Just as predicted, the market has certainly reacted to Elon Musk’s latest tweets, pushing crypto into red. Obviously there’s always more to it than just a single celebrity Tweet, but it is a good catalyst for whales and institutions to further manipulate the market, at which point retail panics, stop loss orders eventually start kicking in and everything goes red from there.

Makes one wonder, assuming Tesla hasn’t sold their Bitcoin (BTC) as promised they wouldn’t, how does the latest FUD spread by Elon Musk benefit them. After all, if they still hold their Bitcoin, they stand to lose quite a bit as well, and while retail hodlers can just HODL through all the FUD and come out on top in the end, publicly traded companies actually need to comply with a separate set of rules and keep the unrealized crypto losses on the books as well. Something Tesla and Elon Musk are certainly aware of, which makes public statements with an excessively negative tone towards Bitcoin even more strange and mindboggling.

People argue they will probably just buy more as it dips, then make a nice profit as it pumps back up again, but that would come off as a pure market manipulation, especially given the perfect timeline of how they’ve first stopped accepting BTC, then all the Musk Bitcoin FUD that followed, including but not limited to Elon calling BTC centralized, just to eventually buy more of it as it dips.

Is it possible that a person as smart as Elon Musk is still just a human with emotions that can get the better of him and sometimes speaks before he thinks even when smart money would be on remaining silent? Or is there more behind it… only time will tell.

There are two things a Ledger owner should ensure in order to keep his Ledger wallet safe.

• Never disclose your seed phrase to anyone, it is your most valuable crypto related possession!
• Verify the transaction amounts and addresses on your hardware wallet’s screen!

Always review the transaction details on your Ledger device as a fake ledger Live app or another type of malware or virus could alter the addresses and amounts you type into the Ledger Live or another connected software wallet, before they are received by your Ledger device for confirmation. As long as you make sure the addresses and amounts on your verification screen correspond to desired values, and keep your seed phrase safe (must read!), you should be fine, even if your computer or software wallet app gets compromised.

But What if my Ledger Wallet Gets Stolen?

Unless you wrote your PIN on the Ledger device, the device cannot be used to access your funds even if physically stolen. After 3 wrong attempts, the thief is locked out and the device along with your seed code and all the stored private keys gets wiped. This is not a problem, however, because you can always restore your account on a new Ledger device by typing in the recovery seed phrase you keep in a safe place. The PIN can be long anywhere from 4 to 8 digits, and assuming you are using at least a 5 digit PIN, the chances of a thief guessing it within 3 attempts are slim to none.

More about seed phrases and how to store them.

Your 24-word seed phrase is CRITICALLY IMPORTANT and so is its safety.

We cannot stress enough the importance to keep your recovery seed phrase and your private keys safe and secure, outside of the physical and even more importantly digital reach of ANYONE not you.

No one should know your seed except you. If you ever lose or break your ledger, or forget your PIN, the ONLY way to recover access to your assets will be by re-entering this 24-word seed in another hardware wallet device. Entering it into a software wallet is unsafe and should only be used as a last resort (just don’t).

The 24-word seed is your master private key to access all your crypto account derived from it (i.e. secured by your ledger device).

The value of your seed is the total value of all your crypto assets controlled by it. There is no single asset more valuable than your recovery seed phrase.

Your seed phrase gives full access to your funds to anyone in its possession, and does not require access to your device, your PIN code or your passwords in order to use or abuse.

If you lose your seed, and one day your ledger device breaks or malfunctions (that can happen with any electronic device), you would lose forever access to all your cryptos.

To be extra safe, you should have 2 physical copies of your seed in two different locations, in case your house burns down along with your seed and ledger, then you would not lose access to your crypto assets.

• How to store your seed phrase properly
• Steel product for storing your seed phrase on a fire, water and damage resistant medium (link to buy)

If your seed gets compromised it means you haven’t secured it properly and someone (or malware, most likely) got access to it.

Common causes of leaked seed words and private keys

Do not do the following with your seed words:

• Do not use a seed phrase that came pre-printed (if) on a card with your Ledger or other crypto wallet of choice (the common pre-seeded package scam, where a scammer inserts a pre-printed seed phrase directly into your then re-sealed box, hoping that an unsuspecting non-savvy customer would not realize the scam and use that seed-phrase, that scammer has a copy of, to set up his new Ledger device). Return such package immediately!
• Do not use your old software wallet’s seed phrase in your new Ledger device as migrating a potentially compromised seed phrase over to a hardware wallet will not keep you safe. Never use a seed phrase that you ever used anywhere else other than on another hardware wallet. Only use a seed phrase that you created directly on your hardware wallet from scratch and transfer the funds from your old software wallet(s) over, leaving the old unsecure wallet(s) behind.
• Do not take a photo of your seed words with your phone (which happens to be the most common sources of leakage, as malware or hacker gains access to your photos, either on your phone or as they get uploaded to the cloud)
• Do not type or in any other way enter your seed words on your computer or phone. For instance, to send an email to yourself for safekeeping, thinking it would be safe and easily accessible there (second most common source of leakage)
• Do not enter your seed phrase in “Ledger Live” or any other app or wallet, even if it claims you need to do so in order to recover from “damaged Ledger memory” or to “unlock your wallet”. Those are known phishing scams! The legit Ledger Live will never ask you for your seed phrase and if it happens, rest assured it is not Ledger requesting you to do so. Only ever type your seed words straight into your Ledger hardware wallet and nowhere else!
• Do not enter or store your words in a computer, phone’s notebook, digital notepad or any app, website, cloud or other digital device / service, other than your hardware wallet, as they can all get compromised.
• Do not have your words in sight of any webcam, laptop cam, phone cam, home security cam or any other camera whatsoever.
• Do not print or photocopy your seed words using a computer printer, a wireless printer or a commercial copy machine as they can all be compromised.
• Do not digitalize your seed words in any matter, even if just to encrypt them with a computer, thinking they would be safe that way.
• Do not send your seed phrase to any “support” representative. NO legit support person will ever ask for your seed phrase!
• Do not respond to any unsolicited messages online (Reddit, Facebook, Youtube etc) offering you crypto related “support” even if they seem legit representatives of companies or services you are in business with. They probably are not who they say they are. And definitely do not follow any links to “initialize your wallet” etc, which is a known scam. While this alone will not put your seed phrase in danger, assuming you followed all the other rules above, you do not want them to potentially compromise your system, which can lead to a plethora of other problems, nor do you want to be on their list of “receptive” targets in the future.

As a rule, never expose your seed words and your private keys to anything digital, other than your hardware wallet, and keep them safe outside the reach of others, including your otherwise trustworthy family members that might not be aware of the necessary security precautions we have just outlined here.

We all make mistakes though, so in case you ever did take a photo of your 24 word seed or at some point in the past, entered it in a phone or computer or anything digital, you should consider that your seed could be compromised, and move all your crypto assets to a new hardware wallet generated seed ASAP.

• Has my crypto wallet been compromised?

Other than that, use common sense and if something looks or feels fishy, investigate and research further. Never click first and ask questions later. And never give your seed phrase to anyone from any “official support”. If they ask for your seed, they are NOT. And if they contact you through private channels first (unsolicited DMs or emails), you are best off just ignoring them as any sort of reply, even a negative one, will mark your contact as active.

Also, make sure your family and heirs / next of kin could have access to your seed, in case something happens to you (e.g. you die). Without it, they will never be able to get access to your crypto assets should you be incapacitated or gone.

• Learn more about keeping your Ledger hardware wallet safe.