On June 5th, YZi Labs announced its investment in open-source hardware wallet company OneKey. This marks the second time in seven years that Binance-related resources have supported a hardware wallet project, following the 2018 investment in SafePal (Note: In 2022, Binance Labs announced a strategic investment in Belgian hardware wallet manufacturer NGRAVE, though the amount was undisclosed and it received little attention in the Chinese-speaking region. This article will not cover it). This "restraint" is notable and has reignited discussions on whether hardware wallets are a good business.

From a timeline perspective, the importance of self-custody has been repeatedly validated since the 2022 FTX incident. Binance's two (publicly known) investments over seven years are not random but reflect a selective betting logic.

So, the question arises: Are hardware wallets still a good business? Or, in today's world that has experienced bull and bear cycles, regulatory storms, and security incidents, have they transcended mere profitability to become a trust-level Web3 infrastructure?

Are Hardware Wallets a Good Business?

Hardware wallets have always been a business that is "difficult for newcomers and hard for established players to expand."

High barriers to entry, significant user education costs, thin hardware profit margins, and long user conversion cycles are the inherent structural challenges of this track. Even after more than a decade of Web3 development, hardware wallets have always been seen as the "ultimate solution" for asset security, but they have not yet crossed the psychological and usability threshold for mass adoption.

If we review the development history of these mainstream hardware wallet products on the market, we will find that the industry's starting point can be traced back to as early as 2014, with a considerable span:

• 2014: Trezor launched the world's first hardware wallet, and Ledger also introduced its classic Nano series in the same year, marking the beginning of cold wallet security technology.

• 2018: SafePal became the first hardware wallet project selected for the Binance Labs incubator and received strategic investment from Binance at the end of the year, launching its classic S1 product the following year.

• 2019: OneKey was officially established, entering the market with an "open-source × minimalist" positioning and gaining popularity during the chain's Summer period with the OneKey Classic, becoming one of the most representative hardware wallet brands in the Chinese-speaking user's mind.

However, it is worth noting that although these products were established or launched mature hardware wallet products before 2020, these key nodes in product dimensions did not directly promote the transformation of hardware wallets from "geek tools" to "mainstream user entry points."

Instead, two unexpected industry events truly brought hardware wallets back into the core of user focus:

• The first was the outbreak of the chain's Summer in 2020, which catalyzed a group of chain Degen users to start using hardware wallets for secure signing and contract interactions, completing the key step of educating many users from 0 to 1.

• The second was the 2022 FTX collapse, where the trust crisis caused by the CEX collapse made a large number of users re-evaluate private key management. "Not your keys, not your coins" transformed from an idealistic slogan into a real pain point, and the attention to hardware wallets surged.

Since then, hardware wallets, which were once in a niche position, have officially entered the center of the Web3 security narrative.

However, to be realistic, the hardware wallets of the 1.0 era from Trezor and Ledger were indeed not suitable for ordinary users—complicated initial setup and backup processes, high operation thresholds, difficult-to-use supporting software, and prices of thousands of yuan, which deterred most people before they could experience the value.

The emergence of brands like SafePal and OneKey has, to some extent, lowered the entry barrier by reducing pricing and reconstructing the experience, making hardware wallets move from geeks to the general public. It can be said that this strategy of "breaking down the price wall and focusing on user experience" is precisely the important catalyst for pushing hardware wallets from the geek circle to the mass market.

As long as it is cheap enough and the user experience is friendly, users will be more willing to "just try it out," and once they have a good experience and an increased sense of asset security, they may transform from "trial users" to long-term users.

Market Demand for Security is Always Rigid

The market's demand for security has always been rigid, especially as the volume of Web3 users continues to expand. Security should not be an advanced configuration but a basic public service.

This is why we say that security is not an accessory of Web3 but its foundation—after all, behind every successful scam, there may be a user who stops using Web3, and the Web3 ecosystem will go nowhere without new users.

From this perspective, regardless of whether hardware wallets are a "good business," at least they are becoming an indispensable one.

Mainstream Hardware Wallets on the Market

If hardware wallets were once exclusive to geek players, they are now gradually evolving into cryptographic infrastructure for a broader user base.

The author has used several hardware wallets, including Cobo, imKey, OneKey, and SafePal, and has clearly felt the rapid evolution of the industry—especially among Chinese-speaking users, the most recognized and actively iterated brands, apart from the two overseas veteran manufacturers Trezor and Ledger, are OneKey and SafePal.

OneKey: Open-Source Philosophy + Rapid User Mindshare Construction

Among the mainstream hardware wallet manufacturers, OneKey, which spun off from BiXin, did not start early, but it has quickly established a strong user perception in the Chinese-speaking region and formed a clear brand label—minimalist, secure, and open-source—by leveraging the narrative dividend of the chain's Summer.

In recent years, a series of OneKey products have won the favor of many Chinese-speaking users, with representative products including:

• OneKey Classic 1S / 1S Pure: A thin, credit card-style hardware wallet aimed at users who are first exposed to cold wallets.

• OneKey Pro: Supporting air-gapped signing, fingerprint encryption verification, and wireless charging, it balances security and convenience for advanced users.

Especially its classic product OneKey Classic, launched in 2020, became a favorite among chain Degen users riding the wave of the chain's Summer, although it is now sold out.

In recent years, OneKey has also begun to try to "break out" of its product circle, such as the recently launched USDC yield module, which attracted over $62 million in subscriptions, reflecting its active user base and community stickiness.

SafePal: From Hardware to Full-Stack, Binance's "Wallet OG"

Compared to OneKey, which just received investment from YZi Labs, SafePal is actually the first hardware wallet project supported by Binance, and its growth path is more like a Binance-related "cultivation project":

• In September 2018, SafePal was the only wallet brand selected for the first phase of the Binance Labs incubator program, undergoing a 10-week incubation in San Francisco; by the end of the year, it also received investment from Binance and officially launched its first hardware wallet product S1 in the first half of 2019.

Subsequently, SafePal adopted a "small steps, fast run" product strategy, gradually expanding its product lineup to cover different niche markets and building a product matrix for different user levels:

• Entry-level hardware S1 (2019), Bluetooth model X1 (2023), and advanced version S1 Pro (2024), all of which are open-source;

• Supporting software wallet app (2020) and browser extension wallet (2022);

• Telegram mini-program wallet (2024), chain bank account/Visa card (2024), and other services.

However, although SafePal has mass-produced several hardware wallets, it still follows a popular route. For example, among its currently available products, the highest-priced S1 Pro is only $89.99, the X1 Bluetooth model is $69.9, and the S1 is as low as $49.99.

It is worth noting that SafePal is one of the few hardware wallet projects with a token—launched SFP through Binance IEO Launchpad in 2021, which further made it well-known to many Chinese-speaking users. As a result, SafePal's characteristic has always been its deep integration with the Binance ecosystem:

• SafePal is currently the only wallet product deeply integrated with Binance—users can directly access Binance's spot trading, margin trading, futures trading, and wealth management functions within the app (in the form of sub-accounts), and it also lightly integrates Binance's fiat deposit and withdrawal channels. This means that within the SafePal wallet, users can one-stop share Binance's trading liquidity and deposit and withdrawal channels, basically meeting daily trading needs.

In addition to this, SafePal also has a first-mover advantage in supporting BNB Chain activities and ecosystem collaboration, such as currently supporting gas-free stablecoin transfers on the BNB Chain (the author often uses the SafePal app to transfer USDT/USDC and other stablecoins to save gas fees).

It is worth noting that in April, SafePal co-founder Veronica also became a mentor for the new phase of the YZi Labs incubator, which to some extent reflects its long-term relationship maintenance and industry influence with Binance's VC.

Ledger and Trezor

As mentioned above, Ledger and Trezor are the oldest overseas veteran manufacturers in the hardware wallet track, but they have long been criticized for being "difficult to use" and "too expensive."

Ledger is currently the global hardware wallet manufacturer with the highest cumulative sales volume, with over 6 million units of the Nano S/Nano X series shipped. It has extremely high brand credibility and regulatory endorsement in the European and American markets, suitable for institutions and high-net-worth users with high requirements for private key hardware isolation and security certification.

Trezor is widely recognized as the "hardware wallet pioneer" in the industry, having launched the world's first hardware wallet in 2014. Its two products, Trezor One and Trezor Model T, have a strong reputation in the BTC community, geek users, and libertarian circles, with an operation logic that leans towards geek-type users.

Keystone: The Ultimate Security with QR Offline Solution

Keystone is a fully open-source, embedded system-based air-gap security product (no Bluetooth, USB, Wi-Fi). It completes address generation and transaction signing through QR code scanning with a camera, ensuring that private keys never touch the network. It is also the official MetaMask合作 hardware wallet, supporting linkage with MetaMask and other mainstream wallets like Solflare.

The current flagship model, Keystone Pro, is equipped with a 4-inch touchscreen, fingerprint recognition, and multiple security chips (3 independent CC EAL5+ certified chips). It supports up to 3 sets of mnemonic management and can be linked with MetaMask, Solflare, and other mainstream wallets through QR codes.

Conclusion

Overall, different hardware wallet players currently have different product positioning, but they are all committed to building the next stage of "security × usability × integration" cryptographic entry products.

On June 5th, YZi Labs announced its investment in open-source hardware wallet company OneKey. This marks the second time in seven years that Binance-related resources have supported a hardware wallet project, following the 2018 investment in SafePal (Note: In 2022, Binance Labs announced a strategic investment in Belgian hardware wallet manufacturer NGRAVE, though the amount was undisclosed and it received little attention in the Chinese-speaking region. This article will not cover it). This "restraint" is notable and has reignited discussions on whether hardware wallets are a good business.

From a timeline perspective, the importance of self-custody has been repeatedly validated since the 2022 FTX incident. Binance's two (publicly known) investments over seven years are not random but reflect a selective betting logic.

So, the question arises: Are hardware wallets still a good business? Or, in today's world that has experienced bull and bear cycles, regulatory storms, and security incidents, have they transcended mere profitability to become a trust-level Web3 infrastructure?

Are Hardware Wallets a Good Business?

Hardware wallets have always been a business that is "difficult for newcomers and hard for established players to expand."

High barriers to entry, significant user education costs, thin hardware profit margins, and long user conversion cycles are the inherent structural challenges of this track. Even after more than a decade of Web3 development, hardware wallets have always been seen as the "ultimate solution" for asset security, but they have not yet crossed the psychological and usability threshold for mass adoption.

If we review the development history of these mainstream hardware wallet products on the market, we will find that the industry's starting point can be traced back to as early as 2014, with a considerable span:

• 2014: Trezor launched the world's first hardware wallet, and Ledger also introduced its classic Nano series in the same year, marking the beginning of cold wallet security technology.

• 2018: SafePal became the first hardware wallet project selected for the Binance Labs incubator and received strategic investment from Binance at the end of the year, launching its classic S1 product the following year.

• 2019: OneKey was officially established, entering the market with an "open-source × minimalist" positioning and gaining popularity during the chain's Summer period with the OneKey Classic, becoming one of the most representative hardware wallet brands in the Chinese-speaking user's mind.

However, it is worth noting that although these products were established or launched mature hardware wallet products before 2020, these key nodes in product dimensions did not directly promote the transformation of hardware wallets from "geek tools" to "mainstream user entry points."

Instead, two unexpected industry events truly brought hardware wallets back into the core of user focus:

• The first was the outbreak of the chain's Summer in 2020, which catalyzed a group of chain Degen users to start using hardware wallets for secure signing and contract interactions, completing the key step of educating many users from 0 to 1.

• The second was the 2022 FTX collapse, where the trust crisis caused by the CEX collapse made a large number of users re-evaluate private key management. "Not your keys, not your coins" transformed from an idealistic slogan into a real pain point, and the attention to hardware wallets surged.

Since then, hardware wallets, which were once in a niche position, have officially entered the center of the Web3 security narrative.

However, to be realistic, the hardware wallets of the 1.0 era from Trezor and Ledger were indeed not suitable for ordinary users—complicated initial setup and backup processes, high operation thresholds, difficult-to-use supporting software, and prices of thousands of yuan, which deterred most people before they could experience the value.

The emergence of brands like SafePal and OneKey has, to some extent, lowered the entry barrier by reducing pricing and reconstructing the experience, making hardware wallets move from geeks to the general public. It can be said that this strategy of "breaking down the price wall and focusing on user experience" is precisely the important catalyst for pushing hardware wallets from the geek circle to the mass market.

As long as it is cheap enough and the user experience is friendly, users will be more willing to "just try it out," and once they have a good experience and an increased sense of asset security, they may transform from "trial users" to long-term users.

Market Demand for Security is Always Rigid

The market's demand for security has always been rigid, especially as the volume of Web3 users continues to expand. Security should not be an advanced configuration but a basic public service.

This is why we say that security is not an accessory of Web3 but its foundation—after all, behind every successful scam, there may be a user who stops using Web3, and the Web3 ecosystem will go nowhere without new users.

From this perspective, regardless of whether hardware wallets are a "good business," at least they are becoming an indispensable one.

Mainstream Hardware Wallets on the Market

If hardware wallets were once exclusive to geek players, they are now gradually evolving into cryptographic infrastructure for a broader user base.

The author has used several hardware wallets, including Cobo, imKey, OneKey, and SafePal, and has clearly felt the rapid evolution of the industry—especially among Chinese-speaking users, the most recognized and actively iterated brands, apart from the two overseas veteran manufacturers Trezor and Ledger, are OneKey and SafePal.

OneKey: Open-Source Philosophy + Rapid User Mindshare Construction

Among the mainstream hardware wallet manufacturers, OneKey, which spun off from BiXin, did not start early, but it has quickly established a strong user perception in the Chinese-speaking region and formed a clear brand label—minimalist, secure, and open-source—by leveraging the narrative dividend of the chain's Summer.

In recent years, a series of OneKey products have won the favor of many Chinese-speaking users, with representative products including:

• OneKey Classic 1S / 1S Pure: A thin, credit card-style hardware wallet aimed at users who are first exposed to cold wallets.

• OneKey Pro: Supporting air-gapped signing, fingerprint encryption verification, and wireless charging, it balances security and convenience for advanced users.

Especially its classic product OneKey Classic, launched in 2020, became a favorite among chain Degen users riding the wave of the chain's Summer, although it is now sold out.

In recent years, OneKey has also begun to try to "break out" of its product circle, such as the recently launched USDC yield module, which attracted over $62 million in subscriptions, reflecting its active user base and community stickiness.

SafePal: From Hardware to Full-Stack, Binance's "Wallet OG"

Compared to OneKey, which just received investment from YZi Labs, SafePal is actually the first hardware wallet project supported by Binance, and its growth path is more like a Binance-related "cultivation project":

• In September 2018, SafePal was the only wallet brand selected for the first phase of the Binance Labs incubator program, undergoing a 10-week incubation in San Francisco; by the end of the year, it also received investment from Binance and officially launched its first hardware wallet product S1 in the first half of 2019.

Subsequently, SafePal adopted a "small steps, fast run" product strategy, gradually expanding its product lineup to cover different niche markets and building a product matrix for different user levels:

• Entry-level hardware S1 (2019), Bluetooth model X1 (2023), and advanced version S1 Pro (2024), all of which are open-source;

• Supporting software wallet app (2020) and browser extension wallet (2022);

• Telegram mini-program wallet (2024), chain bank account/Visa card (2024), and other services.

However, although SafePal has mass-produced several hardware wallets, it still follows a popular route. For example, among its currently available products, the highest-priced S1 Pro is only $89.99, the X1 Bluetooth model is $69.9, and the S1 is as low as $49.99.

It is worth noting that SafePal is one of the few hardware wallet projects with a token—launched SFP through Binance IEO Launchpad in 2021, which further made it well-known to many Chinese-speaking users. As a result, SafePal's characteristic has always been its deep integration with the Binance ecosystem:

• SafePal is currently the only wallet product deeply integrated with Binance—users can directly access Binance's spot trading, margin trading, futures trading, and wealth management functions within the app (in the form of sub-accounts), and it also lightly integrates Binance's fiat deposit and withdrawal channels. This means that within the SafePal wallet, users can one-stop share Binance's trading liquidity and deposit and withdrawal channels, basically meeting daily trading needs.

In addition to this, SafePal also has a first-mover advantage in supporting BNB Chain activities and ecosystem collaboration, such as currently supporting gas-free stablecoin transfers on the BNB Chain (the author often uses the SafePal app to transfer USDT/USDC and other stablecoins to save gas fees).

It is worth noting that in April, SafePal co-founder Veronica also became a mentor for the new phase of the YZi Labs incubator, which to some extent reflects its long-term relationship maintenance and industry influence with Binance's VC.

Ledger and Trezor

As mentioned above, Ledger and Trezor are the oldest overseas veteran manufacturers in the hardware wallet track, but they have long been criticized for being "difficult to use" and "too expensive."

Ledger is currently the global hardware wallet manufacturer with the highest cumulative sales volume, with over 6 million units of the Nano S/Nano X series shipped. It has extremely high brand credibility and regulatory endorsement in the European and American markets, suitable for institutions and high-net-worth users with high requirements for private key hardware isolation and security certification.

Trezor is widely recognized as the "hardware wallet pioneer" in the industry, having launched the world's first hardware wallet in 2014. Its two products, Trezor One and Trezor Model T, have a strong reputation in the BTC community, geek users, and libertarian circles, with an operation logic that leans towards geek-type users.

Keystone: The Ultimate Security with QR Offline Solution

Keystone is a fully open-source, embedded system-based air-gap security product (no Bluetooth, USB, Wi-Fi). It completes address generation and transaction signing through QR code scanning with a camera, ensuring that private keys never touch the network. It is also the official MetaMask合作 hardware wallet, supporting linkage with MetaMask and other mainstream wallets like Solflare.

The current flagship model, Keystone Pro, is equipped with a 4-inch touchscreen, fingerprint recognition, and multiple security chips (3 independent CC EAL5+ certified chips). It supports up to 3 sets of mnemonic management and can be linked with MetaMask, Solflare, and other mainstream wallets through QR codes.

Conclusion

Overall, different hardware wallet players currently have different product positioning, but they are all committed to building the next stage of "security × usability × integration" cryptographic entry products.