Ledger and Payward enable offline storage for tokenized stocks

Ledger and Payward announced a partnership that lets investors buy tokenized stocks and store them on offline Ledger devices. Payward's xStocks platform can require a signature on a Ledger device before a customer completes a transaction. Ledger devices will include an xStocks integration. Ledger devices support trading in addition to custody. The integration initially covers only Payward's tokenized stocks. Ledger is discussing similar integrations with Coinbase, Binance, and Robinhood. Sebastien Badault is a Ledger executive leading the tie-up. Badault said Ledger expects tokenized stocks to make offline storage appealing to some of its approximately 8 million customers. Those customers include retail and institutional users who prefer self-custody. Badault identified traditional stock buyers as another potential customer group. He said some of those buyers may be growing uneasy about hackers in the age of artificial intelligence and quantum computing. Tokenized stocks took off last year. Tokenized stocks recently received an innovation exemption from the SEC. Tokenized stocks have primarily gained traction overseas. They represent a tiny portion of the broader stock market. A recent security incident involving a little-known hardware wallet maker has prompted debate over whether self-custody is viable for crypto users. Payward co-CEO David Ripley said the partnership is building toward a future in which secure self-custody and global financial infrastructure work together.