? Would you trust it with your...

Video The Defiant 9h ago

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...

Video Chainlink 1d ago

Why Chainlink CCIP 2.0 Is the Standard for Global Finance | Sergey Nazarov

Chainlink Co-Founder Sergey Nazarov explains why security, reliability, and institutional-grade capabilities are critical for cross-chain interoperability, and how Chainlink CCIP 2.0...

Video The Defiant 1d ago

He Lost $14M to FTX. Now He’s Putting Real Stocks on Solana | Armani Ferrante (Backpack)

What do you actually own when you buy a tokenized stock? Backpack founder Armani Ferrante breaks down the transfer agent, DTCC, SPV debt-security and Backpack models. Backpack’s version...

Video Bankless 1d ago

What the CFTC’s Proposed Rules Could Unlock for Crypto Traders

📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24 https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium --- Could American crypto traders finally get the same features available on offshore exchanges? CFTC...

Video Bankless 4d ago Short

The Ledger Hack That Stole $102 Million From 324 Wallets

A hardware wallet with a spy chip inside, bought from an authorized reseller.⁣ ⁣ “There's this extra chip in here. We need to figure out what this chip does.”⁣ ⁣ Turns out it was...