Crypto Wallet Maker Ledger to Expand Support for Stablecoins, Including Tether

Ledger, the hardware cryptocurrency wallet maker, plans to add support soon for more stablecoins, including expanding tether's usability across all its products and services, executives said.

Currently, the company supports tether for its two handheld storage products, the Ledger Nano and Ledger Blue, but it intends to add the U.S. dollar-linked cryptocurrency to its institutional vault service.

Despite USDT's recent loss of parity with the dollar amid renewed questions about its issuer's reserves, Benjamin Soong, Ledger's new head of operations for the Asia-Pacific region, said the token remains popular there.

According to Soong - who is opening the Paris-based Ledger's first Asia office in Hong Kong - Chinese and South Korean investors are often more comfortable with fiat-pegged currencies or assets that reflect traditional capital markets.

Even beyond USDT, Ledger will also add other stablecoins as it pursues a major expansion of its custody business, with the goal of supporting more than 100 different tokens by the end of next year.

Roughly 30 percent of Ledger's hardware sales already come from Asian markets, despite a previous lack of presence on the ground.

Ledger has an institutional custody partnership brewing with the Japanese bank Nomura.

Corporations, currency exchanges, and banks in Hong Kong have already started reaching out to inquire about crypto custody solutions, Soong said.

Ledger is also forging closer ties with the Hong Kong-based software startup Internet Online Hong Kong, led by ethereum cofounder Charles Hoskinson.

Next week, during Hong Kong Fintech Week, Ledger and IOHK will host a joint party for the local crypto community.