The Ledger Nano X is Ledger's premium hardware wallet. The wallet is housed in a strong sleek, hard plastic enclosure with a high quality stainless steel enclosure. It features a crisp screen that makes handling the wallet very simple, and the included bluetooth functionality makes it ideal for on-the-go crypto transfers via the Ledger Live app for your Android devices.
The Ledger Nano S is Ledger's original hardware wallet. The wallet is housed in a strong plastic frame and utilizes a small screen to confirm transactions on. Unlike the Ledger Nano X, there is no bluetooth functionality, but at its lower price point, it may be a good tradeoff if your are mostly using the wallet to hold crypto for long periods of time.
The Trezor Model T is Trezor's premium hardware wallet. The wallet is housed in a sturdy matte plastic frame with a high quality full-color touch screen display, making it easier to use than Ledger's button navigation system. It can also be used as a hardware two-factor device and password generator. Unfortunately, Trezor devices cannot be used on mobile Android devices. You must use it on a desktop.
The Trezor One is Trezor's original hardware wallet. The wallet is housed in a matte plastic frame and utilizes a small screen with two buttons to confirm transactions on. Unlike the Trezor Model T, there is no Full color touchscreen, but at its lower price point, it may be a good tradeoff if your are mostly using the wallet to hold crypto for long periods of time and not using the wallet often.
-
Now that you have chosen a wallet, let's transfer some funds into it.
In this brief walkthrough, we will show you how to add funds to your Android wallet
For you to add funds to your Android Wallet, you will need to find a cryptocurrency exchange to buy crypto and then transfer it to your hardware wallet using an android app as the interface. Many Android hardware wallets have crypto exchanges native to them (as seen above), however, these exchanges generally charge very high transaction fees for the convenience, so it’s generally better to use a dedicated crypto exchange, like Kraken or Coinbase.
You’ll need to choose an exchange that services your country and/or state. You can find a full list of exchanges sorted by country and preferred payment method on our exchange finder.
After you have bought your cryptocurrency, such as bitcoin(BTC), ethereum(ETH), or other coins, you’ll need to send it to your wallet by following these steps:
In this example, we are using a Ledger Nano X with Ledger Live.
After that, you should receive a confirmation with a transaction ID of some kind. Here is what that might look like.
Now that we've got our Android wallet set up with a hardware wallet, let's explore a few additional points on security.
PINs, VPNs, and Steel wallets are great additions to our security stack.
Make sure your Android device and hardware wallet is protected by a 4 to 8 digit PIN number. Much like your bank account, most wallets have a PIN password that is the absolutely minimum when it comes to protecting funds you keep on your wallet. This prevents someone who has your mobile device from accessing the coins and sending them to another wallet that they own.
All the Android hardware wallets on this list support BIP39 seed words, otherwise known as ‘recovery phrases’. If your hardware wallet is lost, destroyed, or stolen, you can use this phrase to recover your funds to a new device.
However, most people write down these words on a piece of paper. When their home catches fire or is flooded, they lose the device and the backup to the elements. You should therefore consider a steel backup device like the PrivacyPros Billfodl.
We’ve mentioned this before, but its worth repeating: you should treat your Android wallet the same way you treat your real world wallet or billfold. You wouldn’t carry every dollar you own in your pocket. You should also not hold all your coins on your Android wallet. You need to store them on a hardware wallet.
When making Bitcoin transactions on your Android hardware wallet, it is a good practice to use a VPN. This prevents your ISP or hackers listening in on your connection from tying your IP address (and therefore your personal identity) to your Bitcoin transactions. It’s a good privacy practice that is cheap and easy to implement.
Below are some of our most asked questions by readers.
If you're wondering about a topic on this page, odds are we have the answer here.
For now, Blockstream’s simple single-sig wallet called Aqua is not available on Android. It is coming though. For now, you will need to use Blockstream green.
Aqua is a single signature mobile only wallet, meaning anyone with access to your phone (either physically or remotely) could steal your coins. In exchange for the increased risk, the wallet is easier to use.
Aqua is new, and if you have an iOS device, it can be a great addition to Blockstream Green Desktop. Take a closer look at it its security features and look in the video below:
Guarda wallet is a software wallet that was launched in 2017 for supporting for Ethereum (ETH). It is available on Android. We do not recommend it as it does not support hardware wallets.
Electrum wallet is one of the most trusted crypto wallets which stores only Bitcoin. With Electrum release 4.2.1, Android (5.0 and higher) is supported. Note: While Electrum is available on Google Play, make sure to verify the installion of the distributed files using GPG signatures explained on their website. This insures that the files have not been compromised.
Yes, Bitpay is available on the Google Play Store. We do not recommend it as it does not support hardware wallets and is totally custodial, meaning you do not hold your coins. Bitpay does.
Investors should use a hardware wallet, not an Android wallet alone. Android wallets on their own are not very secure, so anyone holding large sums of money in crypto are advised not to use Android wallets without a hardware wallet connected.
Exodus is a wallet that supports over a hundred cryptocurrencies. In the beginning, Exodus was originally available only on desktop (Windows, Mac, or Linux), but is now also available for iOS and Android mobile platforms as well. You can also connect it to the Trezor Model T or Trezor One hardware wallets.