Reports said that Coinbase Wallet, an in-house wallet service offered by prominent crypto exchange Coinbase, has rolled out browser extension support for Ledger hardware wallets.
It has been reported that the Coinbase Wallet extension, available in the Chrome Web Store, is a noncustodial wallet that allows users to store and transact cryptocurrencies and nonfungible tokens (NFT). By adding support for Ledger, Coinbase users can opt to use a physical Ledger device to store the private keys to their wallets offline.
Adam Zadikoff, the Senior Product Manager of Coinbase, highlighted the development as being a means to providing an additional layer of security and greater peace of mind for users.
He said:
“We want to empower everyone to use DApps and access Web3, and that requires building the easiest-to-use and most accessible self-custody wallet in the ecosystem. Today’s release solves [..] the ability to use a hardware wallet for enhanced security.”
However, as a part of the launch, Coinbase has partnered with Ledger to release a limited-edition Coinbase-branded Nano X hardware wallet on Ledger’s official website. As previously reported, Coinbase reportedly stores about 12% of all crypto across more than 150 asset types, with the company’s chief financial officer, Alesia Haas.
Haas stated:
“Nearly 50% of our transacting customers are doing something other than buying and selling crypto, which indicates to us that crypto is moving beyond its initial investment phase into the long-expected utility phase.”
The report said that the rising vulnerabilities for crypto wallets built as browser extensions, such as MetaMask, Binance Chain Wallet, and Coinbase Wallet, owing to the launch of a new malware called Mars Stealer. The malware targets over 40 browser-based crypto wallets by exploiting two-factor authenticators via a grabber function that steals users’ private keys.
Thus, according to security researcher 3xp0rt, the new malware is a powerful upgrade to the information-stealing Oski trojan. The researcher also noted that the malware can target all Chromium-based browsers, including Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and Brave.
Source: Cointelegraph