The popular hardware wallet provider, Ledger, will add Polkadot to its wide variety of supported tokens as of March 4th. Additionally, Ledger will also enable users to stake DOT coins directly on the platform, thus increasing the total number of staking options to five.

Ledger Adds Polkadot and DOT Staking

Founded in 2014, Ledger is a digital asset wallet provider describing itself as the “global leader in security and infrastructure solutions for safeguarding critical” cryptocurrencies. In a press release shared with CryptoPotato, the company announced plans to add another blockchain project with its own cryptocurrency to the Ledger ecosystem – Polkadot (DOT).

The statement reads that the wallet provider will support Polkadot in its software application and will add it to Ledger Live – the mobile application working in parallel to the Ledger hardware wallet. Apart from storing crypto assets, Ledger Live also enables users to follow and manage the holdings even if the wallet is nowhere nearby.

Polkadot’s native digital asset – DOT – will become just the fifth coin that Ledger Live users can deploy for staking. According to the announcement, the mobile application “offers the most secure way to manage and stake DOT tokens as the private keys are stored on a dedicated hardware device that is not connected to the Internet.”

The installing process will be simplified as users need to install a designated Polkadot app on their respective devices, create a DOT account on Ledger Live, add the token to the bounded balance, nominate a validator, and confirm the information.

“Polkadot is one of the most promising projects in the entire crypto ecosystem, and we are happy to provide our users with additional options to earn rewards and participate in the expanding Polkadot ecosystem.” – commented Head of Coin Integration at Ledger – Fabrice Dautriat.

Ledger spokesperson told CryptoPotato that the integration will be fully live starting from March 4th, 2021.

DOT Price and Staking Stats

DOT has been among the best price performers as of late. The asset entered the new year at about $8 but has taken full advantage of the bullish developments in the following months and even breached $40 for a new all-time high.

Despite retracing slightly during last week’s market crash, DOT is still 350% up YTD as it currently hovers above $36.

Additionally, the token is the second-most utilized coin for staking, per data from stakingrewards.com. With over $24 billion worth locked for staking, DOT trails only to Cardano (ADA) by $4 billion. About 64% of all DOT in circulation has been staked as of writing these lines.

The growing in popularity “I changed my mind on bitcoin” club has another prominent representative. The Canadian businessman and star of Shark Tank, Kevin O’Leary, went from calling BTC garbage to allocating 3% of his portfolio in the asset.

O’Leary Has Bought Bitcoin

Born in Montreal, Canada, O’Leary is a popular businessman, author and is perhaps best known for his role in the reality TV show – Shark Tank. Also referred to as Mr. Wonderful, O’Leary recently announced his entrance into the bitcoin ecosystem.

Is #bitcoin a currency? Property? An asset? Maybe all of the above, I’m going with a 3% portfolio allocation and am looking at investing in miners that can create coin under a mandate of 0 carbon so sustainably! https://t.co/qgAXZVZXzh

— Kevin O’Leary aka Mr. Wonderful (@kevinolearytv) March 1, 2021

Apart from allocating 3% of his portfolio in the primary cryptocurrency, the businessman also pledged to invest in BTC miners using clean energy to avoid “blood coins.”

Furthermore, O’Leary said that all companies he had invested in are currently examining the possibility of putting bitcoin on their balance sheets. He attributed this to “changes in the regulatory environment,” but he failed to provide details regarding their precise nature.

Another Change of Heart Moment

Prior to his 3% BTC allocation, O’Leary rarely had anything positive to say about the cryptocurrency. Just the opposite, he was openly bashing it.

Back in 2019 he O’Leary was predominantly negative on this “digital game” called bitcoin, which was “worthless” to him. He went even further by naming it a “useless currency” and “garbage because you can’t get in and out of it in large amounts.”

“Let’s say you want to buy a piece of real estate for $10 million in Switzerland. They want a guarantee that the value comes back to the US currency. You have to somehow hedge the risk of bitcoin. That means it’s not a real currency. That means the receiver is not willing to take the risk of the volatility it has. It’s worthless.”

Fast-forward to February 2021, he was still neglectful of BTC’s potential. O’Leary said he’s not against it and actually respected the asset but dismissed any chances of putting a lot of capital in it.

“No, I don’t want to own something that goes up and down 30% in a day or a week.” – O’Leary noted and added that bitcoin is “not backed by anything. It’s just backed by your faith.”

However, it seems now that this “worthless, not backed by anything digital game” has earned at least 3% of his investment portfolio.

With this change of heart, O’Leary has joined a prominent club with several similar examples. Names such as MicroStrategy’s Michael Saylor, CNBC’s Jim Cramer, and the former Fed Governor – Kevin Warsh.

Featured Image Courtesy of INC