5 wallets · hot and cold
Five wallets on what matters: which chains they cover, where the keys live, and what each one is genuinely for. The short answer is that you want two of them, not one — and the reason is worth understanding.
Published
The short version: use a software wallet for browsing and connecting to sites, and a hardware wallet for anything you would be upset to lose. Not one or the other — both, with a clear line between them.
That arrangement is the entire point of this page. A single wallet holding everything and connected to everything is the configuration behind most losses in this space, and no choice of wallet software fixes it.
Side by side
| Wallet | Type | Chains | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| MetaMask | Software | Ethereum and all EVM chains | Free |
| Rainbow | Software | Ethereum and major EVM chains | Free |
| Phantom | Software | Solana, Ethereum, Polygon, Bitcoin | Free |
| Ledger | Hardware | Ethereum, Solana, Bitcoin, and most major chains | ~$79–279 |
| Trezor | Hardware | Bitcoin, Ethereum and major chains | ~$49–219 |
Features and pricing as publicly documented on 2026-09-11. Hardware prices vary by model and region.
In detail
Where it is strong
The most widely supported wallet in the ecosystem. If a site works with any wallet, it works with this one, and every guide assumes it.
Where it is not
Keys live on your computer, so device malware is a real risk. The interface shows transaction details in a form that is not easy for beginners to read.
Best for: A first wallet, and day-to-day browsing. Pair with a hardware wallet for anything valuable.
Where it is strong
Considerably better designed than its peers, with transaction previews a beginner can actually understand. Strong NFT display.
Where it is not
Same fundamental exposure as any software wallet. Slightly narrower site compatibility than MetaMask, though the gap is small.
Best for: Beginners who want clarity, and mobile-first users.
Where it is strong
The standard Solana wallet, now multi-chain. Good NFT handling and a clear interface.
Where it is not
Software wallet exposure. Ethereum support is competent but not where its strengths lie.
Best for: Anyone active on Solana.
Where it is strong
Keys never leave the device, so malware on your computer cannot extract them. Signing requires a physical button press, which defeats remote attacks entirely.
Where it is not
Costs money, adds friction to every transaction, and the device screen is small enough that reading complex transactions is genuinely awkward.
Best for: Anything you would be upset to lose.
Where it is strong
Fully open-source firmware, which allows independent verification rather than requiring trust in the manufacturer. Larger screen on the higher models.
Where it is not
Narrower chain coverage than Ledger, and NFT-specific support is less polished.
Best for: People who want auditable, open-source hardware.
This is the recommendation that matters, and it is more important than which brand you pick.
A hot wallet — MetaMask, Rainbow or Phantom — is what you browse with. It connects to marketplaces, mints things, tries new sites. It holds only what you can afford to lose. If it is compromised, and one day it might be, you lose that and nothing else.
A cold wallet — a hardware device — holds anything valuable. It connects to nothing. You move assets into it and rarely out. Because it never signs anything on a website, the entire category of signature phishing attacks cannot reach it.
Moving assets between them costs a small amount of gas. That is the entire price of the arrangement, and it is a fraction of what a single mistake costs.
Choosing a wallet is the easy part and the smaller part. Five habits do most of the work, regardless of which one you install:
The custody guide covers each of these properly. It is the most useful thing on this site for anyone holding real value.
Hardware wallets were designed for cryptocurrency transfers, and NFT interactions are more complex — contract calls with parameters that are genuinely hard to render on a small screen. In practice you often see a hash rather than a readable description of what you are approving.
This is a real limitation and worth knowing about rather than being surprised by. It does not undermine the case for hardware: the key still never leaves the device, and physical confirmation is still required. But "the device shows you what you are signing" is less complete for NFT operations than for a simple transfer. Read the transaction in your software wallet's preview as well, not only on the device.