MediaMarkt halts Ledger wallet sales after reported $86M drain

MediaMarkt, an official Ledger reseller in Europe, has paused wallet sales after reports that some units may have been fitted with physical spyware, which led to an $86 million draining incident.

The German retailer told Cointelegraph it has “removed all of the manufacturer’s products from its stores and online platforms” and remains in touch with Ledger. “We take this incident very seriously,” the company added.

Last week, wallets purchased from Malaysian reseller CryptoBilis were drained of millions of dollars in funds.

Since then, Mark Karpelès, the former chief executive of Mt. Gox, has been helping detect spyware in Ledger devices that owners have taken apart, photographed and shared on X.

Karpelès is reported to have found spyware in Ledger wallets sold by MediaMarkt, official Philippine reseller LazMall, CryptoBilis, and most recently in one bought at Metapod in Singapore’s airport.

Ledger has not tied other resellers to the $86M drain

Even with those findings, Ledger’s latest statement said only that CryptoBilis wallets were involved in the drain.

The firm stated: “We have not verified a drain linked to a signer bought elsewhere,” and it is “reviewing reports of implants in other signers and locations.”

Ledger spyware scare spreads beyond Southeast Asia

Ledger has also said its security team is investigating the tampered units obtained from CryptoBilis. Investigators concluded the spyware could capture a Ledger wallet’s 24-word recovery phrase and send it through the attached eSIM.

According to Ledger, CryptoBilis is not selling wallets while the probe goes on.

Protos has contacted LazMall for comment and will update this story if it gets a response.