4th August 2025 > > Real Vision, Ledger, & the UK.

tl;dr

Real Vision can be an interesting source of information. Ledger ups its game with two security conscious products, which the UK powers that be do not want you to have.

Market Snap 

Market Wrap

A positive start to the week for risk assets. August is traditionally a difficult month, with reduced liquidity across all asset classes tending to exaggerate the impact of any macro news. Keep your eyes on the spot BTC ETF flows.

Curious Cryptos’ Commentary – Real Vision

I recently attended a (free) drinks evening hosted by Real Vision, headed up by Raoul Paul.

It was certainly a crypto crowd, a young one at that. Lots of very professional, very smart people, who were all very entertaining. I was intrigued by the sheer enthusiasm that everyone shared for Raoul and his investment analysis. These events happen frequently, some only open to subscribers to his work (I am not one of those), some by invitation, and some for just anyone. A short time after the small talk ended, and we got into the proper conversations, I mentioned to one person that it seemed to me that the RV crew felt like a cult. She laughed, not just once but twice, so perhaps I struck a chord there.

Regardless, the free information the company provides is often thought provoking. As an example, you might want to spend just a couple of minutes, that’s all it takes, reading this:

https://app.realvision.com/report/raoul-pal-5-years-to-get-ahead-or-fall-behind

Heavily crypto-biased of course, which undoubtedly appeals to me. That doesn’t mean it isn’t valuable insight despite being so short.

Curious Cryptos’ Commentary – Ledger Recover & Ledger Recovery Key

Early BTC adopters were often heard to repeat the mantra “not your keys, not your crypto”.

I think this first became popular after the Mt. Gox hack that started in 2011 and continued into 2013. In total, 25,000 BTC were stolen (worth nearly $3bn today) from early investors some of whom had bought at prices of less than a dollar per BTC. The benefits of self-custody, rather than relying on a centralised cryptocurrency exchange as your custodian, became immediately apparent.

But self-custody back in those days was not a simple nor reliable option. There were online wallets available, but they have their own security issues. In 2011, the concept of cold storage was first realised by Armory who provided the means to sign transactions by a PC air-gapped from the internet thus ensuring private keys could not be hacked. Those signed transactions would then be sent from a PC connected to the internet. It was all a bit fiddly really.

Today, the gold standard for cold storage is the Ledger Nano, either the Flex or the Stax would be my advice, though the Nano X is good for a back-up or three. But even if you have several Ledgers of various vintages (I mean, who doesn’t?) you still need to write down your recovery phrase and store that somewhere safe. This is a key problem, for it could be lost in a fire, damaged by water, or stolen if someone accidentally came across it. We all have our own methods of mitigating these risks, methods that should remain private to you and your loved ones, not to be shared with anyone else.

This is not an ideal situation. If your regulator allows you to buy BlackRock’s spot BTC ETF iBIT, that is the most secure method of owning BTC bar none. The maxis don’t like it, for it proves that the “not your keys, not your crypto” mantra is a touch outdated. For those of us who cannot (yet) access spot BTC ETFs, we must find another way.

…

Ledger has two products that may be of interest.

The first is Ledger Recover. This is a monthly subscription to a service that “… fragments, encrypts, and securely stores an encrypted version of your seed phrase across three independent companies (Ledger, Coincover, and Escrowtech)”. If you lose your device, or your recovery phrase, you can reinstate a new device with your private key by proving your identity. There are risks to this of course, but given Ledger’s pre-eminent position in the hardware wallet business, I feel comfortable delegating this responsibility to it. Others may disagree, but I find it gives me a level of comfort that I did not previously enjoy.

The second is a very recent innovation, Ledger Recovery Key, which is now shipped with all orders of the Flex or the Stax. This is a physical card not dissimilar to a credit card, which is PIN-protected and acts as a back-up by storing your 24-word recovery phrase. Simply tap a new device with the card, enter your PIN, and away you go.

Again, there are risks but it is much safer than using a paper back-up of your recovery phrase. Though I do not own one yet (we will come back to that in a minute) I assume that like the Nano, the PIN can be 4, 6, or 8 digits long, and after three failed attempts the chip holding the phrase will be wiped. Keeping one of these in a bank safe in London, New York, and Geneva for instance, makes the likelihood of losing access to your crypto stash vanishingly remote.

…

If you are contemplating either or both of these two products, then I think that is probably the smart move. However, if you are in the UK, you will come across this problem:

Then this:

There are ways around these restrictions (*cough* VPN cough) but this war being waged against the crypto revolution by all UK politicians and the regulator is getting most tiresome indeed.