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Ledger Live Software Now Offers Secure Swapping, Staking, DeFi and More
Ledger hardware wallets like the Ledger Nano X and Ledger Nano S are some of the best hardware cryptocurrency wallets on the market. That’s not all Ledger has to offer though, with their Ledger Live app bringing users convenient ways to buy, swap, stake, and lend their crypto, all from the safety of their Ledger hardware wallet of choice.
Here we will be going over all the things you can do with Ledger Live, which has come a long way from its humble origins.
Buying and Selling Crypto with Ledger Live
Ledger has made it easy for users, new and old alike, to buy and sell crypto by providing options through Wyre, Coinify, Moonpay, Ramp, Sardine and BTC Direct. Occasionally Ledger will also run promotions where you can purchase crypto with zero additional fees.
When you go to purchase your crypto through Ledger Live you will be prompted to connect your device and open the corresponding wallet app on the device, and once connected you will be able to select how much you want to buy and through what method.
Purchases of crypto are deposited directly into the corresponding wallet on your Ledger device, ensuring they are safely in your control right away. It essentially eliminates the step of buying on a crypto exchange and moving to a personal wallet. Let’s take a quick look at the two top crypto providers:
Wyre
Wyre was founded in 2013 and is only available to American customers.
They accept bank transfers for their 28 available cryptocurrencies via Ledger Live including Bitcoin and many more top assets. Wyre provides incredibly simple APIs that Ledger has used well to make a smooth user experience when purchasing crypto. Bank transfers via Wyre incur a 1.5% fee.
Coinify
Operating since 2014, Coinify is the number one digital currency provider in Europe, and users from almost all countries around the world and most states in the US are eligible to use Coinify’s services via Ledger Live.
Coinify accepts payment cards and bank transfers for their 13 different crypto assets. Bank transfers via Coinify incur 1.5% fees while credit and debit cards incur 4.25% fees.
Swapping Your Crypto with Ledger Live
After you have purchased crypto with the Ledger Live app you can then swap it for another crypto of your choosing via one of their two partners: Changelly and Paraswap.
Changelly
One of CryptoVantage’s favorite ways to swap crypto for crypto, Changelly is also available from the convenience and safety of your Ledger Live app, with 45 digital assets you can swap.
While not available to US citizens, Changelly is available for users from over 60 countries worldwide. Changelly allows you to choose from a floating or fixed rate while being up front with their fees. A floating rate means you may receive more or less than the amount shown when making the swap, whereas a fixed rate means that you will get exactly that amount. Not all cryptos can be swapped with a fixed rate.
Paraswap
Ledger Live’s newest and perhaps most powerful swap option for the Ethereum ecosystem, Paraswap is a decentralized exchange aggregator.
Paraswap aggregates more than 20 different decentralized exchanges including Uniswap, SushiSwap, 0x, and more. This allows Paraswap to offer lower prices than the market for your swap by splitting your swap order between the various decentralized exchanges it aggregates and offering you the best routing order. This optimization is done automatically, all you have to do is pick the tokens you are wanting to swap and Paraswap will take care of the rest for you.
Users can swap any number of ERC-20 tokens from the safety of their Ledger device and because Paraswap is decentralized you do not even need to create an account to start swapping.
Earn Crypto Rewards via Staking in Ledger Live
One of the best aspects of cryptocurrencies is the ability to earn more of an asset by staking it and helping to secure the network. This can be done by delegating your stake to a stake pool operator, or by being a stake pool operator yourself. While you cannot run a stake pool through Ledger Live, you can delegate your stake through the app. Ledger Live allows you to stake 10 different crypto assets including Ethereum (ETH), Tezos (XTZ), Cosmos (ATOM), Polkadot (DOT), Tron (TRX), and Algorand (ALGO). Staking rewards vary by asset but you could be earning anywhere from 4-20% APY.
Once you delegate your stake to a stake pool you will start to receive rewards in the asset that you are staking, the interval and amount varying by asset. Polkadot is one of the newest assets you can stake via Ledger Live and is a much easier process than doing it directly through Polkadot’s user interface.
Do You Need a Ledger Hardware Wallet?
Ledger Live is a free app that connects to Ledger hardware wallets for maximum security. You will need a Ledger hardware wallet to use Ledger Live software.
Fortunately Ledger makes some of the best hardware wallets in the world so it’s easy to recommend them. The Ledger Nano S Plus starts at $79 while the top-of-the-line Nano X costs $149. You can learn more about the devices in our Ledger reviews:
Ledger Live as Always Lets You HODL
In the end, Ledger Live and your Ledger device are one of the best ways to simply hold on to your crypto, whether you decide to stake it, lend it, swap it, or sell it, your Ledger device will keep your assets safe while you can monitor all your holdings through the Ledger Live app.
Whenever you want to make a transaction you must attach and unlock your device, and since this is the only way for anything to be done with your funds it makes it incredible difficult for them to be stolen. So, keep on hodling with Ledger.
