Hardware Wallet Demand Surges Ahead of MiCA Deadline, Market Seen Tripling by 2031

Demand for self-custody is rising rapidly ahead of the European Union's Markets in Crypto-Assets framework, or MiCA. Multiple market research firms project the hardware wallet market will grow to about three times its current size by 2031.

Cointelegraph reported on June 29 that Belgian hardware wallet maker NGRAVE said sales rose 34% during the week from June 24 to June 27, ahead of the July 1 MiCA compliance deadline.

Reports published in 2026 by several independent research firms estimated the global hardware wallet market at between $720 million and $957 million. They projected an annual growth rate of about 25%, with the market expanding to between $2.25 billion and $3.44 billion from 2031 to 2032. Europe is the world's second-largest market, accounting for 28% to 30% of global demand, and the reports identified MiCA as a structural growth catalyst.

Surging demand for self-custody has followed market shocks before. After FTX collapsed in November 2022, Trezor said sales jumped 300%, while Ledger recorded the strongest month in its history. Data from on-chain analytics platform Glassnode showed exchange-held Bitcoin fell from about 2.3 million BTC to 2 million BTC over three months, and those coins did not return to exchanges afterward.

Roy Blackstone, NGRAVE's chief executive officer, said the MiCA deadline is already driving a change in behavior across the European market and that the 34% sales increase from June 24 to June 27 is direct evidence. He added that this marks the most important shift toward self-custody since FTX.

Institutional demand is also growing. Mordor Intelligence projects institutional hardware wallet purchases will increase at a 26.9% annual rate. MiCA custody rules, along with revised guidance from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., are helping turn hardware wallets from an optional security tool into compliance infrastructure.