What is the best wallet to use for crypto? The answer will vary depending on who you ask, and what you need it for. Do you want something easy to get started, or are you looking for the highest security available? Are you more into NFTs, or low-market cap tokens? In this article we’ll cover some of our favorite wallets and give you a quick overview of the type of trader who will benefit from them.

Why use a crypto wallet?

If there’s one guiding principle in DeFi, it’s “not your keys, not your coins”. There’s no reason to use crypto if you plan on leaving your funds in third-party custody with a centralized exchange (CEX) or lending platform. You can read about the problems of keeping your crypto on a CEX in our blog How to withdraw your funds from a CEX.

You need to take custody of your funds on your own to take full advantage of DeFi, otherwise you might as well leave your money in the bank. So where are you supposed to keep your money? In a wallet, of course!

What is a crypto wallet?

A crypto wallet is a program that creates cryptographic keys and uses them to interact with blockchain networks. Keys are generated as a pair: one public key and one private key. Public keys are used to generate addresses which can be shared with other crypto users in order to receive funds. Private keys allow a user to spend the funds stored at the associated address.

The first crypto wallets were Bitcoin wallets and they had little functionality apart from creating keys and using them to send and receive funds, and could only be backed up by saving a data file which wasn’t very secure.

Things have progressed a lot since then, and today’s wallets come in both hardware and software format, all serving different use cases. In this article, we’ll break down some of the free apps and extensions that you can use for your everyday trades on Matcha.

Best crypto wallets for beginners

As a beginner, you might be tempted to use MetaMask just because it’s the most common, but you’ll soon find that a lot of functionality you might expect to work out-of-the-box actually takes a lot of effort to configure. Want a wallet that’s more plug-and-play? We’ve got you covered!

Rainbow wallet

Mobile app, web app or browser extension.

Rainbow is an EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine) wallet that’s been built to make crypto less cryptic and brings out the fun side of DeFi. That’s not to say that it is limited, rather the simple interface helps put things in the right place, where you expect to find them. And once you master the keyboard shortcuts you’ll be whizzing around web3 in no time!

The Rainbow browser extension currently lacks some features of the mobile and web apps, such as NFT management, but these are said to be in development. If you want to copy-trade large accounts to get your bearings, you can use Rainbow to add a Watch address and entering any Ethereum address or ENS domain. You can also register an ENS domain of your own directly through Rainbow!

Chain support: Ethereum, Polygon, Arbitrum, Base, Optimism, BNB Smart Chain, Zora

Custody: Non-custodial, you hold your own keys.

Coinbase Wallet

Mobile app, web app or browser extension.

Coinbase is one of the most popular exchanges for crypto beginners. That naturally makes its wallet, Coinbase Wallet, one of the preferred wallets for beginners who are ready to take custody of their crypto. While Coinbase exchange is custodial, Coinbase Wallet gives users full control of their keys.

Coinbase Wallet makes it especially easy to manage and withdraw funds from Coinbase exchange to self-custody, making it a quick and easy experience for those already using Coinbase services.

Chain support: Ethereum, Polygon, Arbitrum, Base, Optimism, BNB Chain, Avalanche, Fantom, Solana, Gnosis. Other EVM-compatible chains can be manually added.

Custody: Non-custodial, you hold your own keys.

Trust Wallet

Mobile app and browser extension.

Trust Wallet is a crypto wallet that benefits from interoperability with centralized exchange Binance, providing a smoother transition for CEX traders who are just starting out in DeFi. With a large userbase of over 70 million users, it is on par with MetaMask and Coinbase Wallet.

Although often associated with Binance and BNB Smart Chain, Trust Wallet supports over 70 blockchains, making it a flexible option for traders who want a more comprehensive crypto experience beyond what EVM wallets can offer.

Chain support: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, Cardano, BNB Smart Chain, and dozens more, including EVM chains.

Custody: Non-custodial, you hold your own keys.

Wallets for DeFi-native traders

Zerion

Mobile app, web app or browser extension.

Zerion is a good all-rounder wallet for people who know what they want out of DeFi. With real-time price tracking, a wallet Watchlist, and notifications, Zerion can help you stay on top of your trading both at home and on the go. Staking and liquidity rewards are also automatically tracked.

NFT collectors using Zerion will benefit from a comprehensive way to manage your non-fungible potfolio and keep tabs on prices and offers. You can see more of the interface and learn how to set up Zerion in our article How to withdraw your funds from a CEX.

Chain support: Ethereum, Polygon, Arbitrum, Base, Optimism, BNB Chain, Avalanche, Fantom, Celo, Gnosis, Solana, Aurora, Linea, zkSync Era. Other EVM-compatible chains can be manually added.

Custody: Non-custodial, you hold your own keys.

Rabby Wallet

Desktop app and browser extension.

Rabby Wallet is a wallet developed by the DeBank team, which has helped make it a popular choice among DeFi natives. One feature of Rabby Wallet that can benefit many users is that it will help verify transaction details, giving you a preview of what your wallet balance will look like if you proceed, helping raise red flags before interacting with a dodgy contract.

Once you start interacting with web3 regularly, you may appreciate Rabby Wallet’s ability to filter out scam transactions that can quickly clutter up your wallet. It is one of the newer wallets on this list and offers a great user experience that’s come to be a hallmark of next-gen DeFi wallets.

Chain support: Ethereum and 70 other networks, including EVM chains.

Custody: Non-custodial, you hold your own keys.

Most popular DeFi wallet

MetaMask

Mobile app, web app or browser extension.

MetaMask is the most popular wallet in DeFi with over 100 million users according to its website. It is therefore also the most likely to be used among beginners due to brand awareness, but other wallets mentioned above are likely to provide a more beginner-friendly experience.

While MetaMask offers a lot of features, including the recently launched MetaMask Snaps for more extensibility, it doesn’t provide the easiest experience compared to the likes of Rainbow or Zerion, and some functions such as automatically identifying tokens or displaying NFTs can be unreliable.

MetaMask is known for leading integrations with hardware wallets and users need to set custom RPC endpoints to add new networks, both of which are features that skews MetaMask more toward advanced users.

Chain support: Ethereum, other EVM-compatible chains can be manually added.

Custody: Non-custodial, you hold your own keys.

Finding the right crypto wallet for you

A new generation of wallets is making web3 much more accessible to newcomers, while also solving usability issues for more seasoned traders. There’s no reason to settle for a wallet that gets in the way of your trading when there are so many way to enhance it.

Take some time to try out your options and find the wallet that fits - they’re all free to download, just make sure you keep the recovery seeds safe before you send any funds to them!

Your priorities might differ from the options listed above, and that’s fine too. Traders who need the utmost security will want to explore hardware wallets such as Ledger and Trezor, which generate keys offline. We’ll cover those in a separate article.

Want to recommend a wallet for us to list here that suits your particular trading style? Reach out to us on one of our social media channels and tell us more: X (Twitter), Discord, DeBank.