Cold wallets & DEX the next big thing

The ripple effect of crypto exchange FTX going bankrupt has been taking a toll on the digital currency sector. Bitcoin prices saw significant volatility. Ether too has followed a similar path. And also not to forget that since November 6 (the day Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao said that his crypto exchange would liquidate its FTT tokens), the sector has seen a bloodbath of over $260 billion.

While the sector is also facing negative confidence levels from the investors, Sir Jon Cunliffe, a senior Bank of England official has now said that the crypto ecosystem needs tougher regulations to prevent another FTX-like episode, a sentiment which has been echoed by the policymakers of other countries as well.

Amid all this chaos, crypto exchange Genesis halted capital withdrawal, a move which sparked fears about the company’s future. However, it rubbished such rumours and said that the firm has no plans to file a bankruptcy plea.

If a Decrypt report is to be believed, decentralised crypto exchanges (peer-to-peer (P2P) marketplace connecting cryptocurrency buyers and sellers) and hardware wallet manufacturers (wallet containing the crypto user's private keys in a secure hardware device) have reported huge profits in the last few days.

Hardware wallet manufacturing companies

Ledger and Trezor got benefited from the consumers’ panic buying of self-custody solutions to safeguard their cryptos, given the fact that these wallets are almost immune from cyber-attacks.

Ledger CEO Pascal Gauthier, during an interaction with Decrypt, said that his company saw its highest sales week in 2022, especially after the FTX saga.

"The message is clear: people are realizing that we must return to decentralization and to self-custody. ‘Not your keys, not your coins.’ A saying as old as crypto itself, but it has never been more relevant," the official remarked, while talking about the sales week's success, which Ledger witnessed in November 2022.

Trezor’s bitcoin analyst Joseph Tetek too said that the company had “indeed seen an exponential increase in sales since November 7.”

Also, another solution which hit the headlines recently is the decentralised crypto exchange alias DEX.

As per Dune statistics, DEXs accounted for $31 billion of crypto trades, amid the FTX crisis. Many such exchanges even saw a trading volume doubling in the 24 hours following the news of Binance liquidating its FTT tokens.