Coldstorage drama. Tokens lost?

[WeThePe0ple]

A friend of mine is a BTC whale. We have never met in person as he freaks out about privacy. We just talk on social media with nicknames.
I do respect his knowledge about self custody and safety.

The man had about 1% of his portfolio (representing a lot of money) allocated to a top 20 altcoin.
It was stored via ledger nano s.

At some point he updated ledger live (browser extension?) and it turns out that his token is no longer supported by ledger nano s.
It had to do with ledger nano s being too old.

He now believes that access to these tokens, representing an amount of money that most people have to work 1 year for, is permanently lost.

Is this possible? Does Ledger take any accountability for their older wallets no longer working for certain altcoins?
Why is there no policy that legally forces ledger to warn their customers at least 1 year before support stops?

To me this is like the bank calling me and saying that my funds are missing because their software is outdated.
I would sue the bank and demand my money back.

When I heard this, I wondered how safe my own tokens in coldstorage really are.
I am not using Ledger though, but an airgapped hardware wallet mainly for BTC and XRP.
I don't know if this could ever happen to me if I don't use the wallet for the next few years.

[lornadane]

If your tokens were in cold storage and you lost access (seed phrase, keys, device), then yeah — they’re basically gone. Cold storage doesn’t have a recovery service like an exchange. That’s why backups and redundant seeds are critical. No drama fixes a lost seed.

[pliego]

if he is a whale he can definitely afford a new ledger plus lol

[aysha9853]

If he still has the seed phrase, the coins are not lost, ledger not supporting a token anymore doesn’t erase funds from the blockchain, the hardware wallet is just an interface, he can import the seed into another compatible wallet and access those tokens again.

[Vod]

If he still has the seed phrase, the coins are not lost, ledger not supporting a token anymore doesn’t erase funds from the blockchain, the hardware wallet is just an interface, he can import the seed into another compatible wallet and access those tokens again.

Who is correct?   lornadane or aysha9853?

[WillyAp]

In theory a token or coin will be on the blockchain so it is never lost it just can't get accessed.

[caroasi]

In theory a token or coin will be on the blockchain so it is never lost it just can't get accessed.

No, key essence of the token or coin is the password, so the token or coin is lost while the blockchain shows what can be recovered if the token is found. What is on the blockchain is the lost balance. So, the token, or coin, is lost, but possibly recoverable.

The best cold storage is to PRINT OUT the password on paper. Those digital wallets are good but cannot compete with paper for resilience, only convenience. Having two or three locations should be considered essential for full security.

[Wolf of One Street]

Based on the little knowledge I have about cold ledger wallets, an outdated device only loses the ability to interact with the blockchain, not the funds themselves. Your tokens live on the blockchain, and your Ledger only holds the private keys (derived from your Secret Recovery Phrase) needed to move them. However, an outdated device can cause temporary access issues or expose you to risk if handled incorrectly.Your actual tokens and cryptocurrencies are never stored on your physical Ledger device. Instead, your device acts as a physical vault for your Private Keys (secured by your Secret Recovery Phrase).Because your tokens live on the blockchain, an outdated Ledger device does not mean your funds are lost or destroyed. If your device gets too old to support new tokens or features, you can easily restore your wallet on a newer model or a compatible third-party software wallet using your original recovery phrase.