Ryder

Ryder is a Singapore-based hardware wallet company whose flagship product, the Ryder One, aims to solve the most persistent barrier to self-custody: the 24-word seed phrase. Rather than asking users to transcribe, store, and protect a string of random words, Ryder replaces that mechanism entirely with TapSafe — a cryptographic backup system built on Shamir's Secret Sharing — so that wallet recovery is physical, distributed, and resistant to any single point of failure.

The Problem with Seed Phrases

Hardware wallets have long been considered the gold standard for securing cryptocurrency, but their Achilles heel is recovery. A single sheet of paper bearing 24 words represents both the entire value of a wallet and its most vulnerable point: lost, photographed, stolen, or simply miscopied, and the funds are gone. Ryder's founders — CEO Louise Ivan Payawal, CTO Marvin Janssen, and CPO Julien Nerée — built the Ryder One after experiencing this fragility firsthand. Their goal was a device that preserves offline key security while eliminating the catastrophic single-point-of-failure that seed phrases create.

TapSafe Recovery System

TapSafe is Ryder's core differentiator. It distributes wallet backup material across multiple encrypted shares using a weighted implementation of Shamir's Secret Sharing, a well-established cryptographic algorithm. No single share can reconstruct the wallet on its own.

Shares are held in three possible locations:

• Recovery Tag — a coin-sized, battery-free NFC device rated IP69K, equipped with an NXP MIFARE DESFire EV3 chip certified to EAL5+. It holds 50% of the recovery material.
• Paired phone — the Ryder app stores the remaining 50%, synced to iCloud or Google Drive in encrypted form.
• Recovery Contacts — optional trusted individuals, each holding 25% of the material on their own device. Shares are exchanged in person over NFC, never transmitted over the internet.

To restore a wallet, a user must combine shares from any sufficient combination: Recovery Tag plus phone, two Recovery Tags, a tag plus two contacts, the phone plus two contacts, or four or more contacts. Loss of any single component — the device, the phone, or even the Recovery Tag — does not result in lost funds, as long as an alternative valid combination remains accessible.

Seed phrases are still viewable on-device for users who want them, but no seed phrase is required for setup or recovery.

Hardware

The Ryder One is a compact, fully air-gapped device (45 x 45 x 12mm, 38g) with no USB data port, no Bluetooth, and no Wi-Fi. All communication with the paired smartphone happens exclusively over encrypted NFC. The device features:

• Infineon SLC38 secure element rated EAL6+ — the same certification class used in passports and government IDs — where private keys are generated and held offline
• 1.6-inch AMOLED touchscreen for transaction verification before approval
• Security LEDs that visually confirm when the secure element is active
• IP67 water and dust resistance, aluminum body with tempered glass
• 200mAh battery with Qi wireless charging support

Setup takes under 60 seconds. The device pairs with the Ryder app (available on iOS and Android), which handles asset management, transaction signing initiation, and backup coordination. The package ships for $129 with a Recovery Tag, Qi wireless charger, and travel pouch, and comes with a 60-day money-back guarantee.

Solana Support

Ryder's first public appearance in the Solana ecosystem was at Solana Breakpoint in Amsterdam on November 1, 2023, where the company announced day-one Solana integration and launched its Kickstarter pre-order campaign. Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko later participated in Ryder's seed funding round.

Full SPL token support shipped in November 2025 with version 1.4.0 of the Ryder app. The wallet now supports storing, sending, and managing more than 30 Solana-based assets, including SOL, USDC, USDT, PYUSD, BONK, JUP, PENGU, WIF, HNT, W, and PYTH, among others. Management of Solana assets uses the same tap-based interaction model as the rest of the wallet — no desktop software or browser extension required.

In addition to Bitcoin and Solana, the device supports Ethereum and other networks, with over 1,000 coins and tokens supported across all integrated blockchains.

Security Audit

Ryder One was independently audited by Halborn, the security firm. The audit found zero critical and zero high-severity findings. Two medium-severity findings were identified and resolved before product launch, with re-verification completed by Halborn. The TapSafe codebase is open source.

Funding and Team

Ryder has raised $4.4 million across two funding rounds. The first, a $1.2 million raise in 2023, was backed by Oak Grove Ventures, SBX Capital, Bitcoin Frontier Fund, and Muneeb Ali, co-founder of Trust Machines. The second, a $3.2 million seed round that closed in October 2025, was led by Tim Draper of Draper Associates, with participation from Borderless Capital, Semantic, Smape, and VeryEarly. Angel investors in the seed round included Anatoly Yakovenko, Solana co-founder, and Joe McCann, CEO of Asymmetric.

The founding team draws on backgrounds from OpenSea, Stacks, Twitter/X, NASA, and Aston Martin, with CPO Julien Nerée bringing over a decade of consumer electronics experience. Funds are directed toward scaling production capacity, expanding engineering and marketing teams, and continuing development of the Ryder One.

Ecosystem Fit

Hardware wallets have historically lagged on Solana support — many early devices offered limited or no SPL token handling, and those that did often required desktop software or browser extensions that interrupted the air-gap security model. Ryder addresses both gaps: it provides genuine offline key security for Solana assets while delivering a mobile-first experience that does not depend on a connected computer.

The participation of Anatoly Yakovenko as an investor, the Solana Breakpoint debut, and the subsequent expansion of SPL token coverage all reflect Ryder's deliberate positioning within the Solana ecosystem. At $129 with free global express shipping and a 60-day money-back guarantee, Ryder One targets users who want cold-storage security without the operational overhead that has historically made self-custody inaccessible to mainstream crypto holders.