crypto wallet app

Best cryptocurrency app to trade, earn, win and stake crypto

Crypto KP Crypto wallet news, Free crypto research September 8, 2021September 10, 2021best cryptocurrency app, crypto wallet app, crypto wallets

Hackers stole $700 million in crypto in the month of August 2021 alone. And that’s just the reported number. As the cryptocurrency world continues to welcome more new crypto wallets and epic platform hacks continue to be a feature of the space, choosing the best cryptocurrency app to guide your investment decisions is more complex but also more crucial.

To trade or invest in cryptocurrency, there are a few ground rules if you don’t want to lose all your dough. The most important rule is that you should never invest what you are not willing to lose. Another rule is to have the best resources to securely trade, earn, win and stake your cryptocurrency. Downloading and using the best cryptocurrency app can help you:

move your crypto around online
avoid human error when you transact your crypto,
improve your user experience, and
give you access to tier 1 crytpo investments and decentralised finance protocols
help to secure your crypto while you earn with it and compound your investments.

We’ve reviewed the newest and most popular cryptocurrency apps to select the best cryptocurrency app to do all of these things. The winner? Read on to find out!

What is a cryptocurrency app?

A crypto app can be a mobile or a desktop application. It provides a platform for you to transact your cryptocurrency and store your coins while you do so. Whether you decide to buy, sell, stake, earn, farm or hodl your crypto, it’s best to ensure that you are transacting using the best full-featured cryptocurrency app available.

Different cryptocurrency app types

There are a few types of cryptocurrency apps. Two of the main types are cryptocurrency exchange apps and crypto wallets.

Cryptocurrency exchange apps – These apps are used for buying and selling cryptocurrency. The best cryptocurrency exchange apps protect the safety of user assets and provide low fees on trades and swaps, good technical customer service, and fast trades. Examples of these apps include Binance, eToro, and Coinbase, etc. Crypto exchange apps like the Binance app also act as a crypto wallet.

Crypto wallets – These applications are designed to help you monitor, manage and transact your cryptocurrencies regularly on-the-run. Since this is a software application that can be installed on the user’s phone, the ease of access is guaranteed. However, because the user has to connect to the internet to use the app, this type of wallet is more vulnerable to hackers than a hardware wallet.

Best cryptocurrency app

While traders use cryptocurrency exchanges to conduct daily trades, the cryptocurrency app serves as a form of storage to secure your digital assets while you need to transact with them. The best crypto wallet app can both secure your private keys and provide a platform to trade, stake, lend and borrow digital assets. While choosing the best cryptocurrency app, we prioritized its security capabilities and depth of native features that will allow you to make money on your crypto investments.

What else are you in crypto for after all!

Security from hack is essential in crypto, and any app that cannot guarantee the security of your assets should not be rated as one of the best.
The first thing to remember is cryptocurrency app you choose is only as secure as your phone security settings allow. Once your phone security is up to scratch the best cryptocurrency wallet apps have great added security features including pin code, two-factor authentication, and seed recovery phrase.

Apart from the security features, the best cryptocurrency wallet app should also guarantee:

an exceptional user experience,
fast transactions,
low transaction fees, and
diverse integrations with various blockchain networks and decentralised finance protocols.

These are the necessary features to invest and make money on your crypto

After reviewing these features across the most popular and newest crypto apps, here is our pick for the best cryptocurrency wallet app available.

We also recommend a best ‘up and coming’ crypto app. It’s one we have yet to test fully but are keeping an eye on. This newcomer has incredible features. It brings unparalleled convenience to crypto transactions which will make crypto far easier for newcomers.

No. 1 – Binance Wallet

Binance is one of the leading names in the crypto industry and the Binance Wallet is our pick for best cryptocurrency app. The Binance Wallet offers the best app features to help you invest and make money from your crypto. The top money making features include:

Trading spot, margin and futures markets
Automatic locked and flexible staking
Interest earning opportunities on crypto held in the wallet
Mining
Airdrops and rewards competitions
Binance marketplace for non-fungible tokens

All of these functions are available and customizable directly from the mobile wallet app and also from the desktop app.

best cryptocurrrency app — An example of the different features Binance wallet offers – staking, loans, pooling, earn, and trading spot, margin and futures makets

Binance Wallet provides constant security upgrades helping to keep its users’ details secure. Binance offers password and multiple-factor identification. It adds a custom whitelisting feature to this suite of protections. You can whitelist wallet addresses to prevent crypto withdrawals from your wallet by hackers.

Binance trumps its peers in terms of performance. The app is swift while trading spot, margin and futures markets. It also allows you to customize the home page to your taste.

Beginners can get used to cryptocurrency trading using Binance Lite. Binance Lite is trader-friendly and comes with simple instructions for the beginner. Binance Pro was also released to help professionals conduct fast trades.

To get a 5% discount on your Binance spot market trades, set up your account with our link.

The Binance wallet is not available in the US. It’s offshoot BolsaDX is available for US citizens however. BoslaDX advertises as a Latin American platform but it is cloud based. US citizens can trade with it without needing a VPN. The app is forthcoming and we imagine will give you everything we enjoy from the original Binance wallet.

No. 2 – Celsius Wallet

The Celsius wallet is one of the best out there for earning interest. Celsius allows you to borrow and lend cryptocurrency to earn more coins and tokens. Apart from earning interest, the Celsius wallet can also be used to buy and sell cryptocurrencies.

The security features include the standard pin code, 2-factor identification, “know your customer” details, and setting Hodl mode. Hodl mode prevents any withdrawals from your account without entering a second passphrase. It’s an extra layer of protection from hackers.

Celsius is easy to use because you’re not making complex transactions, so if you’re new to crypto you don’t have to be worried about losing your money from human error.

All you have to do is send your crypto to their given wallet address and you can start earning interest. The rates on stablecoins (which don’t fluctuate with crypto volatility) are what draws many customers into Celsius. At the moment you can earn 8.8% on your USD stablecoins through their lower risk lending vehicle. This is an industry leading rate for the risk profile.

Celsius provides an incentive to get paid in their native token CEL by offering higher interest rates. CEL is traded on crypto markets like other coins. You can also opt to be paid in the coin you are lending, but the rates can be around 2% lower.

If you want $50 worth of BTC free, set up your Celsius account with our link. It helps support our research!

No. 3 – Metamask Crypto Wallet

Metamask is one of the original crypto wallet apps and one of the best.

Their platform works on Android, Desktop, and iOS. While it works well on mobile, we love it’s browser extension for making DeFi from your desktop super easy.

Metamask allows you to move your crypto seamless between DeFi protocols once you know how to list different Blockchain networks in the wallet. If you want more information about how to set up Metamask for DeFi, have a read of this post. While the DeFi capabilities Metamask supports are diverse, using the wallet takes some getting used to. It’s also worth noting the DeFi dApps are not native to the wallet themselves. Instead, you can connect your Metamask wallet to different dApps that you find in your browser or on your browser app for mobile phone.

Although it supports 2-factor authentication, password and seed phrase recovery, Metamask wallet is not suited for long-term storage of private keys. Like any crypto wallet app, the fact that it is online also increases the security risks due to online hackers. However, Metamask now seamlessly integrates with Ledger and Trezor hardware wallets. This means you have the security of a hardware wallet while you transact your crypto with Metamask! That’s about as secure as it comes for a mobile wallet in crypto.

Best ‘up and coming’ cryptocurrency app

Coin 98 Wallet

Coin98 is a new crypto up and comer project from South East Asia building up a portfolio of DeFi products that you can use to make money in crypto. You can access many of these products on the Coin 98 mobile wallet app.

What differentiates Coin 98 Wallet is its multi-chain and cross chain capabilities. The wallet makes it seamless for new users to move crypto across different blockchains, without having to know which blockchain to choose for which transaction.

This is a game changer for crypto if it works because it leapfrogs the steep learning curve needed when you first enter the crypto space. If you’re new to crypto, Coin 98 Wallet may just be the best thing since sliced bread.

The best features of this cryptocurrency app that make it a contender for our list are:

Exchange connect – connect directly to 9 different crypto exchanges from the wallet, including the popular ones such as Binance and FTX.
Native dApps – the inbuilt dApp browser is where you’ll make money with Coin98 wallet. You can connect directly to major DeFi protocols.
Cross Chain bridge – convert tokens between 4 blockchains – Ethereum, BSC, Tron, Solana – directly in the wallet. Extremely convenient and only available in Coin 98 wallet
Cross chain staking, swaps, earning and yield farming – the best feature of Coin98 to invest and earn crypto. If you want read more about this check out our full featured Coin 98 write up here.

Verdict

Binance is the best cryptocurrency app going. Its versatility, performance, and functions are exemplary compared to other similar apps.

Celsius wallet is the best cryptocurrency app for new crypto users who don’t know how to transact on the blockchain. It is also a great starter app for risk averse investors interested in earning passive income.

MetaMask is the most ubiquitous crypto app. It doesn’t have the native features that other apps have but its browser extension will help you move coins and tokens between decentralised apps. You need to be able to do this to invest your crypto and manage those investments.

Binance is the most popular and widely used cryptocurrency app because of its unique ‘all in one’ features and value add. Whether you’re a beginner who needs to learn the ropes or a professional who needs advanced features in his trading app, Binance has got you covered. It is no surprise that Binance emerged as the best cryptocurrency app available. We predict Coin 98 wallet might just give Binance wallet a run for its money in the next 12 months or so. It’s definitely one to put on your watch list and check out!

How to make money with Coin98 mobile wallet

Crypto KP Crypto wallet news, Uncategorized August 16, 2021August 16, 2021best mobile wallet crypto, crypto wallet app, mobile crypto wallets

In this post we’re going to answer the critical questions you need to know about how to make money with the new and much lauded Coin98 Mobile Wallet.

Coin98 is a new crypto project from South East Asia building up a suite of DeFi products many of which you can access on the Coin 98 mobile wallet app.

Coin 98 mobile wallet – the ultimate DeFI gateway

The wallet is unique for its multi-chain capabilities as we explain below. These capabilities are designed to make it easier, faster and more simple than ever to transact crypto and interact with DeFi protocols. You can earn crypto from the one wallet regardless of what chain the DeFi protocol is built on. For this reason, its a great starter crypto wallet for anyone new to crypto because the in wallet capabilities save you from making mistakes that might otherwise mean your crypto is lost for good.

Like most crypto projects, Coin98 has its own token C98. You can buy C98 directly on Binance, which is the highest volume crypto exchange and the one we recommend. To get 5% off all spot trading fees on Binance in perpetuity (and this can add up!), set up an account using our link.

C98 token is transacted on three blockchains – Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain and Solana. C98 is a governance token and you can also stake C98 and earn rewards and Airdrops by holding the token. C98 token took off when recently listed on Binance but unlike other new tokens has held its value well, which is a promising sign for the project.

How to download Coin98 mobile wallet

The mobile wallet app is available for iOS and Android phones. Here is a link to the project page and from here you can link to the App. We do this because there are so many fake mobile wallet apps out there trying to part you from your money. We link to the source developer so you have the legitimate developer link to the App.

The first thing to know is that when you go into Google Play or Apple’s App store you’ll see two Apps from the same developer – Coin98 Finance. You need to download the Coin98 Wallet. The other App – Coin 98 insights – is an information and research hub only.

Once you’ve downloaded the Wallet you’ll be prompted to set a pin code to get access. You have the option of enabling face ID after your Pin is set.

Coin98 mobile wallet features we love

When you open the wallet you will be taken to the default landing page. From here, you can open the four menu items – Markets, Swap, Browser and Settings. You can also swipe left or right to access some of the other great features we list out below and that we really like about Coin98 mobile wallet:

User interface – the best User Interface we’ve experienced in any crypto mobile wallet app.
Set up – you can chose the currency you want to operate in and from 12 languages
Exchange connect – You can connect to 9 different cryptocurrency exchanges directly from the wallet, including many of the popular ones such as Binance, Kucoin, and FTX.
Native dApps – there is an inbuilt dApp browser in the App which is where you’ll make money with Coin98 wallet. We go into some of the best offers we’ve found using the Native dApps below.
Cross Chain bridge – you can convert tokens between 4 blockchains – Ethereum, BSC, Tron, Solana – directly in the wallet. Anyone that uses DeFi knows how valuable this is.
Cross chain staking, swaps, earning and yield farming – this is the biggest and best feature of Coin98 and what sets it apart from other fully featured mobile wallet apps. We’ll go into this in more detail below to explain what you get when you download and set up the Coin98 mobile wallet.

Connect directly to some of the biggest exchanges in crypto

The cross chain features that set Coin98 wallet apart

22 Blockchains supported

Coin 98 wallet supports 22 Blockchains as we write this post. That’s more than any other mobile wallet app we’ve come across. Here are the long list of Chains supported within the one wallet:

Supported chains
Bitcoin
Ethereum
Binance Smart Chain
Solana
HECO chain
Near
Avalanche C Chain & Avalanche X Chain
Tron
Polygon
Fantom
Polkadot
Kusama
Cosmos
THORChain
Terra
BandChain
Kava
Persistance
Binance Chain
TomoChain
Celo

This is such a great feature when it comes to trying to get the best returns from your crypto assets. You can easily switch between DeFi protocols with the best APY and APR rates. The wallet makes it easy to be an active crypto investor with very little experience.

Tips on using the cross chain functions

Before you start accessing DeFi protocols and transacting your coins you will need to activate your wallet/s. This is where the real convenience and simplicity of Coin98 mobile wallet app shines. You can create a single multi-chain wallet to store assets for all supported blockchains. The great thing is the wallet and all its assets can be accessed with a single passphrase. This saves you tonnes of time each time you want to transaction on different Chains, but it also means you have to keep the multi chain wallet password extremely secure.

The benefits of Coin 98’s multi-chain wallet features compared to Single chain wallets

If you don’t want to use the multichain wallet convenience, you can set up a wallet for each chain you want to use, for example – an Ethereum wallet, a Binance Smart Chain wallet etc. This means taking a note of your passphrase and private key for each wallet. Once you have set up a wallet for each Chain you want to transact on, you can skip seamlessly between Defi Protocols and the wallet will automatically swap to the right Chain for that Protocol.

This may seem like a small thing, but to new DeFi users, it takes away the fear of losing your coins because you’ve selected the wrong Blockchain Network for your transaction. This is priceless.

We love this feature because it helps to bring non tech savvy users to crypto.

How to make money with Coin98 mobile wallet

The best thing about the Coin98 mobile wallet is that it has an inbuilt dApp browser. Now this is an inbuilt browser the likes of which we haven’t seen in other mobile wallets because of its cross chain functionality. You can choose to view and use dApps on different networks with the click of a button, making it super easy to transact in the DeFi world

The dApp Browser is also how you make money staking and farming with with Coin98 wallet all from the one place.

Native dApps across multiple chains is why you want to download and start using Coin 98 mobile wallet

dAPP coverage

Coin 98 wallet has native integrations with many of the larger DeFi protocols – SushiSwap, UniSwap, PancakeSwap, Aave, Compound, Yearn Finance. This means you can stake, farm, lend, borrow, earn – all from the one wallet. There are also native Gaming dApps like CyrptoKitties and GodsUnchained.

We did notice that of the dApps supported by Coin 98 wallet most built on Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain. There’s very few yet that are built on Polygon. We think this is one area that the Coin98 team could expand. Polygon is a popular network because of the low fees and bridging capabilities with Ethereum. It would be great to see integration with some Polygon dApps. If you’re a Polygon user, then at present we’d recommend sticking to your current wallet. we have heard that QuickSwap on Polygon and JulSwap on Tron will soon be integrated following the Coin98 Wallet version X. Good news.

Best money making opportunities with Coin98 wallet

Here are three of the best opportunities for high returns that we found at the time of writing, using the Coin98 mobile wallet dApp integrations:

Staking – earn 77% APY by staking CAKE on PancakeSwap and get paid in C98
Earning – up to 23% APY lending stablecoins like USDT, DAI and USDC on DeFi Yield Protocol.
Lending – 15.15% APR lending USDC and Chainlink on SushSwap.

Another cool feature is the native dApp Zapper, which lets you see your entire net worth staked across multiple different Chain-native DeFi protocols, all in the one screen.

Will the dApp Browser last?

The dApp Browser looks a lot like the in built Browser from the Trust Wallet, which we have reviewed here. You’ll see in our Trust Wallet review there is a 9 June 2021 update reporting that the App Store had required the removal of the dApp Browser in Trust Wallet. Android users were unaffected by this. We covered the issue in detail in this article.

The question is, if the App Store required the removal of integrated dApp browser in Trust Wallet, how long will it be until Apple users face the same with Coin98 Wallet? It will be a real shame if this happens as the cross chain capability plus dApp browser integration make Coin98 mobile wallet stand out amongst it’s peers and we’ve loved what we have seen so far from the Coin98 Finance team.

The verdict

A great new mobile wallet with loads of in-built convenience. The wallet solves the problem of complexity for new crypto users by automatically and seamlessly switching between chains and by offering up the very convenient multi-chain wallet. It also provides new functionality for seasoned crypto investors through the in-wallet bridge. Provided the browser is here to stay we will write a full review of Coin98 mobile wallet app in coming months. We hope it sticks around and cements a place at the top of the crypto wallet field.

What makes cryptocurrency prices rise and fall?

Crypto KP How to do crypto August 11, 2021August 24, 2021best crypto wallet, crypto wallet app, mobile crypto wallets

what causes cryptocurrency prices to rise and fall

If you’re crypto curious and looking to better understand how cryptocurrency works before you put your hard earned money in, then this post is for you. Crypto is the wild wild west of investing. While cryptocurrencies are traded like stocks in the stock market, the crypto market is nothing like the Dow Jones, Nasdaq or S&P 500. Crypto is unique, with prices driven by factors that don’t exist in other money markets. If you want to make money with crypto it’s critical you know what makes cryptocurrency prices rise and fall.

Cryptocurrency markets

Cryptocurrency is traded between parties in markets. The demand and supply of a particular cryptocurrency in a specific market will set a baseline for its price action, whether that be upwards or downwards. But did you know that unlike stocks, there are both centralised (CEX) and decentralised (DEX) crypto trading markets? It’s important to know this because the price is determined differently in each type of exchange.

How is the price of crypto set on centralised exchanges?

On centralised crypto exchanges, the price of a crypto asset is determined between two parties using the traditional order book model that conventional exchanges like the S&P 500 or ASX use. Order books are just a record of all open buy and sell orders for a particular crypto. The spread between buy and sell prices determines the depth of the order book and the current market price.

In this model, the CEX acts as an intermediary to clear trading transactions and provides custody services for your crypto assets.Trades occur on the CEXs server rather than directly on the blockchain.

The leading centralised exchange by volume is Binance. It’s also the one we recommend you get started on as covers more small cap coins than its rival Coinbase. Binance has a hot mobile wallet with all the bells and whistles you could wish for – check it out here.

If you’re in the US and you want to set up on Binance you’ll need to use BolsaDX which is a Binance brand that operates in Latin America and can be used by folks in the US. Binance is not available in the US.

How is the price of crypto set on decentralised exchanges?

Peer-to-peer trading occurs on DEXs through automated smart contracts (programs) that execute trades without an intermediary. DEXs use liquidity pool protocols to determine crypto pricing. These exchanges execute trades or ‘swaps’ between users directly and instantly from wallet to wallet. There is no intermediary like in a CEX.

Swaps are made in one of two ways: through an order book that interacts with the blockchain, or through an automated market maker (AMM) approach. Since we already know what order books are, lets talk about AMMs. AMMs remove the need for counter-parties to set the price. Instead, AMMs us algorithms to set the price, which means that you can trade a particular coin or token regardless of whether there’s someone on the other end of the trade. To facilitate this, “liquidity pools,” are needed. These pools pay users to keep some of their funds in a smart contract that can then be drawn on for trades to occur.

With AMMs there are no prior orders in an order book. There are only takers (buyers) looking to exchange a specific cryptocurrency pair.

DEXs are non-custodial, which means you are responsible for managing the safety of your crypto. You keep your crypto secure whilst trading on DEXs by using a hardware wallet and seed phrase recovery wallet. You can find the best hardware wallets to keep your crypto safe right here and the best metal seed phrase storage wallet for your private keys here.

UniSwap and SushiSwap are the two biggest DEXs in crypto at present.

Both CEX and DEX rely on the demand of buyers and the supply from sellers (or liquidity providers) to set the price of a trade or swap. So if crypto prices are determined by demand and supply in these markets, let’s look at the factors that influence the commitment of those buyers (demand) and of sellers or liquidity providers (supply) themselves.

11 market movers that cause cryptocurrency prices to rise and fall

What drives people to buy and sell their assets in different markets is a complex discussion. People can be influenced by the market sentiment, news, their own personal circumstances, market analytics, trading signals, etc etc. So lets look with more granularity at 11 factors that can move the crypto market and cause cryptocurrency prices to rise and fall.

Bitcoin
Whale manipulation
Trading patterns
Trading bots
The news that moves the market
Airdrops
Coin burns
Pump and dump groups
Major exchange coin listings
Rebranding
Project partnership announcements

1.Bitcoin

Bitcoin is the king of crypto and its price action in both directions moves the rest of the market. If you want to know more about when Bitcoin moves the price of other coins up or down, have a read of this great article on the crypto market fundamentals you need to know before investing.

2. Whale manipulation

Whales are crypto holders with very large bags of a particular coin. You can get Bitcoin whales, Ethereum whales etc. Whales can use their coin share to move the market with large buy or sell orders. Whales can do this in conjunction with options trades, to make profits. It is particularly easy in small cap coins as it doesn’t take much trading volume to spike or drop the price. One example of price manipulation might be if there is a lot of trading volume on a particular coin but the price is going sideways or downhill. It may be that whales are waiting in the water as the price sinks and weak hands hit the sell button.

3. Trading patterns

Crypto traders trade assets according to the same trading rules and patterns. They all use the same indicators. This makes the patterns they use to signal buy and sell trades self fulfilling. Everyone sees the signal and makes the trade. Trading patterns constantly influence whether the price will move up or down, depending on the volume of trades and traders.

4. Trading bots

This one is linked to trading patterns. Programs are now available so that traders can execute trades using bots (or automation) and based on conventional trading patterns and rules. For example, it’s common for trading bots to be set up to buy up a certain cryptocurrency when the price retraces to .618 of its previous high. This is based on the Fibonacci retracement rule and its application to market trading. Sometimes its possible to actually see trading bots provide price support at this level in trading charts and order books on centralised exchanges.

5. The news that moves the market

Crypto markets are very news sensitive. Project news and development milestones can and routinely do cause particular coins to pump or dump. Hardfork, testnet and mainnet release announcements will generally move the price significantly. In many cases the price of a coin will run up before the project testnet or mainnet date, and sell off just before the testnet or mainnet release.

Similarly, the price of a coin will tumble if a published milestone is missed or the project is hacked, experiences a development failure or is exploited in any way.

Coin Market Calendar is a great site to see if there is any upcoming project news for a particular coin or token.

6. Airdrops

Airdrops are a promotional event in crypto to raise awareness of a particular project or coin. They usually involve the project group sending free coins to the wallets of existing coin holders. So it’s basically a free money giveaway to reward project faithfuls. When it happens, the price of a particular coin can go thermal nuclear.

7. Coin burns

A coin burn is a process of intentionally destroying or ‘burning’ coins to make them unusable and reduce the total market supply of that particular coin and increase the value. It’s the crypto market version of a stock buyback in conventional markets. Coin burns are used to stabilise the value of a coin and they are often scheduled ahead as an incentive for buyers to hold the particular coin (and benefit from price rises when coin burn occurs).

8. Pump and dump groups

Pump and dump schemes are not specific to crypto but they are pretty common price manipulation attempts. Pump and dumps are a scam so beware. They go something like this. A group of investors (organisers) – usually on Telegram or other social platforms like Discord, WhatsApp, Twitter, and Facebook – collude to buy a low cap coin slowly over time so as not to raise its price. The same group then pays an inner circle to promote the bejeezus out of the coin, convincing other investors it’s going to the moon. When those investors (the outer rim) jump in, the organisers sell causing the price to dump immediately. It’s the quick or the dead, the organises versus the bagholders.

9. Major exchange coin listings

This is a well know strategy for some traders – to buy smaller coins and tokens on DEXs or unknown, low volume exchanges and wait and hope that the coins are listed on large exchanges like Binance, Coinbase or Kucoin where most of the trading volume is. Because of the larger volume on these exchanges, newly listed coins can pump hard at the time of listing. This is when existing holders will sell, often causing the coins to dump again straight after. It’s a risky strategy but can be high reward if you know what you’re doing.

10. Rebranding

Rebranding can cause the price of a cryptocurrency to rise if there is significant social media to raise awareness of the event. Rebranding is seen as a move to popularise a particular project and cryptocurrency, driving demand for its coins and tokens and pushing the price up.

10. Project partnership announcements

When small crypto projects announce partnerships with established mainstream brands, the price will often pump. For example when Steller Lumens announced a partnership with IBM, boom the price when through the roof. The fastest way to find out about these announcements is by following the project on Twitter or on a site called cryptopanic. If you find out early enough you may be able to pick up some coins before the price pump and make a decent profit.

BlockFI told to cease and desist – three US Regulators now targeting popular crypto wallet app

Crypto KP Crypto wallet news July 26, 2021July 26, 2021best crypto wallet, crypto wallet app, mobile crypto wallets

If you are holding any of your crypto assets in a lending and borrowing crypto wallet app like Celsius, Nexo, or BlockFi, you may have heard the news in recent days. Three US state securities regulators have filed ‘cease and desist’ or ‘show cause’ notices against a popular crypto wallet app.

If you’re using or thinking about using these types of apps, should you be worried?

Let’s take a look at what has happened with state securities regulators and what it means for your crypto.

Who are US State regulators targeting now?

In one word – BlockFi.

Three US states – New Jersey, Texas and Alabama – have filed cease and desist orders, or at least provided notice of their filing, in the last week. All filings have been against BlockFi.

You can take a look at the latest action by the Texas State Securities Bureau here.

The main gripe of regulators is their concern that BlockFi’s Interest Account (BIA) product is a security under state rules but is not registered as such.

If the filings are successful BlockFi will be banned from offering interest bearing crypto accounts in each of those states until their interest account is properly registered. That in turn raises the question of how likely it is that BlockFi would meet the requirements of securities registration. Would they be approved?

The allegations will need to be heard by a judge in coming weeks.

BlockFi’s official response to the fillings has been to asset the legality of their interest accounts in those states:

BlockFi’s response to recent US state regulator allegations

What is BlockFi?

BlockFi is a lending and borrowing platform for cryptocurrency assets. It offers one of the most popular interest accounts for cryptocurrency assets. BlockFi pools the assets that customers lend to it and pays interest on those assets. It generates interest by lending those assets on to trusted institutional and corporate borrowers.

BlockFi’s interest account (the product under scrutiny) is their flagship offering. They also provide customers with a trading account product and crypto-backed loans.

How does this impact BlockFi crypto wallet app customers?

State regulators have expressed that these regulatory actions are meant to protect retail investors, although in reality they are likely to be causing some concern. The Texas regulator has said BlockFi has at 25,000 clients in Texas with $691 million in total assets. That’s no small deal and it’s just one of the states in question.

If they are successful, the filings will only directly impact new BlockFi customers who are residents of Alabama, Texas and New Jersey. In fact, BlockFi has already been required to stop taking new customers for this product in these states until the matter is resolved.

That said, if the filings are successful they may set precedents for other states. At a minimum we can expect other state securities regulators to take a closer look at BlockFi.

What is the impact on other crypto wallets like Celsius and Nexo?

We’re sure the Celsius and Nexo teams will be watching with keen interest what is going on. But there’s no need to panic. These platforms should have their lawyers advising on any implications and will have a head start on BlockFi in terms of formulating a response and getting a head start on preparing for registration applications. That’s assuming registration is required. In short, there’s still a long way to go before state regulators move on to other platforms.

Should you be withdrawing your crypto from BlockFi?

If you’re a resident of one of these three states it might be safest to withdraw your assets and wait it out until the judge has ruled. If you’re worried out losing out on interest earnings then take a look at our review of Celsius Wallet here. Celsius is a competitor to BlockFi and offers the same sorts of products and interest rates.

If you’re not a resident of Texas, Alabama or New Jersey you should keep an eye on how these cases play out. Pay attention to whether other state regulators make similar moves in a domino effect. If this begins to happen, perhaps consider getting your crypto out.

If you’re not a resident of the US, then you’re not impacted so there’s no need to worry.

What can you do to manage regulatory risk to your crypto assets?

Regulatory risk is material in crypto because its such a new asset class and operates differently to any other financial products in the market. Law makers are still trying to classify different crypto product offerings. Until they do, we can’t really expect crypto platforms to comply with laws that may or may not apply to their products.

So how should you protect yourself?

Diversify your assets across crypto wallet apps. If you want to earn interest on your crypto don’t put all your eggs in one basket (or one crypto wallet app!). There are three or four large providers in this space all offering similar interest rates on Stablecoins and major cryptocurrency. We’ve listed these below. Our recommendation if you are worried about regulatory risk would be to split your assets across them. This can also help protect your coins from cyber attack and hackers attacking your wallet.

Celsius (get $40BTC free if you sign up with our link or referral code 1910143eb7)
Nexo
Orion

Hopefully, as regulators take an interest in this space and laws begin to be applied, existing customers will be grandfathered and providers will remain committed to their customer’s assets.

But in crypto its always best to protect your assets yourself.

Fake Trust Wallet mobile app out to get your crypto

Crypto KP Common crypto scams, Fake crypto apps June 29, 2021July 22, 2021crypto wallet app, mobile crypto wallets, Trust Wallet

Crypto enthusiasts and crypto wallet app users should be aware of the insidious scammers planting fake Trust Wallet apps on app stores and links to them, to scam you of your coins. And this is not the only nefarious means that scammers will try to trick you out of your crypto coins bags. If you’re a Trust Wallet user, or thinking about it, make sure you read on to find out what other Trust Wallet scams are out there and how to stay safe in the wild wild west of crypto.

Trust Wallet is a popular target for scammers as its one of the most popular and versatile apps available to transact your crypto and make money with DeFI. If you want to know more about Trust Wallet, you can check out our full review of what it is and how you can use it to make passive income with DeFi – here.

Our Decryptify blog is all about helping you keep your crypto safe so here is a snapshot of what to watch out for.

Fake Trust Wallet reports online

Fake Trust Wallet apps have been reported on the Trust Wallet community and on Reddit in both 2020 and 2021. Multiple times. While they’re eventually taken down, they keep popping up because they’re obviously successful at scamming new people each time. The thing with a crypto wallet app is you need to set up a seed recovery phase (private keys to your crypto) when you create the wallet. This is the mechanism scammers use to grab your coins once you send them to your wallet. The app records your phrase as you input it and the scammers then use it steal your coins.

Here is what the fake Trust Wallet app looked like. Notice, the name of the developer is the first giveaway.

This is what the REAL Trust Wallet app looks like:

Fake Trust Rewards offers

Scammers have also propagated fake Trust rewards offers like the ones pictured below. You’re enticed in by offers of an Airdrop or other incentive payments and the MO is to get you to click their links. You can spot a scam like this straight away because you are then asked to input your private keys to get access to the rewards. Legitimate projects and developers in crypto will NEVER have a reason to ask you for your private keys, so don’t be tempted by the promise of big rewards or free crypto.

Fake Trust Facebook accounts

Readers should also be aware of Fake Trust Wallet accounts popping up in Facebook and on Telegram. Straight from the trusted team at Trust Wallet, here are some tips on how to spot a fake FB account:

The MO of the scammers setting up these accounts is similar to the above – they use the promise of incentives if you follow their links and provide your private key details to claim the rewards. Once they have your keys, any crypto you had associated with that address is gone. If you are new to crypto, rewards schemes, Airdrops and competitions are common in the crypto community. However its up to you to identify what is legit and what is not.

How to keep you crypto safe

Only ever download the app from the Official Trust Wallet site. This goes for any crypto wallet app you want to down load. Do not search on the name of the app in Apple Store or Google Play if you want to keep your coins!

2. Make sure you know the name of the developer so you can double check this when the app store link opens up.

3. Don’t rely on the number of reviews in the apps store – this feature is easy to replicate with bots. READ THE REVIEWS IN THE APP STORE! If folks are on the site saying the app is a scam, look into it!

4. Get on to the Trust Wallet Community or Google “Fake Trust Wallet App Reddit’ and read through some posts.

5. Only participate in rewards or incentive programs with legitimate exchanges and projects. Only every access these directly from within the project’s official site. Don’t click links from other sites or accounts to participate in reward schemes, airdrops or competitions.

6. And the most important way to keep your crypto safe – NEVER GIVE YOUR PRIVATE KEYS OUT TO ANYONE! If anyone every asks for your private keys that is a sure sign you’re about to be scammed.

Stay SAFU in crypto!

DeFi rug pulls – how to protect your crypto

Crypto KP Common crypto scams June 21, 2021July 22, 2021best crypto wallet, crypto wallet app, protect your crypto

Crypto is hyped as the investment opportunity of a lifetime, but it’s also a veritable minefield of hacks, scams and fraud. As they say, ‘no risk, no reward’. With over $100B invested in Decentralised Finance in 2021, its fruitful ground for hackers and scammers. So how do you protect yourself AND further your investing at the same time? In this post we’re going to look at the phenomenon ‘DeFi rug pulls’ – how to spot them and how to protect your crypto.

The anatomy of a DeFi rug pull

A DeFi rug pull is when a team of developers disappear with all of the liquidity added by users to a particular DeFi Protocol. But what does this even look like? Here’s a step by step of the MO of scam token creators:

Scam token creator / developer launches a protocol on a particular network – like Polygon, Binance Smart Chain or Ethereum – with webpage and their own scam token.
The project and the token are hyped on online crypto hangouts like Telegram and Twitter using fake groups and bot group members.
The developer then creates a pair between the scam token and a valuable token on a DeFi platform that is perceived as legitimate, such as Uniswap or SushiSwap, and adds liquidity for the newly hyped token.
Users swap their valuable tokens for the scam token on the promise of mind blowing returns – like 5000% APY and above. This drives the scam token price up.
As the price of the token rises, more users participate in the swap due to FOMO (fear of missing out).
The scam token creator removes the valuable token from the platform and dumps the scam token. The liquidity pool is drained and other holders no longer able to trade or swap.
Users are left holding worthless scam tokens with no place to withdraw or cash out.
And so on, and so on it goes…

The rise of DeFI rug pulls and exit scams

According to Ciphertrace over half of 2020 crypto hacks were from DeFi protocols. Rug pulls and other types of DeFi exit scams are on the rise as more capital flows into the DeFi space with a reported $240M lost in just the first 5 months of 2021.

2021 DeFi theft ($ stolen) are almost double the 2020 figure in the first 5 months of this year alone

Recent DeFi rug pulls

There is a litany of rug pulls online that you can delve into if you’re interested in understanding more about how they work so you can protect yourself and your coins. You can read all about the more recent alleged DeFi rug pools here:

HoneySwap, CrossaintSwap, Turtle DeX

Thodex, Compounder Finance, Meerkat Finance

Titan, Iron

Dodo Finance, PAID network

More rug pulls..

How to protect your crypto

The thing to understand about decentralised blockchain networks is that practically anyone can build decentralised apps on them. If you’re going to add your coins to these protocols, then all of the due diligence is up to you. If you’re not into doing the leg work, they you may have to accept that your coins are at risk.

Avoid early stage DeFi projects – some folks will say this is where the money is made, but it’s also where authenticity and legitimacy are at their most unclear. At a minimum avoid low initial liquidity projects if you are keen to invest in the early stages. Scammers will find it hard to raise large amounts of initial capital.
Make sure there is a project whitepaper and read it. Compare it to other legitimate protocol white papers to help decide whether it appear legitimate.
Is there are huge social media blitz on the token with unreasonable claims of benefits? Watch out for fake hype on Telegram and Twitter. Stay away from these projects.
Research the project – is the developer team transparent and known in the crypto community? If the developer team is anonymous do you really want to trust them with your coins?
Get on to Reddit and research the token and the project and any red flags raised by other developers.
Check that an audit of the protocol has been done by an independent know auditor. Audits are expensive and having one legitimises the project.
Check whether or not the liquidity is locked on Unicrypt.com. Check the smart contract history on Etherscan or Polygonscan.
Watch the token price and pay attention to the Protocol. If the token price starts to tank, get your investment out immediately. This means offloading the scam token and sending your valuable tokens back to your hardware wallet! Don’t leave coins in your crypto wallet app unless you’ve been on to Etherscan or Polygonscan and revoked all of the token approvals you’ve previously confirmed in association with the scammers Protocol.

Never invest in DeFi projects that are very new, with anonymous teams, made as memes, and have a lack of real utility

What does a crypto wallet do and what do you need one for?

Crypto KP How to do crypto June 15, 2021July 22, 2021best crypto wallet, crypto wallet app, what does a crypto wallet do

If you’re new to crypto you’ll be scratching your head trying to understand how the cryptocurrency ecosystem works, so you can navigate around it. One of the first questions you’ll ask yourself is – what does a crypto wallet do? In this article we’ll run through exactly what a crypto wallet does and what you’ll use it for, in non-tech head terms.

What is a crypto wallet for?

A crypto wallet is a way to store the private keys that you need to ‘unlock’, access and transact with your crypto assets.

The crypto ecosystem is very different to fiat currency coins and dollar bills that you physically keep in your wallet or purse and in the bank. Crypto is non-custodial and decentralised. What this means for you is that the security of your coins is up to you. No-one is going to look after them for you. There are no government guarantees like there are for fiat currency stored in the bank. On the flip side, you have complete control and autonomy over your finances.

The way you secure your coins is through your crypto wallet.

Another concept to understand with crypto is that your coins remain on the blockchain ledger and don’t actually exist in your wallet. Instead you wallet holds the private keys to any coins you own, and through those keys you can access the blockchain ledger and see – in your wallet – how many coins you have. Your wallet, which holds your private keys, allows you to securely validate and confirm the transactions you make with your crypto assets – like sending them to someone else’s public address on the blockchain. Anyone who has access to your private keys can easily access and steal your coins, so security is super important when it comes to a crypto wallet.

The last thing to understand about crypto is that there are different types of crypto wallets that you use for different things depending on the levels of cyber and physical security you’re after and what you want to do with your coins.

The different types of crypto wallets

If you think about fiat currency, there are a bunch things we do with our dollars and coins. We store some in the bank, we invest some, we use them to buy things, we carry them around with us. These same sorts of transactions are available with crypto and all require some kind or interaction with a crypto wallet. Lets run through a few of these under the two main categories of crypto wallets – offline (cold wallets) and online (hot wallets):

Offline wallets (cold storage)

These are the safest type of cryptocurrency wallets because your private keys are kept separate from the internet and not exposed to cyber attack. The biggest vulnerability with these wallets is physical security – either from theft or loss.

Crypto hardware wallet

This is the bank vault for your crypto private keys. It’s a physical device that you use to store your private keys offline and separate from the internet. This is the most secure and safest form of crypto storage because a lot of the cyber attack vectors for crypto come from connection to the internet.

Crypto hardware wallets are where you store your coins long term for the highest level of protection. You usually keep the device at home – somewhere hidden and safe.

If you’re looking for a great hardware wallet to store your crypto, then check out our review of the top cryptocurrency wallets for 2021.

Crypto seed storage metal wallet

This is a physical wallet too but usually some form of indestructible and engraved metal plate construction. You use it to store you seed recovery phrase for your hardware wallet. Your seed recovery phrase is like your spare house keys. If anything happens to your hardware wallet, you’re going to need your seed recovery phrase to recover access to your coins on the blockchain.

You should always keep your seed phrase storage wallet in a separate location to your hardware wallet.

We’ve also researched and reviewed the best seed storage wallets for you.

Online wallets (hot wallets)

These are less safe forms of storage, but they are necessary to interact with if you want to traverse the crypto ecosystem. They’re not for long term storage of large amounts of coins. They’re like the wallet in your pocket that you use daily.

If you transact with your crypto on the go and use your mobile phone, then you’ll end up downloading a crypto wallet app. This is an online wallet – in app form – that you can use to check your crypto balances and receive crypto (through a public address that the wallet provides). As crypto becomes more mainstream, the features and functions offered by these wallets are expanding. Some crypto wallet apps allow you to buy, swap, stake and trade your crypto – all from within the one wallet.

You might also use a crypto wallet app to interact with Decentralised Finance protocols like Aave, Compound or with decentralised exchanges (dEX) like UniSwap or PancakeSway if you want to yield farm or participate in swap pools.

There are also apps that act like crypto wallets but are primarily a place to lend and borrow crypto – like the Celsius Wallet or BlockFI. If you want to earn interest on your crypto while you hodl it without the complications of using a dEX or DeFi protocol, you might use these wallets and their services.

It’s likely you’ll have several of these crypto wallet apps on your phone, depending on how active you are in the crypto ecosystem. One thing to remember is that because they are online, they’re not safe to store large amounts of crypto.

Crypto wallet browser extensions

These are crypto wallets that you download and take the form of browser extensions for popular web browsers like Chrome, Brave or Firefox. You’ll use these if you’re on your desktop a lot. They are a convenient way to interact with DeFI platforms and protocols (websites). The browser apps seamlessly connect with these websites directly in your Chrome browser and allow you to move your coins in and out of smart contracts that govern DeFi transactions like lending and borrowing.

Like crypto wallet apps, they’re online and have a larger attack surface than a hardware wallet.

Crypto exchange wallets

If you sign up to an exchange to trade crypto, then for any crypto you buy you’ll keep your private keys on the exchange. Centralized crypto exchanges like Binance and Coinspot provide their own coin wallets where your crypto assets will appear when you are using the exchange. These wallets are only as safe as the exchange itself and exchanges do get hacked from time to time, so you be aware of this.

More and more exchanges are offering DeFI products from within the exchange as a reward for keeping your crypto there. On Binance for example you can earn interest, stake, and pool your coins all from within the exchange. Exchanges often have a supporting app – for example the Binance Wallet – that you can use to transact your crypto on the go.

Hardware wallet and crypto wallet app integrations making it safer to transact your crypto

A new development in the crypto world is making transacting your coins safer. Wallet developers from the hardware and software worlds are getting together and partnering up their services so that you can transact with the convenience and flexibility of an online crypto wallet app, but utilising the safety and security of a hardware wallet.

MetaMask – the crypto wallet app and browser – now provides support for both Trezor and Ledger hardware wallets. Exodus wallet has an integration with Trezor. Your can move your crypto to Exodus easily from your Trezor Model T hardware device and use Exodus to manage the crypto in your Trezor.

For you, this means interacting with DeFi and making passive income on you crypto with peace of mind that your coins and tokens are as safe as they can be. So if you’re looking for the safest crypto wallet to use, check out our reviews of Ledger and Trezor, as well as the MetaMask and Exodus reviews here.

If you want to delve further into how crypto wallets work, have a read of our FAQs page here.

How to set up MetaMask crypto wallet to use DeFi protocols

Crypto KP How to do crypto June 13, 2021October 16, 2021best mobile wallet crypto, crypto wallet app, MetaMask crypto wallet

MetaMask crypto wallet is one of the most ubiquitous wallets in the crypto ecosystem. The reason is pretty simple – it’s got multi chain capability and therefore loads of DeFi integrations. Here’s a full review of what MetaMask cyrpto wallet is and what to use it for. One thing about MetaMask Wallet is that all of the big DeFI protocols interact seamlessly with it. And you can too, once you’ve got the hang of things. In this post, we’re going to take you through some key concepts to understand and 5 steps to take so that you can set up your MetaMask wallet to interact with DeFi and get on with your passive income earning!

This post is for non-tech heads starting out in crypto and based on some of the tech hurdles we faced when first trying out the Decentralised Finance space.

We’re going to assume that you have downloaded either the app or browser version of MetaMask, and created your wallet already which is a process of setting up your password and seed recovery phase.

Here’s what to do next:

1. Set up your blockchain networks in the wallet

The MetaMask wallet comes with the Ethereum Mainnet set up or ‘turned on’. But if you’re into DeFi you’re probably going to use some different networks to transact because of the high fees on the Ethereum Mainnet. The two alternative networks that are most popular at the moment are Matic and Binance Smart Chain.

If you want to use these other Blockchains and networks the first thing you need to do is manually add these different mainnets to the MetaMask wallet. To do this, you go to ‘settings’ -> ‘networks’ -> ‘add and edit custom RPC networks”. You can simply Google the settings you need to add the network, by searching something like “Matic Mainnet Settings for Metamask”. Make sure you land on the Matic developers pages to get these instructions.

2. Add your token types

You need to ‘add tokens’ to Metamask for them to show up once you have sent them to your wallet. There’s an ‘add token’ button in the Assets tab that you should use to do this. Tap the button, input into the search bar the ticker for the token or coin you want, and click ‘add’. It may take a while for your tokens to show up after you’ve done this so don’t freak out if they’re not there immediately.

3. Add custom token types

Sometimes when you search the ‘add tokens’ list you won’t find your token. If you hold that token, it won’t show up in your Metamask until you add the token type. But can still add the token to the MetaMask wallet manually, so that your balance in that token shows up in the wallet. You’ll need to go to ‘add tokens’ then select the ‘Custom tokens’ menu.

Then you have to go to Etherscan block explorer (or the block explorer for the network your token is on) in your web browser. In Etherscan, search on the token using its ticker (e.g. SUSHI). Once you find it, you grab the smart contract address for that token and paste it into the web URL field back in Metamask wallet. The other fields in your Metamask wallet should autopopulate if you have grabbed the right smart contract address. If so, just follow the prompts to complete the add token process.

Finding the smart contract address to add a custom token

4. Make sure you toggle to the right network before you connect to any DeFI protocol

Once you’ve got your coins and tokens showing up in MetaMask, you’re probably going to want to do something with them. Like lend or stake them in a DeFI protocol or Decentralised Exchange. When you use MetaMask wallet you ALWAYS need to double check you are on the right network for the crypto asset or protocol or exchange you are trying to transact with. You toggle this at the top of your screen.

For example, if you want to interact with PancakeSwap to stake some crypto, then that DeFI protocol is built on the Binance Smart Chain. So you open the PancakeSwap website, then from that browser screen you open Metamask broswer extension and toggle to Smart Chain. Then you jump back to PancakeSwap and hit ‘connect’.

5. Converting your tokens between Mainnets

One thing about DeFI right now is that the Ethereum Mainnet is expensive to transact on. So if you’re trialling DeFi with smaller amounts it becomes uneconomic to do so. But, there are options with much cheaper transaction fees. To use these options, depending on what tokens you already hold, you might need to convert your tokens to another form so you can use them on another cheaper network. In effect, you’re moving your tokens between networks.

If you want to move your tokens between Mainnets you’ll need to use purpose built ‘bridges’ like the Matic <-> Ethereum ‘Polygon bridge‘.

You can connect your Metamask to these bridges and convert the tokens using the bridges. This will make the tokens ‘move’ from one Mainnet to another in your Metamask wallet. This flexibility means you can transact between multiple Mainnets and their associated DeFI protocols/platforms.

This is one of the cool things about MetaMask once you get the hang of it.

The thing to remember is – always connect to the bridge with your MetaMask wallet showing the right mainnet settings. More often than not you’ll start with the Ethereum network. Then after you’ve converted your tokens, toggle to the other mainnet – Polygon or Smart Chain for example. The tokens you converted should show up under this network after a few minutes.

6. Disconnecting your MetaMask wallet

If you don’t disconnect your Metamask wallet from the different Protocols you use, you’re leaving yourself open to phishing and cyber crime.

But…It’s not always straight forward to find how to disconnect your MetaMask Wallet from a website or protocol when you want to. So here is how you do it.

You simply open your MetaMask browser extension, click on ‘Connected’ at the top left, then click on the three grey dots against the account you have connected. You should then be able to select ‘Disconnect this account’.

DeFi can be a bit scary for the uninitiated because interacting with the new blockchain and smart contract technology takes a bit of practice. Getting through these starter steps will ready you to use the MetaMask wallet with new DeFi services and hopefully make some passive income from your crypto!

Trust crypto wallet cuts dApp browser in a big loss for iOS users

Crypto KP Crypto wallet news June 11, 2021July 22, 2021best mobile wallet crypto, crypto wallet app, trust crypto wallet

On 9 June 2021 Trust crypto wallet announced to its community that it had no option but to remove their very popular dApp browser integration for iOS Trust Wallet users. In this post we’ll go over why, what this means for how you use Trust Wallet, and what to do if you have assets in the dApps that currently feature in the Trust crypto wallet dApp library.

What is Trust crypto wallet?

Trust Wallet is a crypto wallet app owned by the Binance group. It’s popular for offering plenty of functionality across the crypto and DeFi ecosystems that benefit its users. It has also found popularity in it’s integration with Binance Smart Chain, which allows users to access DeFi products and transact their crypto far more cheaply than transacting on the Ethereum Mainnet.

If you’d like a run down on what it is and all of the benefits, check out out Trust crypto wallet review here.

Trust Wallet iOS users will be disappointed to learn that the the next iOS update will come minus the convenience of their dApp browser integration.

Fortunate Android users will be unaffected by this downgrade in the Trust crypto wallet services.

Trust Wallet explains that dApps by nature constitute “code not embedded in the [app] binary,” and that they need to meet several criteria to be allowed in an iOS app. It seems the Trust Wallet development team have been in discussions with Apples App team, but have been unable to meet the criteria required for the App Store.

What does this mean for Trust Wallet iOS users?

In short it means fewer reasons to use the Trust crypto wallet. The dApp browser was a one of the main reasons we started using the Trust Wallet in the beginning as we found ‘on the go’ access into DeFi protocols like PancakeSwapp and Aave, and NFT market dApps just really convenient.

The Trust Wallet announcement says that for the time being you can still access dApps manually by typing the URL into a web browser but you . Last we checked this dApp menu was still available but the library of dApps is gone. Instead you’re presented with a search bar that allows you to type the web URL directly within the Trust Wallet to locate your coins.

In the future, if you have crypto sitting inside any of the DeFI protocols that you once used to access through your Trust Wallet, you’ll need connect to the protocol using WalletConnect, which provides an interface into Trust Wallet.

Is is still worth using Trust Wallet without the dApps function?

So what is the difference in using Trust Wallet now versus another crypto wallet app that has really good dApp integrations, especially integrations into DeFi protocols where you can lend, stake and farm crypto?

Well if you take a look at something like Metamask, which is probably the most integrated crypto wallet app and web browser, Trust Wallet still offers some additional market features within the wallet that you don’t get inside the Metamask wallet, namely

an exchange function
limited staking options
a place to store collectibles like NFTs

The question is though, with all of the Metamask integrations and ease of use, is this enough to keep driving users to use the Trust Wallet? Our sense is that Trust Wallet will need to come out with more features to attract back the iOS users it will drop with these cut backs.

The even bigger question is, will Apple continue to stand in the way of crypto innovations like dApp integrations or will they recruit in some crypto and DeFI experts and find a way to work with the true innovation (and combat the scammy fake wallet apps that keep popping up in the App Store at the same time?