Whether you’re just getting started with cryptocurrencies or have already accumulated a few different tokens, your choice of a digital wallet can have an outsized impact on the long-term security of your assets.

Cryptocurrency wallets are a dime a dozen these days, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. Before understanding which wallet is right for you, here’s why you should consider getting one in the first place.

Why Use a Private Cryptocurrency Wallet?

Unlike most other asset classes, cryptocurrency was designed to be held by individuals—rather than large businesses and corporations. In other words, you can take full custody of your digital tokens, eliminating any dependence on third parties or middlemen. This is perhaps unsurprising since the cryptocurrency movement was originally built upon the idea of the decentralization of wealth.

However, there are also pragmatic reasons as to why you should hold your cryptocurrency wealth in a private wallet. Since Bitcoin’s inception in 2009, digital currency exchanges have been relentlessly targeted by hackers and other malicious actors.

Until recently, these entities were largely unregulated and offered little protection to their users. Lackluster security practices and hacks were reportedly responsible for around $4 billion worth of cryptocurrency losses in 2019 alone.

Withdrawing your cryptocurrency from an exchange makes you a significantly less lucrative target. Furthermore, with an offline paper wallet, you can even make it impossible for attackers to see your cryptocurrency wealth, let alone gain access to it.

So which cryptocurrency wallets are the best?

Desktop Cryptocurrency Wallets

1. Electrum

Electrum wallet's homescreen

Electrum is your best bet if you’re looking for a Bitcoin-only wallet on your desktop computer. First released back in 2011, it is perhaps the single most popular wallet among enthusiasts. There are several reasons for this, including the fact that Electrum is completely open-source and offers many features.

Electrum offers impressive security features—including support for passphrases, multi-signature wallets, and two-factor authentication, among others. Variants or forks of Electrum also exist—in case you need to store some Litecoin (Electrum-LTC) or DASH (Electrum-DASH) as well.

Electrum’s only downside is that its interface can come across as a bit utilitarian—especially if you’ve never used another wallet before.

2. Wasabi Wallet

Dashboard of Wasabi Wallet

If user-friendliness is a requirement, Wasabi Wallet is another free and open-source Bitcoin wallet application for the desktop. It supports many of the same features that make Electrum our top pick.

3. MetaMask

Metamask's expanded view

For Ethereum, the closest analog to the aforementioned wallets would be MetaMask. Unlike Electrum and Wasabi, though, MetaMask is not a downloadable wallet application. Instead, you interact with your wallet via a browser extension. The advantage of this approach is that MetaMask can be used on just about any modern device with a web browser, including a Chromebook.

MetaMask also includes native support for tokens built on top of the Ethereum blockchain—so you can use the same wallet to store hundreds of other assets. Many popular tokens fit these criteria, including Chainlink, Uniswap, Vechain, and USD Coin, to name a few.

Honorable Mentions

If you’re looking for an even wider range of supported cryptocurrencies, you will have to trade security for convenience. Wallets such as Jaxx and Exodus can store dozens of tokens simultaneously and do not come with a price tag but are not open source and have limited functionality in some cases. Having said that, they do boast superior user interfaces and design—making navigation easier if you’re a cryptocurrency beginner.

Mobile Cryptocurrency Wallets

1. Samourai Wallet

Different screens of Samourai Wallet

Samourai Wallet is a relatively new but completely open-source mobile app that has gained popularity in the Bitcoin community over the past few years. Like Electrum on desktop, it is extremely feature-rich—including unique privacy-centric functions such as CoinJoin.

2. Coinbase Wallet

Coinbase wallet

3. Ethereum Wallets: MetaMask and MyEtherWallet

Choices for Ethereum wallets on mobile are equally as plentiful. MetaMask and MyEtherWallet (MEW) are well-known open-source wallets you can find on both Android and iOS. However, if you don’t need your wallet to be open-source, Coinbase Wallet may be worth considering. While it lacks some more advanced features found in Electrum and MetaMask, it offers a middle ground between convenience and security.

As for security, it is perhaps the only mobile wallet owned and developed by a listed American company. You do not have to be a Coinbase user to download and use this app, but if you are, the wallet can also be linked to your account for easier transfers.

The app creates a unique wallet when you set it up—so even if Coinbase goes under, your tokens will remain unaffected.

Hardware Wallets: Trezor vs. Ledger

Trezor and Ledger are the de facto hardware wallet manufacturers in the cryptocurrency industry—and for a good reason. Both have been around for several years and have weathered multiple exploit attempts successfully. To date, neither company’s products have suffered from a critical security flaw.

ledger hardware wallet

The Ledger Nano S and Trezor One, both priced roughly the same at $60, offer the cheapest entry points into the world of hardware wallets. They each offer significantly superior asset security since your cryptocurrency is fully isolated from vulnerable devices such as your phone, desktop, or laptop. The risk of losing the device aside, there’s no safer way to hold cryptocurrency than owning one of these wallets.

Support for cryptocurrency tokens varies from device to device, so be sure to check out the manufacturer’s page for more information. Whichever device you choose, though, the chances are that it will hold dozens of tokens—more than any desktop or mobile wallet application can achieve.

Securing Your Wallet

Regardless of the platform your wallet lives on—desktop, mobile, or discrete hardware—the responsibility of securing your wealth lies solely with you. To ensure that your cryptocurrency stays safe, ensure that you backup your wallet’s recovery phrase or seed words. This way, you can restore your wallet on a different device, even in the event of theft or loss.

Furthermore, if your wallet supports it, consider turning on two-factor authentication and other security features. Nearly 20% of all Bitcoin, roughly $200 billion, is estimated to be lost forever due to lost passwords, keys, or recovery seeds. As the enthusiast community has proclaimed for nearly a decade: “Not your keys, not your crypto.”

Image Credit: LEEROY Agency/Pixabay