Ledger Announces Atom Touchscreen Android Device

Ledger's new Atom device will ship with Solana's Seeker app preinstalled, the companies announced on stage at Ledger's Op3n conference in Paris on Thursday.

Billed as a "signer" rather than a hardware wallet, the Atom is an Android-powered touchscreen device equipped with a data-only eSIM and Ledger's Secure Element, enabling users to send and receive encrypted messages with other Atom users as well as perform crypto transactions in the manner of its range of wallets. To do so, the device switches into a Ledger OS-powered "Secure Mode" for sensitive operations such as signing transactions and authorising AI agent requests.

The Atom sports a 6.77-inch OLED display, rear camera and 4,000mAh battery, and runs on a Qualcomm Dragonwing chip. It also incorporates a hardware privacy switch that physically cuts power to the camera and microphone.

The device also runs third-party apps, and will come preinstalled with Solana's Seeker app after Solana Mobile named Ledger as its first hardware expansion partner. Seeker combines Solana Mobile's wallet with its Solana dapp Store, which lists more than 1,500 decentralized apps, and will appear on Atom's home screen. Until now, the store was available on Solana Mobile's own Seeker phone.

Ledger Atom runs on the Android Open Source Project, the free, open version of Google's mobile operating system, alongside a Secure Element chip running Ledger OS. Its display and touch controls are physically isolated from Android, according to the release, and approvals in the Seeker app happen in a "Secure Mode" backed by the Secure Element.

"Having the Seeker app on Ledger Atom from day one just makes sense, so Ledger users get access to the Solana ecosystem without giving up any of the security," said Ian Rogers, Ledger's chief human agency officer.

Solana Mobile began opening its software stack to other Android manufacturers in March. Samsung Wallet also recently added USDC transfers on Solana. Seeker has handled more than $13 billion in transaction volume and 154 million transactions, according to the company, which says it has sold more than 200,000 devices across Seeker and its earlier Saga phone.

Hardware makers that integrate the stack can earn rewards in SKR, the native token of the Solana Mobile ecosystem, which also rewards users and developers, the release said.

Existing Seeker phones will remain fully supported, Solana Mobile said. Reservations for Ledger Atom are open now, though neither company has given a price or shipping date.

Ledger investigates tampered devices

The Ledger Atom will include anti-tampering and tamper-evident features from the packaging to the device itself, according to the press release, including ways to help detect whether the enclosure has been opened, and will only be sold through Ledger's official site.

The announcement of the Atom comes at an awkward time for Ledger, as the firm investigates tampered devices in its reseller network linked to a suspected $87 million wallet drain.

The company this week disclosed that its Donjon security team had found an implant in a hardware wallet sold through Southeast Asian reseller CryptoBilis that captures recovery phrases during setup and sends them out over LTE. On Tuesday, it asked resellers in six Southeast Asian countries and Hong Kong to pull its devices from shelves.