Ledger is one of the most popular hardware wallets for cryptocurrencies at the moment. Some will say that it is the best of them all, while others might say that Trezor or maybe SafePal are just as good options. That is a topic that I could discuss in a different article, but right now I would just like to focus on Ledger and how it can be used with MetaMask, and how you can make it work for blockchains such as Avalanche, Solana, Binance Smart Chain, Ethereum, Fantom, and several others.
The first thing you need for this to work is an actual Ledger hardware wallet. If you haven’t bought a Ledger yet, buy it directly from the official Ledger website. It is very important to buy only from credible sources because if not, you might end up with a device that has been hacked by others before you actually get your hands on it.
But, let us say that you have a Ledger hardware wallet ready. What to do now? How can you make your Ledger work with MetaMask properly?
How to use Ledger with MetaMask
1. Setup your Ledger and take care of your recovery keys!
The first thing you need is to set up your Ledger properly. Install the device, write down your recovery phrase properly and keep it safe (and never reveal it to anyone)! Nobody will ever ask for this, except for those who want to steal your funds. No MetaMask support personnel, nor Ledger personnel will ever ask you for your recovery keys. It is also important not to store them on your Google Drive, because anyone getting access to your account will immediately find your recovery keys, and thus, they will be able to steal your funds.
2. Your Ledger is now ready! Install MetaMask on your computer.
Now it is time to install MetaMask on your computer. Make sure to install it from the official MetaMask website. You need to create a brand new MetaMask account, meaning that you also need to generate a new security phrase for MetaMask. You should take well care of this as well, even though you will not really use this account for anything.
Now you have a Ledger ready, and you have a MetaMask extension ready in your browser. Now it is time to connect the two.
Click the MetaMask extension logo in your browser. Then you click the Account overview (like in the image above). Here you will see the chance to Connect Hardware Wallet.
Here you can choose your wallet. Since you have a Ledger, choose the Ledger from the list. You will then be able to import your Ledger to your MetaMask, and suddenly you will see a new address (or more addresses) added to your MetaMask. You have the default MetaMask address that is connected to MetaMask and the MetaMask recovery phrase but make sure to use those wallets that is connected to the Ledger when doing transactions.
Here you can see the different accounts, whereof two are connected to my Ledger hardware wallet.
We are getting started here, and now we only need to do a few more steps in order for this to work properly!
3. Very important steps to make your Ledger work with the different blockchains in MetaMask (Avalanche, BSC, Fantom, and more)
There are a few very important steps left if you want to make your Ledger work with MetaMask, and thus make you able to transact on the Ethereum blockchain, on Avalanche, Fantom, Binance Smart Chain and more. This is what you need to do.
- Enter Settings in MetaMask, go to Advanced,
- Scroll down and enable “Use Ledger Live.”
You need to turn on the Use Ledger Live button (make it blue).
- Now it is time to run the Ethereum application on your Ledger. It doesn’t matter which blockchain you want to use. In order to transact with MetaMask and your Ledger, you need to run the Ethereum application.
- Go to the Settings of the Ethereum application on your Ledger and choose to Enable Blind Data (or Contract Data Allowed).
- Run the Ledger Live application in the background on your computer.
If all these are in order, you should be ready to do transactions with your Ledger using MetaMask. Whenever you try to run a transaction, you will first allow your browser to open the Ledger Live application. Then you have to allow it to run the bridge, and when this is done, you are ready to do all your transactions.
In order to verify the upcoming transactions, look through the data on the Ledger and click the Accept button after scrolling through the information.
Congratulations!
You are now ready to use your Ledger with MetaMask on the different blockchains!
Wasn’t that quite awesome? It might be a little bit more complicated than with a Trezor at the start, but once you have done all of this, you are ready and it will be very easy from here on.
I hope these instructions have helped you. If you have further comments, questions, or insight, use the comment field below!
