'Father of the iPod' Tony Fadell designed a $279 card-sized device for storing crypto

The iPod design in a world of cryptocurrency.

Tony Fadell, known as the "father of the iPod", designed a hardware crypto-wallet Ledger Stax for the French startup Ledger. It's a $279 card-sized device that resembles a smartphone, CNBC reports.

The product was launched at the company's annual event Tuesday. It comes at a time when trust in centralized crypto platforms is fading as a result of several collapses (with an FTX as the latest example).

The Ledger Stax comes out with a black-and-white E-ink display, similar to Amazon's Kindle one's, and weighs only 45 grams. Users can connect Ledger Stax to their laptops through a USB or to a smartphone via Bluetooth.

Users can deposit or exchange a range of tokens, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Cardano, Solana, and NFTs. Also, it includes magnets, so multiple devices could be stacked on top of each other like a book.

“Many Ledger owners have multiple devices, some store their NFTs, some store different crypto, some have multiple because they have different clients that they store for,” – Fadell told CNBC

The Ledger Stax display expands the front of the screen: additionally, it has a spine that curves around the edge. Due to that, users can see what's on each Stax - just like an old CD or cassette tape - without taking it to the front side.

As Fadell points out, initially he didn't want to work with Ledger. He said that, besides his interest in crypto, he 'got a lot of other things to do'. However, later he went on to purchase older Ledger devices and found them to be difficult to use. That's when he decided to help the Ledger team.

“This reminds me a lot of the iPod,” he said.

The Ledger Stax is available for preorder starting Tuesday for $279, and will be delivered in the first quarter of 2023, Ledger said. The company has sold more than 5 million previous devices to date.