Ledger, the popular hardware wallet, has decided to integrate the DeFi Alkemi dApp into its app called Ledger Live. The Ledger Live app, available on desktop and mobile devices, currently has 1.5 million users and thus could make decentralized loans easier to access.
Summary
Ledger vs. custodian platforms
JF Rochet, vice president of international development at Ledger, explained:
“Ledger Live is your gateway to digital assets and Web3, and we’re excited to integrate the first Yield app into Ledger Live. With Alkemi, Ledger users will have more ways to grow their assets while enjoying all the benefits of crypto without centralized custodians”.
In fact, Ledger is a non-custodial platform, which means each user owns their own seed and no one else. Therefore, the primary goal of the French company is to eliminate any intermediary, and that is why it also wants to integrate dApps in order to be a bridge between crypto and all the ways to use them without ever turning to centralized platforms.
In this sense, Ledger Live serves users to interface more easily and securely to the hardware wallet of the same company and also allows them to buy and sell cryptocurrencies and connect to the decentralized applications of the DeFi world, just like Alkemi.Â
How to unite CeFi and DeFi
Specifically, Alkemi is a protocol used to make loans to both institutions and retail users. To date, it has over $50 million deposited and supports ETH, wBTC, and the DAI and USDC stablecoins. Alkemi also has its own utility token called ALK that is earned just by using the platform.
Brian Mahoney, co-founder of Alkemi, explained:
“’Not your keys, not your coins’, as the saying goes. With this native integration into Ledger Live, Alkemi Earn unlocks a protocol powered cash management experience for Ledger’s community. This is what bridging CeFi to DeFi is all about”.