Common question newcomers to the crypto space ask all the time is,
"Where should I keep my crypto?"
And the quick answer is anywhere except an exchange.
In crypto, it's important you have self-custody of your coins
instead of letting a third party do that for you.
Not your keys, not your crypto.
This year, we've seen insolvency issues turn less responsible platforms
of this community on their heads,
and the contagion effect of this has affected millions of users.
But if you maintain custody of your crypto like on a wallet with a seed phrase,
you are unaffected by any sort of withdrawal halts or insolvency issues.
Leaving your crypto on an exchange is an unnecessary risk.
It's all good until it's not.
And when platforms are faced with insolvency, the retail users are usually the last to find out.
So, what's the alternative?
Well, there's cold wallets and hot wallets.
Although cold wallets are technically safer
because they're completely disconnected from internet servers,
hot wallets are still secure enough to trust, and they're more convenient.
So, what are the best hot wallets available right now?
We're going to dive into it.
Let's get it!
Welcome to BitBoy Crypto!
My name is Ben.
Today, we'll be talking about hot wallets.
It's important to note that cold wallets come in different shapes and sizes,
but hot wallets we're focusing on in this video are application-based, usually mobile or desktop.
So you have to consider which of these wallets works best for you.
So before you go sending your crypto anywhere,
it's important to know the ins and outs of the interface you're going to trust your crypto with.
Also, some hot wallets can support thousands of different cryptos,
and some only support the big 20 big hitters,
or even just Bitcoin.
So, once again, especially if you're into finding low cap altcoins,
double check to make sure that the wallet you go with is compatible
with what coins you want to HODL.
Keep in mind that when people get their hot wallets hacked,
the hack is probably not going to come from the inside of the code itself
inside the wallet.
It's going to come from hackers targeting your device.
To combat this, make sure that you have your seed phrase written down
and locked in a fireproof safe.
Never type it down anywhere on your computer or phone
unless you want to make it easier for hackers to jack your coins.
Also, be sure to set up two-factor authentication to add that one extra layer of protection
that makes it much more difficult for you to be targeted.
One big vulnerability for anything that's phone-based is if you get SIM card swapped.
Just a quick expert pro tip here,
do not ever have your Gmail account or any email account tied to your phone number.
That's a good way to not get SIM card swapped
because what happens is they get in and they use your email address
to track all of your accounts and hit 'forget password'
and be able to get into those accounts.
So the SIM card swappers can't get into your email.
You're going to be much much more protected.
That's definitely something you've got to do.
Now, one last thing,
before we get into the list,
especially if you've got a big bag,
it's never a good idea to keep all your eggs in one basket
because if the wrong person gets in your one basket,
well, it's going to be a bad Easter.
It's never a bad idea to spread your crypto across several different hot wallets and cold wallets.
Think of it like this.
If you want a long-term HODL, set it and forget it, cold wallet is probably best for you.
If you want to move your coins around a lot or sometimes jump in and out of trades
or hold NFTs with different utilities,
a hot wallet would be more suitable for your needs.
So let's go ahead and jump into that list.
Now, these are in no particular order.
No favoritism here.
But since it's the most commonly used hot wallet,
the first one we're going to cover is the Coinbase Wallet,
which just removed XRP.
Keep in mind, this is not the normal Coinbase app.
This is the Coinbase Wallet.
It's separate.
Not only is this wallet self-explanatory, easy to set up and easy to use,
it's free to download and it supports over a thousand cryptos.
It's also a place to earn interest on certain cryptos and a home for your NFTs.
This self-custody wallet has industry-leading security,
you can explore and onboard onto dApps in the decentralized web
and buy or transfer crypto to or from the app in seconds.
If you already have a Coinbase account,
connecting to the wallet can be done with the click of one button.
Coinbase Wallet app is a go-to for beginners
since it's so easy to use, which is what made Coinbase great in the first place.
The next on this list is Exodus.
Remember how the Coinbase Wallet is a separate entity from Coinbase itself?
One advantage of using Exodus is that the wallet and the exchange are all in one.
Although Exodus has a mobile app, it's known as a wallet for desktop users.
You can purchase crypto on Exodus using a card or Apple Pay.
But they're also integrated with their own exchange for quick trading.
Exodus supports over 200 coins,
and although it doesn't support as many coins as Coinbase does,
some of the on-chain staking options will give you a higher return.
But the real selling point for Exodus is its UI.
It is the best looking crypto app out there and works flawlessly with Trezor cold wallets.
Definitely something to consider when choosing a wallet
you want to use based off of what coins you prefer to HODL.
You can also get a Trezor cold wallet by clicking this link above.
We'll put one down in the description as well.
If your exchange of choice is Binance,
or if you commonly use the Binance Smart Chain, or BNB Chain,
Trust Wallet is the wallet for you.
Although it's only available on mobile,
Trust Wallet is a popular choice that supports 65 blockchains and 4.5 million assets.
Since the Trust Wallet works with any ERC-20, BEP2 or ERC-721 coin,
there's not much they can't help you to protect.
Earning interest and staking with Trust Wallet is a breeze to set up.
They offer rewards for 12 coins including BNB, Cosmos, VeChain, ALGO, KAVA and more.
Like other staking wallets,
on Trust Wallet, you can choose which validator you want to stake it with.
It also supports NFTs from the ETH and BNB blockchains as well as a dApp browser.
if you want to keep some of your assets in a cold wallet,
Binance does have their own cold wallet called SafePal.
You can find the link in the description.
Pick one of those up.
Now, the next one on the list is one of the first ever crypto wallets to be created---
Mycelium.
Created in 2008,
this mobile-based wallet was originally only designed to transfer, store and trade Bitcoin.
They now also support ETH, Tether, USDC, Huobi, Binance USD and 0x.
They pride themselves for being in the top 8% of all crypto wallets
because it's reproducible,
meaning its code can be copied and compared to the original to discover any security breaches.
According to their website, only reproducible wallets are completely secure.
Mycelium offers custom transaction fees such as low, normal, economic and priority.
It's also one of the few wallets that offers a watch-only mode.
This is when you keep your private keys offline
but still go online with watch-only to view your account
and disable any outgoing transactions.
Other account types they offer is HD, Bit ID, Single Address and Hardware Accounts.
This wallet is definitely made for those who are inclined to the more complicated side of crypto
and those who want to dig deeper in the technology to have the most control.
The last one on today's list is Electrum, the Bitcoin maxi wallet.
If you're a maxi and you don't care about altcoins, this one is for you.
Electrum has also been around for over a decade and only supports Bitcoin and nothing else!
This wallet isn't exactly beginner-friendly, but it does have its advantages.
The multi-sig multi-device wallet encrypts your private keys and keeps them offline,
where you can go online with a watch-only wallet like Mycelium.
Electrum cannot crash or go down because anyone can run an Electrum server
and the servers are decentralized.
It's easy for users to connect with Bitcoin's blockchain using Electrum
because of their Simple Payment Verification, or SPV.
This is mentioned in Satoshi's whitepaper,
and it's a technique where you can verify a transaction
by just using the block headers instead of the whole block.
Instead of trusting the servers on web wallets,
using SPV, you can verify the transaction is in a block by requesting a proof of inclusion.
If you learned anything at all from this video,
I hope that it's you know not to keep your crypto on an exchange, guys.
Not your keys, not your crypto.
Not your keys, not your coins.
Not your keys, not your Bitcoin.
Not your keys,
not your car.
That's all I got.
Be blessed.
BitBoy out.