Ledger’s Nano S Exodus: Is the 'Hard Wallet King' Losing His Crown?

The End of an Era

In 2025, Ledger dropped a bomb: the Nano S, their 2016 flagship, will no longer receive app updates or new features by year-end. It’s not a sudden death—it’s a slow fade forced by 320KB of memory. But for millions who still rely on it, this feels less like innovation and more like abandonment.

I remember when the Nano S first launched—\(79, sleek metal casing, instant cold storage credibility. By 2019 alone, Ledger made over \)118M from it. That was their iPhone 4 moment: simple, powerful, trusted.

Now they’re telling users to upgrade—or face obsolescence.

Why It Hurts More Than Just Hardware

Here’s where things get messy. The Nano S still runs BTC and ETH perfectly fine. You can send and receive. But you can’t use new apps—like those for DeFi or NFTs—because space is gone.

And yes, memory limits are real. But so is timing.

Ledger kept selling the Nano S into 2022 (and even later via third-party resellers). Then suddenly announce deprecation in 2025? That’s not strategy—it’s customer betrayal wrapped in technical jargon.

Charles Guillemet says they’re “evolving” for modern needs. Fair enough—but evolution shouldn’t come at the cost of trust.

A Community in Disarray

The reaction? Predictable but painful.

• @sudo called it “unethical”—forced upgrades while legacy support vanishes.
• @CryptoCharged said he’d been loyal for seven years; now he feels betrayed.
• @BAYC_5511 declared war: “No more Ledger products.”

It wasn’t just anger—it was grief. For many, that little silver device held years of savings, memories of early crypto days… even spiritual comfort during market crashes.

This isn’t a product cycle anymore; it’s emotional labor being outsourced to wallets.

The Competitive Surge You Can’t Ignore

While Ledger stumbles on optics, others are watching closely—and moving fast. Zach Herbert from FOUNDATION (makers of Passport Prime) laid out four damning points: 1️⃣ Selling old hardware while ditching support? Apple does better with iOS updates—even on older iPhones. 2️⃣ Security patches should last longer than three years in a high-stakes environment like crypto storage. 3️⃣ Open-source apps exist—but Ledger blocks community contributions due to closed ecosystems (a red flag). 4️⃣ With ~4 million users on Nano S alone—and most likely upgrading—the potential revenue lift could exceed $500M if done right… instead of driving them away through fear-mongering language.

Let me be clear: I respect Ledger’s technical excellence. They’ve built something rare—an ecosystem where people actually trust their keys are safe. But trust erodes when companies treat users like cash cows instead of partners in decentralization.

What Comes Next?

The real threat isn’t just competition—it’s perception. Users won’t buy another hard wallet unless they believe it will be supported for ten years minimum—not five or six with vague promises about “future compatibility” under fine print that only lawyers understand.* The irony? Crypto was born from distrust of institutions—and now we’re betting our digital wealth on a single company that decides when our devices go dark.* The DAO might fail—but Ledger shouldn’t be allowed to do so without accountability.* The question isn’t whether they can phase out old models—it’s whether they should, given their role as gatekeepers of sovereignty.* Enterprising devs may fork legacy apps—but can we really expect every holder of an ancient Nano S to become a programmer? The answer is no—and that makes this move riskier than any tech debt ledger ever carried.* The hard wallet battle isn’t won by specs alone; it’s won by reputation.*And right now? Ledger’s crown looks cracked.