Ledger wallet and luxury brand RTFKT announced a capsule collection at the NFT Paris: an educational collaboration to bring self-care to the masses.

Ledger wallet in partnership with RTFKT to launch capsule collection

During the NFT event in Paris, Ledger wallet and the leader in digital fashion and on-chain digital artifacts, RTFKT, announced their collaboration and new collection.

There will also be an education component to the partnership with @RTFKT branded Ledger Quests, designed and co-created with RTFKT to provide a high-quality learning experience and digital rewards. pic.twitter.com/2TrNxjP7MM

— Ledger (@Ledger) February 24, 2023

In essence, the partnership began with a physical release through a custom all-white edition of Ledger Nano S and Nano X, available for purchase as NFT and redeemable for the physical item.

Ledger wallet and RTFKT are also launching a third physical expression of their collaboration dedicated to RTFKT and Ledger Genesis holders and that is access to a limited edition Nano-case accessory. This is a super rare silver pendant with the RTFKT logo on the end caps, which will come with a Nano X.

Ledger wallet and the educational component of the partnership with RTFKT

The relationship of the two brands extends far beyond physical and virtual products for collectors, incorporating an educational component.

With their opening speech at the NFT Paris event, Ledger and RTFKT emphasize the importance of knowledge when entering the Web space3.

And indeed, with a high caliber of dedicated collectors, RTFKT decided to provide a safe and secure solution for its fans.

Joining Ledger, which is the leader in Web3 security, RTFKT is pushing luxury into its next iteration, providing an example of uncompromising innovation.

In this regard, RTFKT founder Benoit Pagotto said:

“We are doubling down on education so everyone understands how to safely secure their critical digital assets. We’re super proud to continue our collaboration with Ledger and to push it to the next level with these products, allowing everyone to get into digital collectibles safely and in RTFKT style.”

Virtually every item in the RTFKT Collection sold on Ledger Market is accompanied by RTFKT’s creative approach to education, which explains how to create a Cold Wallet and how to use it to safely navigate the Web3 space. 

As their partnership continues, RTFKT will bring new and exciting highly curated niche items to the Ledger Marketplace, establishing the platform as a prime destination for innovative and high-end digital collectibles.

Hence, there are more future collaborations in the pipeline, accompanying the RTFKT Quests to items on the Ledger Marketplace, so as to bring education to the masses, demonstrating both the physical and digital aspects of the evergreen partnership and emphasizing the role of hardware in security.

Growing need for hardware wallets in the US

Recently, research by ResearchAndMarkets.com stated that there will be an increase in the need for hardware wallets in the US for years to come. This is a growth forecast with a CAGR of 26.5% over the next few years.

The cause is increased awareness regarding security, especially for proper practices of storing secret keys and then safely storing them in self-custody.

Indeed, what Ledger does and prides itself on is precisely to provide a self-custody solution through its hardware wallets, which precisely makes sure that no one but the wallet owner knows the private key and the seed of his/her wallet. 

The company’s best-selling product is the Ledger Nano S Plus, although it is not the company’s flagship product.

In fact, it is the cheapest hardware wallet that supports more than 5,000 tokens and crypto assets on different blockchains, allows staking and also supports NFTs. Not only that, the Ledger Nano S Plus is also connected to an exchange that enables buying and selling.

The increase in volumes after the collapse of FTX

Back in November, Ledger had experienced some problems due to massive outflows from the collapsed crypto-exchange FTX. 

In fact, the company had announced that it was experiencing disproportionate utilization of its platforms and was addressing scalability issues.

In essence, exchange users were driven by the “fear” of seeing their crypto-assets blocked and were turning en masse to the hardware wallet leader.

Not only that, Ledger also witnessed particularly high volumes of traffic after the failure of Celsius and after the Solana hack. 

Founded in Paris in 2014, Ledger is a global platform for digital assets and Web3. With more than 5 million devices sold to consumers in 200 countries and more than 10 languages, more than 100 financial institutions and brands as customers, 20% of the world’s crypto assets are protected, in addition to services that support trading, buying, spending, earning and NFTs.

The Coinbase Wallet app update disables the NFT feature at Apple‘s request, so users of the platform get caught up in Apple’s in-app purchase problems. 

In addition, it appears that the operating system giant has asked Coinbase to pay a 30% fee on gas used to transfer NFT in-app, according to Watcher.Guru‘s Twitter account: 

JUST IN: Apple blocks #Coinbase Wallet app release, requesting 30% of all NFT transfer gas fees.

— Watcher.Guru (@WatcherGuru) December 1, 2022

Coinbase stresses: impossible to meet Apple’s demand 

Following the controversy stirred up by Apple, Coinbase Wallet sent out an app update that discontinues NFT functionality. This is because Apple has disabled the feature until NFT gas fees can be paid through its in-app purchase system. 

The official Coinbase Wallet Twitter account reads: 

You might have noticed you can’t send NFTs on Coinbase Wallet iOS anymore. This is because Apple blocked our last app release until we disabled the feature.

— Coinbase Wallet (@CoinbaseWallet) December 1, 2022

This could prevent users from transferring non-fungible tokens to other wallets or giving them to friends or family members via Coinbase Wallet iOS.

As an alternative solution, Wallet users can import their recovery phrase into a non-iOS dApp wallet to regain access to NFT transfers, such as the Coinbase Wallet browser extension, MetaMask or Trust Wallet, keeping in mind all security practices. 

Moreover, Coinbase said that for anyone who understands how NFTs and blockchain work, Apple’s request is impossible:

“Apple’s proprietary in-app purchase system doesn’t support cryptocurrencies, so we couldn’t adjust even if we tried.”

Coinbase also said that the request made by Apple is similar to when the company sought a reduction in fees for each email sent through open Internet protocols. 

One of the biggest problems with this move by Apple is that iOS users who hold their NFTs in an iPhone wallet have to go through a lengthy process to transfer the NFTs.

In this regard, Coinbase stated: 

“Simply put, Apple introduced new policies to protect its bottom line at the expense of consumer investment in NFTs and developer innovation in the crypto ecosystem.”

Coinbase Wallet says it is willing to help Apple overcome what it hopes is an oversight on behalf of the company, which is protecting its profits at the expense of consumers and developers.

The action will surely affect an entire sector of iOS users who keep their NFTs in their iPhone wallets. It is unclear whether the decision will be overturned or affect the entire ecosystem.

This is not a first for Apple: before Coinbase there was the dispute with Fortnite by Epic Games

Before the dispute with Coinbase, Apple had to face another one with the publisher of Fortnite Epic Games, which sued Apple in 2020 for not allowing it to use its payment platform instead of in-app purchases through the App Store.

Appeals in the Epic Games vs Apple App Store lawsuit officially began a few weeks ago, continuing the high-stakes legal dispute in what could be a years-long trial.

Indeed, within a few weeks, a disagreement between Epic Games’ ambitions and Apple’s intention to maintain the status quo of the App Store has courted quite a bit of controversy. 

The affair began with consumer warnings, but quickly attracted international interest as the battle sought to change one of the core elements of the App Store: how much Apple makes.

Apple’s dominance has previously led to an antitrust investigation by the US Department of Justice into App Store fees and policies. However, the disagreement between Apple and Epic is being made more public and directly affects younger customers.

Although the fight is primarily between Epic Games and Apple, it has already seen other parties come in with their own comments and opinions on the matter, including developers of other apps included in the App Store.

Further backlash for Coinbase: the exchange’s difficulties after FTX 

Coinbase’s problem with Apple comes at a difficult time for the cryptocurrency exchange, whose shares are down about 80% so far this year. In addition, the company has also found itself forced to cut jobs to manage expenses as investors are losing interest in cryptocurrencies.

NFTs, on the other hand, which are digital assets that exist on the blockchain and carry unique digital signatures, exploded in popularity in 2021, but have seen demand crippled by the cryptocurrency winter in recent months.

Cryptocurrencies have been rattled by higher interest rates and concerns of an economic recession forcing investors to offload risky assets with the recent collapse of rival exchange FTX also piling pressure on the sector.

However, despite the current difficulties in the crypto world, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong had previously reassured his users that his company had no material exposure to FTX or Alameda. 

In addition, Coinbase’s Armstrong had previously been quick to emphasize the exchange’s strength, stating: 

“I think it’s important to reinforce what differentiates Coinbase at a time like this. This event appears to be the result of risky business practices, including conflicts of interest between deeply intertwined entities and misuse of client funds.”

In fact, according to Armstrong, Coinbase is staying very far away from these kinds of risky situations and behaviors, and also reassures that the platform does not use customer funds in any way, unless expressly directed by it, and that customers can withdraw their funds at any time.

GameStop has announced the launch of its new self-custodial Ethereum wallet that leverages Loopring Layer 2 technology for dApps as well as storing crypto and NFTs. 

In its beta version, the wallet from the games retailer is available as an extension for browsers and iPhones. 

GameStop and the launch of its new Ethereum Layer 2 wallet

Yesterday, in a series of tweets, GameStop announced the launch of its new self-custodial Ethereum Layer 2 wallet. 

Securely store, send & use ETH, NFTs & ERC20 tokens with GameStop’s self custodial Ethereum Wallet.

— GameStop (@GameStop) May 23, 2022

“It’s official! The GameStop Wallet is here. Download: https://wallet.gamestop.com Follow: @GameStopNFT.

Securely store, send & use ETH, NFTs & ERC20 tokens with GameStop’s self custodial Ethereum Wallet”.

The main focus of the new Ethereum-based wallet is to store, send and receive ETH, NFTs and ERC20 tokens as well as interacting with dApps, using Loopring’s Layer 2 ZK-rollup technology. 

In this way, it will be possible to transact on Ethereum Layer 2 and achieve cheaper and faster transactions than on Ethereum Layer 1 Mainnet. Indeed, the website shows that the average fee for transactions on Loopring is $0.75, while on Ethereum L1 it is $65. 

GameStop Wallet on Ethereum, similar to MetaMask

As with all decentralized, self-custodial wallets, GameStop explains in its tweets that no one can know the secret 12-word recovery phrase entered by the user when creating the wallet, and that if it is lost, there is no way to access the wallet. 

Not only that, GameStop’s new wallet on Ethereum is available in its beta version as a browser extension, just like MetaMask. 

This means that it is a web browser add-on that adds a cryptocurrency wallet to the menu bar. 

In this way, one can store and exchange cryptocurrencies and NFTs directly in decentralized applications such as GameStop’s upcoming NFT Marketplace, without ever having to leave the web browser window.

The NFT Marketplace with Immutable X

It was in February 2022 that GameStop revealed that it had signed a partnership with Immutable X, with the aim of creating a new NFT marketplace. To realize this goal, the two companies would create a $100 million fund. 

The large American video game chain had already unveiled its use of the Ethereum blockchain, while Immutable X had stated that it would be able to reduce the consumption of fees by bundling many NFT sales into a single Ethereum transaction and also purchase carbon offsets. 

The launch of GameStop’s NFT marketplace is expected to be ready by the end of 2022.