Designed for mobile use, these wallets allow users to buy, sell or swap crypto assets as well as track prices, stake coins, and interact with decentralized applications. Mobile wallets typically keep private keys on a device, which is why they’re often considered hot wallets and why best crypto safety practices recommend never keeping large sums in them.
While many of these solutions offer security features like encryption and secure enclave technology, they still expose your private keys to the device’s operating system and can be susceptible to malware attacks. For this reason, most wallet providers offer backup and recovery options to help mitigate the risk of losing or compromising your digital assets.
Top Mobile Crypto Wallets for On-the-Go Trading
Mobile crypto wallets also feature exchange integration, allowing users to purchase cryptocurrency directly within the wallet, bypassing the need for an external platform. Some of these wallets also include additional DeFi features like in-app crypto purchase, instant asset exchange and staking programs.
The most popular mobile wallets include BitPay, whose industry-leading self-custody solution allows for easy buying, selling, and swapping of cryptocurrencies and NFTs, while ensuring your private keys are never held by a third party. Ledger Live, meanwhile, is a smartphone companion to the hardware wallet maker’s line of products and boasts an impressive 4.9-star rating in Apple’s App Store.
Other mobile wallets include Trust Wallet, MetaMask, Coinbase Wallet, and more. In general, these non-custodial wallets are easy to set up and use. Most require new users to generate a 12- or 24-word mnemonic phrase, while existing users can restore their wallets with the aid of a backup seed.