Digital wallets provide a safe place to store and manage your crypto assets. You can send / receive, spend, and trade cryptocurrencies. We’ve prioritized a balance of flexibility, security, and performance for our selection for the safest 3 wallets to use. Flexibility is something key to consider when using a wallet, for the purpose of interacting with different technologies and having an abundance of accessibility across the market. Security is non-negotiable and any wallet must have adequate defenses to fend off any hackers or threats. Performance being the reliability of the wallet: the ease and use of functions.
TRUST WALLET
A hot-wallet backed by the Binance Exchange, Trust is a free decentralized wallet used by over 25 million people. It’s non-custodial, keeping your private keys to access your wallet solely in the hands of yourself. A built-in decentralized app marketplace on the Web3 browser is one of Trust’s most unique properties. As of right now, it uses two-giant smart contact ecosystems (Binance Smart Chain and Ethereum) to provide loans, opportunities in crypto gaming, yield farming, purchase collectables, and so much more. Trust also offers staking options, and claims the title for more secure and trusted software wallet, giving users various opportunities to explore blockchain and crypto in the safest environment possible. Allowing over 250,000+ assets and supporting north of 50+ different blockchains, this wallet offers the most optimal list of assets. Trust Wallet allows you to store NFTs, easily purchase crypto with fiat, in-app price tracking and chart viewing too. Trust has also tried to be anonymous-based, and it can quite easily become a fully anonymous wallet if you use your phone and wallet in the right way.
LEDGER NANO X
This wallet isn’t a digital wallet. Ledger is a hard wallet; a physical USB-lookalike.
When ordering a hardware wallet, be sure to order a brand new wallet directly from the manufacturer. Ordering from stores such as Amazon may be more problematic as they have various retailers and suppliers, and could either be tampered with or be downright fake. The Ledger Nano X supports decentralized finance (deFi) interconnectability such as Metamask, where you can connect it to your PC and use the Ledger to approve transactions, send funds, access and use contacts, stake, earn, yield, and lend. Basically any crypto one blockchain service is interactive with the Ledger. It also features bluetooth and is able to connect with your phone, allowing for ease-of-use rather than fumbling around on the small Ledger buttons. Ledger’s hard wallet is protected with a private key (24-word recovery phrase) that only you have access to. Cost = $120
METAMASK
Metamask is commonly used as a browser plugin software wallet, but can also be simply downloaded from the Appstore or Google Play, making it available on any device. It may seem a little tricky to install, but there’s a guide page that gives examples on each step to create your wallet. Littered with security measures such as encryption, password required login, personal backup phrase, open-source based, and constant new development and evolution to protect your crypto, this wallet dedicates itself to privacy and security. One downside Metamask does have however is while it doesn’t have access to your information, the browser has access to some of the input information, which is the unfortunate cost of this browser plug-in wallet. Metamask was designed in 2016 by Aaron Davis and Dan Finlay as an Ethereum wallet. Since then it has evolved tremendously, but naturally the wallet enables interactivity with Ethereum dApps. It also supports the Binance Smart Chain and its features, although this must be added manually to your wallet. Metamask offers various features from access to NFT markets and NFT buying/selling, staking and using, token swaps, trading features, multiple wallets all accessible at once, zero wallet fees, and so on. Be sure to check the network fees of Ethereum, Binance, or any you use before completing a transaction. Metamask is not designed to be anonymous, which isn’t necessarily a downside as this is a matter of privacy, not security. Unfortunately, transactions can be a little slow to confirm at times, but they are reliable all the same.
A few alternatives in case you’re not able to access these or purely have different preferences…
EXODUS
The Exodus Wallet supports just over 160+ cryptocurrencies (not impressive but also not bad), requires no verification, and has a 24/7 support and transparency system. This displays all details… no hidden fees, is very clear with the amount of crypto added to your position, the amount debited from your wallet etc. It also has a very concise guidance feature that walks though all functionality in simple and easy to follow steps. An intuitive interface allows beginners and experts alike to use the wallet applications and navigation in simple but every effective ways. From one-click secure transactions and swaps, a QR code scan that can be used for all transactions, and a detailed portfolio layout that is unmatched by any other wallet, Exodus really is best of the rest and has a log to offer. However, there are some downsides. To protect your wallet, all that is required is to set a password, and to store a 12 word seed-phrase for password recovery. With only a single password protecting the wallet, the security measures aren’t exactly up to Web3.0 standards, or even most basic wallets. Unlike Metamask and Trust, it doesn’t support a multi-signature address authentication mechanism when making any transactions. While this is fast, it means the wallet has a single point of failure, and if it was compromised, the risk of losing all your assets is unfortunately very high. Exodus Wallet is a great achiever in all areas aside from this weak security system.
TREZOR
The Trezor is another hard wallet that has a more practical way of inputting characters, codes, and carrying out the standard procedures. While it is far quicker and supports more than 1200+ coins, Trezor has one design flaw where several standardized tokens have become stuck on the wallet or incompatible with it for unknown reasons. While the team is working on patching this up, for such a huge error, we cannot make any recommendation for using it as of right now.
The damage to your fiat wallet = $220
ARCULUS
This crypto wallet is also a hardware wallet, but instead of a usb-like device, it’s simply a card. By holding the card to the bottom of your phone, the crypto wallet will open on your phone, enabling transactions. Arculus uses a biometric lock unique to your phone, a 6-digit pin number, and an authentication process via the card. The issue with this wallet is that it can only support a select few coins and tokens at the time being, does not allow for lending, earning or staking etc. Basically, it’s only use case is to send funds to or from as a safe place to store them. It also is only one wallet, meaning if someone were to gain access to your wallet, they would immediately have all your funds in one place under the same pincode and wallet. Give them some time and the wallet will hopefully be improved. The cost = $100.
ATOMIC WALLET
A mobile and desktop wallet created in 2017 that is completely anonymous – no accounts, no verification. This wallet allows you to swap 300+ different cryptocurrencies on an in-built exchange and receive 1% cash back on most transactions. While it’s not a particularly high amount of available tokens, it’s worth looking into in case they do support the cryptocurrencies you’re looking to buy. It’s core strengths are easy staking, changeable integrations, and 24 hour live customer support. This wallet has a reputation for providing unreliable pricing, infrequent but ridiculous high fees, and many complaints about the app ‘not working.’