Crypto has reawakened, bringing dormant users back to life and new users flooding in. The incentives for actively trading, lending, and borrowing digital assets are now higher, prompting a resurgence in DeFi activity. It pays to be busy during a bull market, particularly when there are new tokens to acquire and greater yields to collect within the decentralized finance sector.
If it’s been a while since you did DeFi with serious intent, or you’re just getting up to speed on the state of play, your first stop should be to select the right wallet for the task. Not only will a good wallet keep your assets secure, but it will support non-custodial trading, staking, and other DeFi activities through built-in dapp support. If you’re intent on exploring the multi-chain ecosystem, with a particular focus on Avalanche, the following wallets should be dominant on your list.
Core
Core is a well-designed and well-rounded wallet that’s been optimized for several specific features. In terms of security, accessibility, and connectivity it’s particularly accomplished, from the seedless design that allows social login for authentication to the multiple DEXes and chains it integrates. Best of all, though, from the perspective of AVAX holders, is that Core is centered around Avalanche.
Available as a web app, web extension, and mobile wallet, Core does a very good job of simplifying access to the sprawling multi-chain world of web3. The wallet is as adept at portfolio and asset tracking as it is at facilitating dapp exploration. From bridges to protocols and Subnets to DEXes, Core packs a lot into a cleanly designed wallet.
- Features: 8/10
- UI: 9/10
- Security: 9/10
- Supported Assets + Chains: 9/10
- Overall: 9/10
Trust
Trust is a highly popular and highly rated multi-chain wallet that crams a ton of features including support for loads of chains. This makes it an ideal choice for users who want to do more than simply custody their assets – like put them to work exploring the many opportunities that DeFi presents. The Binance-backed Trust is available for mobile and web and with more than 100 blockchains integrated, it provides a universal wallet for holding all your digital assets.
For AVAX holders, Trust can be used to access the Avalanche C-chain, which is where most of the economic activity such as trading and lending take place. Dapp integration makes it easy to access the most popular Avalanche protocols as well as marketplaces for NFTs. From a security perspective, Trust also boasts some nice touches like alerts for potentially risky transactions and the option of making an encrypted cloud backup.
- Features: 8/10
- UI: 7/10
- Security: 8/10
- Supported Assets + Chains: 10/10
- Overall: 8/10
Bitizen
The developers of Bitizen are big on wallet security but no fans of seed phrases. To solve this problem, they’ve engineered a wallet that does away with private keys and the corresponding mnemonic phrase. Instead, Bitizen makes use of threshold signature scheme (TSS) and multi-party computation (MPC) to create mathematical “secret shares” which are used to sign transactions securely. From a UX perspective, this is pleasing, but how does Bitizen stack up in terms of dabbling in DeFi?
There’s support for a good number of chains, with a focus on EVM offerings such as Ethereum, Fantom, Optimism, and Avalanche. There’s also a good number of dapps integrated including LI.FI and an integrated Bitizen Swap, essentially a DEX that draws liquidity from multiple sources. While Bitizen would benefit from a greater range of dapps, its usability makes it a good wallet for web3 beginners.
- Features: 6/10
- UI: 7/10
- Security: 8/10
- Supported Assets + Chains: 7/10
- Overall: 7/10
Infinity
Infinity is a multi-chain wallet that’s designed for desktop use. While this precludes it from appealing to mobile users, the desktop environment provides greater stability for trading a broad spectrum of assets on chain. Bitcoin and most of the EVM chains are supported including Avalanche complete with dapp functionality and portfolio manager.
The UI is a strong point, as is the built in swap feature. There are also numerous options when it comes to beefing up wallet security such as the ability to keep private keys encrypted and to generate the wallet seed offline. Finally, integrated charts make it easy to track the performance of the assets in your wallet so you can determine whether to buy, sell, or keep holding.
- Features: 7/10
- UI: 9/10
- Security: 8/10
- Supported Assets + Chains: 7/10
- Overall: 8/10
Exodus
Exodus has been in the wallet game for years and during that time it’s built up a loyal community who wouldn’t use anything else. More than 50 networks are supported including Bitcoin and Avalanche. The UI is clean, the portfolio dashboard is particularly well designed, especially in detailing the breakdown of assets held and on which networks.
While the desktop app provides the best user experience, the Exodus mobile wallet is also up to the task. A built-in swap feature supports assets residing on different chains, allowing you to trade between AVAX and XMR, for example, in a couple of clicks. Customer support is also excellent, making Exodus an ideal choice for beginners especially.
- Features: 8/10
- UI: 9/10
- Security: 8/10
- Supported Assets + Chains: 8/10
- Overall: 8/10
Conclusion
When ranked for features, user interface, security, and supported assets and chains, Core is the winner, just ahead of Exodus. All five of the wallets in this review have features and integrations that justify a closer look however. If you’re intending to tap into DeFi in January 2024, and take advantage of the many ways in which it allows you to earn yield on your crypto assets, treat yourself to a wallet that’s up to the task.
