Aleo + Ledger: Shielded transactions, hardware-secured keys.
Aleo + Ledger: Shielded transactions, hardware-secured keys.
Aleo is now integrated into Ledger Wallet™ bringing fully shielded zero-knowledge (ZK) transactions to hardware-secured self-custody for the first time on the Aleo network. Sender, receiver, and amount remain private, while your keys never leave your Ledger signer.
Shielded transaction support on hardware wallets has been an open problem in the privacy space for many years. While other ZK privacy preserving chains have tried; Aleo has become the first major chain to ship fully private transactions on a leading hardware wallet platform. Hardware wallets were historically built for transparent chains, where every transaction detail is public and signing is straightforward. Shielded transactions require generating zero-knowledge proofs over private state — a fundamentally different signing flow most hardware platforms haven’t solved for. Adapting to handle zero-knowledge proof generation over private state required a dedicated technical collaboration between the Aleo and Ledger engineering teams - and is now live in Ledger Wallet™ across Ledger's 8 million+ devices.
Why it matters
Privacy and security are different problems. Privacy protects the information around your activity: what you hold, who you transact with, how much. Security protects access to your assets. Until now, Aleo users wanting both had to make a tradeoff: keep funds in a hot wallet to access shielded transfers, or use a custody platform but lose the privacy layer. Institutions, businesses, and individuals moving real value on-chain need both: privacy and security.
The threat model has evolved. Physical attacks targeting known digital asset holders have risen sharply in the past two years. Lists of high-net-worth wallet addresses circulate openly; in some cases, holders' personal information has been leaked and sold. On a transparent blockchain, anyone with your address can see exactly what you hold and target you accordingly. A hardware wallet protects your keys, but it can't protect you from being targeted in the first place if your balances are fully visible.
Aleo plus Ledger closes both gaps. Holdings and transactions are shielded by zero-knowledge proofs — there's nothing for an attacker to see, no balance to target. And keys never leave the device. For long-term holders, treasury managers, and anyone holding meaningful balances they don't want broadcast to the world, the equally critical requirements of privacy and security are both satisfied.
Why Ledger
Ledger has set the benchmark for hardware security in crypto for over a decade. Their "don't trust, verify" principle is the natural counterpart to zero-knowledge cryptography — both replace trust in third parties with verifiable guarantees. Bringing the two layers together makes private, self-custodied finance practical and secure for both institutions and individual users.
"At Ledger, our foundation is built on uncompromising security. This partnership with Aleo represents a pivotal moment, merging our hardware-based security with their zero-knowledge cryptography. For the first time, users can have the mathematical certainty of privacy without ever exposing their keys to an online environment. It's an excellent marriage of security and privacy." — Charles Guillemet, CTO, Ledger
What's next
Native asset support is live today. Private stablecoin support — including USAD and USDCx on Aleo (in partnership with Paxos Labs and Circle, respectively) — is next on the roadmap. When it ships, dollar-denominated transactions on Aleo will carry the same privacy and security combination: amounts and counterparties shielded by zero-knowledge proofs, keys signing from cold storage. Private payments, in dollars, with first-class hardware security. That's the bar we're building toward.
Aleo is the first to bring hardware-secured shielded transactions to its network. It won't be the last thing we ship that the privacy ecosystem has been waiting on.
