Singapore police say tampered Ledger wallets cost users $2.7 million, with first report dated Sept. 10

Singapore police have confirmed at least two cases involving tampered Ledger hardware wallets, with combined losses of about 3.5 million Singapore dollars ($2.7 million). For PSPs and exchanges, the useful detail is not just the loss figure, but the timing: the first local report appears to date back to Sept. 10, almost a month before the wider incident became public.

1. In an October 28 consumer alert, the Singapore Police Force said at least two tampered Ledger wallet cases had been reported since Sept. 10. The advisory put combined losses at about 3.5 million Singapore dollars ($2.7 million). It also means the first Singapore report predates the public disclosure of the broader incident by almost a month.
2. The October 28 alert did not make clear whether the Sept. 10 case was reported to police on that date or entered later. The police said the investigation was still at a preliminary stage. That leaves an open operational question for the market: when the first local complaint came in, and whether an earlier public warning could have been issued.
3. Ledger issued a public alert on Oct. 9 after tampered devices were found in the CryptoBilis supply chain. It said almost $100 million had been drained from wallets containing spyware components. On Oct. 13, Ledger asked retailers in Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Hong Kong to suspend sales of Ledger devices while investigations continued.
4. The timing matters for high-risk crypto operations because hardware-wallet compromise sits at the intersection of supply chain risk, customer support, and fraud response. If users are moving funds through exchanges, OTC desks, or payment rails linked to these wallets, the practical issue is not only device integrity but how quickly alerts propagate across jurisdictions.

In parallel, Singapore is also pushing ahead with its BLOOM initiative, short for Borderless, Liquid, Open, Online, Multi-currency. Bank Negara Malaysia and the Bank of Thailand joined as policymaker members on Friday. BLOOM was launched by the Monetary Authority of Singapore in October last year and counts Airwallex, Mastercard, Ripple, Visa and the World Bank Group among its members. DBS, meanwhile, said almost 90% of 422 global businesses surveyed are either adopting, or interested in adopting, tokenized cash to speed up payments.

South Korea is dealing with its own digital-asset policy delays. Government officials are reportedly weighing another postponement of the cryptocurrency tax, currently scheduled for January 2027, with a possible move to 2029. The policy would impose a 22% tax on crypto gains for investors earning more than 2.5 million Korean won ($1,883) annually.

And on the operational side, Bithumb said its in-house mobile system was hacked and personal information leaked, while brokerage Daishin Securities reported roughly 38,000 customer records exposed and asset manager Mirae Asset Global Investments confirmed a hacking incident.