While most tech executives hedge their bets with carefully worded statements about “exploring all options” when discussing public offerings, Ledger CEO Pascal Gauthier has taken an invigoratingly unambiguous stance: “It’s in the US or no IPO.” This declaration—bold to the point of seeming almost reckless in an industry where flexibility typically trumps ideology—reflects the French crypto hardware giant’s unwavering conviction that only American capital markets can propel the company toward its audacious $100 billion valuation target.
The mathematics behind this absolutist position become clearer when examining Ledger’s financial foundation. Having raised $575 million across multiple funding rounds (including a substantial $380 million Series B in June 2021), the company has assembled an impressive constellation of institutional backers, from Samsung Ventures to Molten Ventures.
The $575 million war chest, anchored by heavyweight investors like Samsung Ventures, validates Ledger’s unwavering American market fixation.
Yet even with unicorn status secured, Gauthier apparently views European or Asian exchanges as insufficient stepping stones toward the rarefied air of mega-cap valuations.
What makes this stance particularly intriguing is Ledger’s already formidable market position. The company has sold eight million hardware wallets—priced between €79 and €399—while building a diversified revenue model where software services now constitute roughly 50% of total income. The platform’s Ledger Live App has become increasingly sophisticated, enabling seamless integration with DeFi applications and supporting trading across over 5000 different tokens. These hardware wallets offer enhanced security compared to software alternatives, representing a crucial component in the broader Web3 ecosystem where users maintain full control over their digital assets.
When a company protects over 20% of global crypto assets and maintains profitability from inception (a genuine rarity in crypto), one might question why such rigid geographic constraints matter.
The answer lies in Gauthier’s broader vision of transforming Ledger from a crypto-focused entity into a thorough cybersecurity powerhouse. This expansion strategy, coupled with the launch of Ledger Enterprise in 2023, signals ambitions that extend far beyond hardware wallet sales. Gauthier’s previous experience leading Criteo’s NASDAQ IPO in 2013 provides crucial insight into his strategic thinking about public market execution.
American public markets, with their deeper liquidity pools and appetite for growth narratives, represent the most viable path toward the company’s astronomical valuation goals.
Whether this “US-or-nothing” gambit proves prescient or overly restrictive remains to be seen. With a three-year IPO timeline and plans to become a “very, very, very large enterprise” (the repetitive superlatives speak for themselves), Ledger has fundamentally placed a massive bet on American exceptionalism in capital allocation—a wager that will either vindicate Gauthier’s unwavering conviction or serve as a cautionary tale about the perils of inflexibility in global finance.
