Crypto exchange Coinbase and digital asset platform Ledger have teamed up add Coinbase Pay to the Ledger Live app.
The integration means that Ledger Live users will be able to purchase digital assets directly from Coinbase without first having to transfer their crypto off their hardware wallet. That also means that Ledger Live users can a variety of payment methods—including ACH, Visa, Mastercard—to buy assets from Coinbase and have them automatically sent to their Ledger device.
Ledger has sold approximately 6 million of its hardware wallets. Considering that some crypto users have more than one, the company’s Chief Experience Officer Ian Rogers estimates that—including people who use devices sold by its competitors—only about 10 million people worldwide have bought into the idea of self-custody for their crypto assets.
To self-custody crypto means to maintain a private key that, when paired with the public key that’s assigned to a wallet, allows the assets to be spent, traded, or transferred. A custodial wallet makes the keeping of that private key the job of a third party company, like a crypto exchange or software wallet company.
“The reality is: If not self custody—then why crypto?” he said while speaking to Decrypt earlier this week. But he’s not dogmatic about self-custody being the only way that users should store their Bitcoin.
He compared having multiple ways to custody crypto to the number of different bank accounts any one family might have. Very few families commit all their assets to any one or one type of account.
“Welcome to real life, where you do some things with this service and some things with that service. And the best part about crypto and digital assets, generally, is that you have choice,” Rogers said. “And at the end of the day, you also have ownership.”
There’s more on the horizon for the partnership, the Ledger exec added. He hinted that users might this year see the ability to set up recurring buys on Coinbase through their Ledger Live app—something that Coinbase users can already do directly do on the exchange.
