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What is the best Bitcoin wallet?
What is the best Bitcoin wallet?

What types of Bitcoin wallets are there? Which Bitcoin wallet is safest? How do you store Bitcoin?

Daniel Howitt avatar
Written by Daniel Howitt
Updated over a week ago

The best bitcoin wallet depends on the user and what they intend to do with their bitcoin. There are different types of wallets, called hot and cold wallets. 

Cold wallets are “cold” because they are not connected to any networks, reducing the chance of them being hacked (examples include an external hard drive, writing the public and private key down on paper or embossing them into a platinum/steel card). 

Cold wallets can even be the public key and private key of your wallet written down and stored in a bank vault, as the Winklevoss twins do (the brothers who sued Mark Zuckerberg and started the cryptocurrency exchange Gemini). These are best for when you do not want to access or move your bitcoin in the near future.

Hot wallets include wallets on computers that are connected to the internet, such as Exodus or Jaxx or the bitcoin core wallet. There are also mobile wallets for android and iOS. Hot wallets are usually less secure than cold wallets because there is a chance of them being hacked through the network they are connected to, but they are better for users who want to send bitcoin on a more regular basis.

Hardware wallets (e.g. Ledger, Trezor) are very secure wallets and are widely considered to be a good balance between security and usability. They are roughly the size of a USB memory stick and require a password or pin code to access. They also have a number of security features so others cannot access the funds held in the wallet.


It is generally wise to avoid storing any cryptocurrencies in “custodial wallets” (wallets where you do not control the private keys, such as on exchanges) for prolonged periods of time as there are many instances of these wallets being hacked – “Not your keys, not your crypto” is a common saying in the cryptocurrency community.


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