Ledger releases its first product, the Ledger Nano — a Bitcoin hardware wallet built on smartcard security. The company emerged from the merger of BTChip, Chronocoin, and La Maison du Bitcoin, combining French cryptography expertise with hardware manufacturing.
The original Nano was a compact USB device focused on affordability and ease of use. Ledger would go on to become the highest-volume hardware wallet manufacturer in the world, though the company later drew controversy from the Bitcoin community over its key extraction firmware update in 2023.
Wikipedia: Ledger