// THE VERGE — MOBILE & WEB
Ledger’s new hardware wallet is an Android phone without the phone
Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.
Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.
Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.
Atom is a data-only Android device designed to work alongside your smartphone.
Atom is a data-only Android device designed to work alongside your smartphone.
Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.
Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.
Ledger has announced its latest crypto-centric hardware effort, the Android-based Atom, a device that resembles a phone but is instead designed to be used alongside one. It arrives at a tricky time for Ledger, which has been forced to cease sales of some of its hardware across southeast Asia following hardware tampering in its supply chain, which has reportedly seen over $86 million worth of crypto stolen from across some users’ accounts.
While Ledger’s previous hardware wallet signers have been compact devices, running custom software and often with E Ink displays, the Atom is the spitting image of a regular Android smartphone. In fact it essentially is an Android phone, except for the fact that its eSIM capabilities have been limited to data-only, with no support for texting or calls.
The Atom runs on both Android OS and Ledger OS, which sits on its own secure element chip, allowing you to move into a secure environment for tasks like crypto transactions. Two Atom users can also send encrypted messages to one another using regular Android messaging apps, with the messages decrypted within Ledger OS on the recipient’s device. Ledger has designed the device with AI agents in mind, including a partnership with OpenClaw, designed so that agents can handle financial tasks without getting full access to digital wallets, with physical approval required to complete transactions.