Introducing Ledger Atom™: The Device Built for Privacy & Convenience

We’ve moved our digital lives onto devices built to share, not to secure. Now we’re handing AI agents control over our wealth, identities, and privacy, just as attackers are getting faster. Google expects AI to speed up how they find and exploit vulnerabilities this year, and commercial spyware vendors overtook state-sponsored groups in attributed zero-day exploitation in 2025. Quantum computing adds a longer-term threat to the encryption these devices rely on.

These risks mean software can be manipulated and so can the screens it controls. Since 2014, every one of the 8 million Ledger signers sold has been built on the idea that the screen you look at, and the button you press, should be the only way to approve a transaction, and no software should be able to fake either one.

Ledger Atom is a new kind of Ledger signer. It’s a connected device that runs everyday apps*, while a separate Secure Element running Ledger OS handles every sensitive action. 

Ledger Atom provides a full mobile operating system, everyday apps*, and direct internet access, all built into the same device, without exposing your keys, your approvals, or your private communications to the risks that usually come with being connected.

What Is Ledger Atom?

Ledger Atom is a security and privacy device that features a hardened operating system with a Secure Element running Ledger OS, alongside all your favourite everyday apps*. These two independent environments share one screen while securing your wealth, AI agents, and privacy, with the same signing guarantees as every Ledger signer.

Every Ledger signer, including Ledger Stax™, Ledger Flex™, and Ledger Nano™ devices, pairs with a phone or computer running Ledger Wallet™, the app that enables access to crypto transaction services provided by third parties. You can then check and approve transactions with your Ledger signer. 

Ledger Atom brings that pairing onto a single device. Standard Mode runs the Ledger Wallet app directly, alongside third-party apps*, while Ledger OS still does the one job every Ledger signer has always done: it holds the private keys and decides whether to sign. 

How Does Ledger Atom Keep Standard Mode Away from Your Keys?

Ledger Atom runs in one of two states at any moment, shown at a glance on the Secure Bar, a reserved strip at the top of the screen that only Ledger OS controls and Standard Mode cannot draw into.

Standard Mode is the everyday state. It has full control of the screen and touch panel for browsing, third-party apps*, and other general use.

Secure Mode takes over whenever a sensitive action needs your approval, such as signing a transaction, authorizing an AI agent’s request, or confirming your identity. A dedicated Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), sitting physically between the processor that runs Standard Mode and the display, cuts Standard Mode’s access to the screen and touch panel the instant Secure Mode activates. Ledger OS then renders the transaction details itself, reads your Ledger OS PIN and your tap directly, and decides whether to sign, all without Standard Mode being able to see, alter, or forge any part of that exchange. 

The two sides also keep separate secrets and separate ways in. On the Standard Mode side, your fingerprint, pattern, or password unlocks the device, and Standard Mode has its own Secure Element for device credentials, the same category of protection used in current-generation smartphone security chips. 

On the Ledger OS side, a distinct Ledger OS PIN authorizes every sensitive approval, and it is designed not to be transmitted to, stored by, or accessible from Standard Mode. Ledger OS also has its own, separate Secure Element that generates and stores your seed and private keys, the same role a Secure Element chip plays in every other Ledger signer. Unlocking Standard Mode does not unlock Ledger OS.

Even a fully compromised Standard Mode cannot see what is on screen during Secure Mode, cannot read what you type, cannot modify anything displayed, and cannot inject a tap, because the FPGA cuts Standard Mode off from the display and touch panel while Ledger OS controls them. Software in Standard Mode can draw a fake approval screen, but it cannot draw in the Secure Bar, because the FPGA discards anything Standard Mode sends to that area. The Secure Bar will not show Secure Mode, which exposes the attempt.

How Do You Back Up Your Seed Phrase on Ledger Atom?

Your seed phrase is backed up the same way as on every Ledger signer, and it never lives anywhere Standard Mode can reach. Ledger OS generates the seed phrase inside its own Secure Element at setup, and it does not live in Standard Mode storage. Nothing from Secure Mode is synced or backed up to Standard Mode unless Ledger OS grants explicit access, so cloud backup and sync features in Standard Mode do not include your seed phrase.

Instead, you create your backup deliberately during setup, using one or more of three options:

• 24-word Secret Recovery Phrase. This is the foundation of every Ledger backup, written on a recovery sheet and kept offline.
• Ledger Recovery Key. This PIN-protected card stores your 24-word phrase in a Secure Element chip, and it works with Ledger Atom as it does with Ledger’s other touchscreen signers. It is an additional backup alongside the recovery sheet, not a replacement for it.
• Ledger Recover™. This optional, user-initiated service splits an encrypted version of your seed phrase into three fragments, each held by a separate, independent provider, and restores it after identity verification. Setting it up requires your PIN and your consent on the device, and your seed phrase itself never leaves the Secure Element.

Whichever you choose, Ledger will never ask for your 24 words.

What Can You Do with Ledger Atom?

Ledger Atom is more than a place to manage digital assets, messages, agents, logins, and passwords. It puts a secure screen in your pocket that apps* can call on whenever something needs your approval. Whatever the app does, the same rule applies: nothing happens without you, because your approval is given on hardware that no software can reach. 

Third-party apps* run in Standard Mode, and developers can add hardware-backed approvals through the planned Ledger Atom SDK, so the uses below are a starting point, not a limit.

Three areas of everyday use show what that looks like, each backed by the same Secure Mode approval.

Manage Your Digital Assets

Ledger Wallet runs directly on Ledger Atom, so you can buy, sell, swap, yield***, and check your portfolio from the device itself without needing to pair it with a separate phone or computer. Transactions still go through Clear Signing and Transaction Check before you approve them on the Secure Screen, the same visibility Ledger Wallet gives you today. You never have to switch modes yourself. Ledger OS recognizes when an action in a compatible app* needs your approval, such as signing a transaction, and takes over the screen automatically, so the Secure Screen appears at exactly the moments that matter. 

Keep Your AI Agents Working While You Stay in Control

AI agents** are increasingly able to take actions on your behalf, including monitoring markets, drafting transactions, or managing routine tasks. The catch is that when an agent needs your approval, it stops and the whole job waits for you. Run several agents, and they all wait on you at once, competing for your attention.

Ledger Agent Intent addresses that bottleneck. Approval requests from all your agents stack up in a single queue while the agents keep working on everything else. You review the queue when you’re ready, choosing to approve a request once, always allow a routine action, or deny it. Anything that moves your digital assets still waits for your physical approval on the Secure Screen, and an agent never holds your keys or your private data.

Ledger Agent Intent works across compatible Ledger signers, with Ledger Atom as the primary target device, and integrates with the OpenClaw agent platform at launch. Venice AI, a private AI service, also works with Agent Intent, so your agent gets the intelligence it needs without your wealth, company, or identity flowing through a large central AI provider.

Keep a Conversation Private

Encryption protects a message on its way to you, but you still read it on a phone, and malware on that phone can read it too. Soon, Ledger Atom will add an encryption feature that lets you encrypt a message inside a messaging app* before you send it, using GPG/OpenPGP. The messaging app you are using never sees the unencrypted text. Only Ledger OS can decrypt it, and only on another Ledger Atom in Secure Mode, so Standard Mode only ever handles scrambled text, even if malware is watching. Messaging apps* themselves remain provided by third parties.

Cyber50, which provides secure communication infrastructure to key organizations in the United Arab Emirates, will use Ledger Atom as part of its security stack.

The Physical Switch

Ledger Atom includes a Privacy Switch: a physical switch that cuts power to the camera and microphone at the circuit level. Because the cut happens in hardware, no app, no operating system compromise, and no remote attacker can override it. Independently of the switch position, both the camera and microphone are also cut automatically any time Secure Mode is active.

Ledger Atom also supports Genuine Check, the same kind of authenticity verification available on other Ledger signers, adapted for a self-contained device. A second device confirms a cryptographic attestation issued by Ledger OS to verify that the hardware and firmware in your Ledger Atom are genuine.

How Is Ledger Atom Verified?

Ledger does not ask you to take its security claims on faith. Several layers of independent and internal review apply to Ledger Atom:

• Common Criteria EAL6+ is a chip-level security assurance level. It applies to the Secure Element that runs Ledger OS on Ledger Atom, the same assurance level used in Ledger signers from the Ledger Nano S Plus™ onward, and it evaluates resistance to physical tampering, side-channel attacks, and hardware probing.
• CSPN is a product-level security evaluation by ANSSI (the French national cybersecurity agency) that assesses end-to-end behavior such as key storage, transaction signing, and Genuine Check. Ledger Atom will undergo CSPN evaluation as a complete product.
• Ledger Donjon, Ledger’s internal security research team, reviews the full split architecture under the assumption that Standard Mode is already compromised, including the FPGA isolation logic and the firmware update path.
• Firmware on Ledger Atom is built to be reproducible, meaning an independent party can rebuild it from the same source and get an identical result, and every production firmware update requires signatures from multiple separate Ledger-controlled keys before it can ship.

How Does Ledger Atom Compare to a Phone’s Built-In Security Chip?

Some smartphones already ship with a dedicated security chip that stores cryptographic keys in tamper-resistant hardware. That is a genuine improvement over software-only key storage, and Standard Mode on Ledger Atom relies on the same category of protection for ordinary device credentials.

Crucially, however, the approach to blockchain signing works differently on Ledger Atom. Rather than relying on a general-purpose security chip for sensitive signing, transaction details are rendered on a screen that Standard Mode cannot access, the PIN and approval tap travel over a touch path that is physically disconnected from Standard Mode at the hardware level, and the signing keys never leave the separate Secure Element running Ledger OS.

This is an important architectural distinction. The security chip that still shares a display and touch path with the main operating system protects stored keys, while physically isolating the display and touch path during signing protects the approval itself.

Ledger Atom is also quantum-ready by design. Its Secure Element is ready to be updated with post-quantum cryptography (PQC) protocols, the algorithms designed to stay secure against attacks from quantum computers, so the part of the device that holds your keys and signatures is built for that future.

The Ledger Model for Secure Hardware, Extended

Ledger Atom does not change what a Ledger signer is for. Your seed still lives only inside a Secure Element, and your approval still has to happen on a screen and through a touch path that software cannot reach. What changes is how much you can do when a connected device enforces the same signing model as every Ledger signer before it.

Founder’s Edition reservations for Ledger Atom open ahead of general availability, secured with a refundable deposit. Get the speed and scale of AI, with the security and approvals you control, and secure your wealth, your AI agents, and your privacy on one device. 

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Ledger Atom Replace My Phone?

No. Ledger Atom is not a smartphone. It is a data-only mobile device that connects to 4G/5G networks for data only, without cellular voice calls or SMS, so it cannot be used to make calls over the mobile network or to reach emergency services. It is not designed to replace your phone.

Does Ledger Atom Replace My Existing Ledger Signer?

No. Ledger Agent Intent and Ledger Wallet work across compatible Ledger signers, not only on Ledger Atom. Ledger Atom adds capabilities that only work when signing and connectivity live on the same device, such as running Ledger Wallet without a paired phone, but it does not make earlier Ledger signers obsolete.

Can Standard Mode See What Happens In Secure Mode?

No. When Secure Mode is active, the FPGA disconnects the processor that runs Standard Mode from the display and touch panel at the hardware level. Ledger OS renders the screen and reads the touch input directly, and Standard Mode has no path to observe or influence any part of that exchange, even if it is fully compromised.

Do I Need Ledger Recover To Use Ledger Atom?

No. Ledger Recover is one optional backup method among several. You can use the 24-word recovery phrase or a Ledger Recovery Key instead, and Ledger Atom works the same way regardless of which backup method you choose.

Is Ledger Atom Quantum Ready?

Yes. Ledger Atom is quantum-ready by design. Its Secure Element is ready to be updated with post-quantum cryptography protocols as the algorithms NIST finalized in 2024 are adopted across the industry.

*App availability depends on certifications and licences and will be confirmed before your device ships.

**AI agents are third-party services. For more info, visit Ledger.com.

***Crypto transaction services are provided by third-party providers. Ledger provides no advice or recommendations on use of these third-party services. Rewards are not guaranteed.