Ledger, a maker of cryptocurrency hardware wallets, has stopped pursuing a U.S. stock market listing and an initial public offering.

Cryptopolitan, a blockchain media outlet, reported on May 13 that Ledger has officially put its previously reviewed listing plan on hold after concluding market conditions are unfavorable.

Ledger has been sounding out the possibility of an IPO since early this year by contacting financial institutions including Goldman Sachs, Jefferies and Barclays. Its valuation was discussed at about $4 billion at the time. It had not yet submitted a confidential S-1 filing to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, widely seen as the first formal step toward a U.S. listing.

With the listing drive halted, Ledger is shifting its focus to other fundraising options. Private investment is being discussed as an alternative. The approach would secure the needed funds through private capital rather than public markets.

Ledger makes hardware devices that allow cryptocurrency holders to store their private keys offline. It was founded in Paris, France, in 2014 and was valued at about $1.5 billion in 2023. Its annual revenue is said to exceed $100 million.

Behind the company’s decision to delay the listing is a cooling cryptocurrency IPO market. A listing trend continued for a period in 2025, but investment demand for new listings weakened as market volatility increased, cryptocurrency prices fell and trading volumes declined. Ledger also cited “unfavorable market conditions” as its reason.

A similar pattern has appeared at other companies. Kraken, a major U.S. cryptocurrency exchange, submitted confidential paperwork to the SEC at the end of 2025, but halted a multibillion-dollar IPO early this year. BitGo is effectively the only cryptocurrency company to complete a U.S. IPO in 2026, but its post-listing share performance fell short of expectations. BitGo raised about $213 million in January and priced its offering at $18, above the indicated range, but the share price, which had risen more than 20 percent shortly after listing, quickly lost momentum and is now trading about 36 percent below the offering price.

Ledger is not abandoning its U.S. market expansion. It opened a new office in New York in March and appointed John Andrews (존 앤드루스), formerly of Circle Internet, as chief financial officer. Andrews handled capital markets and investor relations at Circle, the issuer of the USDC stablecoin.

Ledger described the New York office as part of a multimillion-dollar investment to expand its U.S. business. The base will serve as an operations hub for Ledger Enterprise, an infrastructure platform for corporate clients, and is expected to create dozens of new jobs within the company.

Chief Executive Pascal Gauthier (파스칼 고티에) has publicly shown interest in U.S. capital markets. He told reporters in January that cryptocurrency money is “in New York today, nowhere else in the world, and especially not in Europe.” The listing is on hold, but the company appears to be maintaining its direction of seeking funding and business opportunities in the United States.

In this flow, Ledger’s decision shows that crypto companies’ listing strategies are becoming conservative again beyond an individual company’s judgment. Until the market stabilises, more cases may emerge that prioritise private fundraising and business expansion over heading straight for a U.S. stock market listing.