Crypto thieves sell hardware wallets with secret eSIM

Cybercriminals have been intercepting and modifying Ledger Nano X hardware wallets—inserting hidden chips including an LTE modem and eSIM to intercept and transmit seed phrases to attackers—resulting in approximately $93 million in stolen cryptocurrency from over 300 affected wallets. The manipulated devices were primarily sold through Cryptobilis, a Southeast Asian wallet dealer, with suspicion that the company changed ownership to Chinese operators without announcement. Ledger has acknowledged the issue but has not confirmed full details, while authorities recommend affected buyers move their holdings to secure wallets immediately.