Stocks meet cold storage

Ledger, a hardware wallet maker, and Payward, parent company of crypto exchange Kraken, announced a partnership on Thursday allowing investors to buy and store tokenized stocks offline on secure physical devices.

What cold storage means

Hardware wallets store digital assets on physical devices not connected to the internet, a method called cold storage long favored by Bitcoin users reluctant to trust third parties or risk online hacking.

A new option for stocks

Until now, cold storage was not available for stocks. Paper certificates remain an option but require a complicated request process and steep fees, making offline stock storage extremely rare.

Who might want this

Ledger executive Sebastien Badault says the service appeals to two groups: Ledger's approximately eight million retail and institutional customers who prefer self-custody, and traditional stock buyers growing uneasy with hacking threats from AI and quantum computing.

How the partnership works

Customers using Payward's xStocks platform can require a signature on their Ledger device before completing a transaction. Ledger devices will now include xStocks integration alongside their existing trading platform and custody services.

Expansion plans ahead

Ledger devices including its flagship Stax model currently integrate only with Payward's tokenized stocks, but Badault said the company is in talks with Coinbase, Binance and Robinhood about integrating their tokenized stocks too.

“By partnering with Ledger, we're building where the industry is heading: a future where secure self-custody and global financial infrastructure work hand in hand to provide powerful and seamless trading experiences.”