Best crypto wallets in the United States

Partly. Every address on a public blockchain is visible to anyone, and US exchanges now report your sales to the IRS on Form 1099-DA. Your wallet is different. No rule in force requires a self-custody wallet app to file Form 1099-DA on your wallet activity. Phantom and MetaMask say they issue no tax forms; for the others we found no sign they do. You must report every taxable transaction yourself.

Form 1099-DA comes from custodial US brokers such as exchanges, certain hosted wallet providers and crypto kiosks. They report gross proceeds for sales from January 1, 2025. From January 1, 2026, they also report cost basis for coins bought after 2025 and held at that broker until the sale. The first forms were due by February 17, 2026.

Treasury's 2024 rules say a business that only sells hardware or licenses software letting people control their own private keys, without other functions or services, is not a broker. The IRS hasn't said how that applies to wallets with built-in swaps. Congress voided the separate DeFi broker rule, which would have reached swap front-ends, through Public Law 119-5 on April 10, 2025. The Federal Register now treats it as never in force.

Every Form 1040 filer must answer the digital asset question Yes or No, even if they never owned crypto. The IRS asks: 'At any time during the tax year, did you: (a) receive (as a reward, award or payment for property or services); or (b) sell, exchange, or otherwise dispose of a digital asset (or a financial interest in a digital asset)?'

Holding crypto, buying it with dollars, or moving it between wallets you own generally lets you answer No. Paying the network fee in crypto counts as a digital asset transaction, according to the IRS. The move itself isn't taxable, except for the crypto used to pay the fee. Swaps are. A swap inside a wallet app is a taxable disposition, and staking rewards are income at fair market value when you gain dominion and control over them (Rev. Rul. 2023-14).

Keep your own records. Since January 1, 2025, cost basis is tracked wallet by wallet (Rev. Proc. 2024-28), so export the history from every wallet at least once a year. IRS Notice 2026-20 relief covers coins held at a broker only. Our US crypto tax guide walks through Form 8949 and Schedule D.

None of the pending bills is law. House Ways and Means approved H.R. 10357 by 38 to 5 on September 16, 2026. It would exempt fee payments of $10 or less and apply wash-sale rules to crypto. Separately, the CLARITY Act failed a Senate cloture vote, 49 to 50.

Most of the trading extras these wallets advertise abroad are off for Americans. Phantom, Trust Wallet and MetaMask don't offer perps to US users, and four of the five app wallets block tokenized stocks. Prediction markets are blocked, paused or unconfirmed wherever they exist. The basics still work.

Phantom's CFTC no-action letter of March 17, 2026 doesn't change this. Phantom says the relief does not cover DeFi derivatives or tokenized prediction markets and applies to a custodial model with a registered exchange partner. Rabby's gate points the same way, because Hyperliquid's own interface terms exclude anyone in the United States.

Staking isn't blocked. We found no US-specific staking limit in any of the seven wallets' documentation, though Exodus says availability varies by location and wallet address. The fees differ a lot. MetaMask Pooled Staking takes 15% of rewards, Phantom's PSOL takes 4% plus a 0.1% exit fee, and Lido takes 10% of ETH rewards through Ledger.

Yes, but not through every partner. A self-custody wallet doesn't sell you crypto. A payment partner does, and each partner keeps its own state list. MoonPay appears in six of our seven wallets and holds a New York BitLicense, while Robinhood Connect, Transak, Ramp, Banxa and Paybis all exclude New York.

Some limits come from the wallet itself. Exodus switches off swaps in New York and Washington, and Phantom Cash's bank transfers and withdrawals and Phantom's card exclude New York. Phantom Cash may also ask for a Social Security number and does not accept an ITIN. MetaMask asks US users to pick their state in its sell flow.

In New York, check the NYDFS list of regulated virtual currency businesses first. MoonPay, PayPal, Robinhood Crypto and Coinbase are on it; Transak, Ramp, Banxa, Uphold (Topper's parent) and Paybis are not. Under California's Digital Financial Assets Law, firms serving its residents needed a license, a pending application or an exemption by July 1, 2026.

Buy a Trezor Safe 3 at $59 for the cheapest open-source option, or a Ledger for the widest app support. Either way, buy it direct from the maker. Both list US prices in dollars. Trezor charges US buyers no customs duties.

Trezor sells direct from trezor.io; US orders ship from US fulfillment centers with no customs duties, and Trezor lists free standard shipping on the Safe 3 and Safe 5. Its help center also links an official Trezor storefront on Amazon US. We recommend buying direct. Sales tax, where it applies, is added at checkout.

Ledger sells direct (US orders are contracted with Global-e US Inc.) and lists Best Buy, Amazon (seller 'Ledger Official') and TikTok Shop US as authorized resellers. On Amazon, check the seller name. Ledger warns that third-party sellers can list on the same page. Shipping is free on the Flex and Stax.

The October 2026 Ledger implant case

In October 2026 Ledger confirmed that some devices sold through CryptoBilis, a reseller in Southeast Asia, had been opened and fitted with a hidden implant. The implant read the 24-word recovery phrase off the screen during setup and sent it out over a cellular connection. Ledger says its chip, operating system and servers were not compromised, and that its direct sales were not affected.

Third-party blockchain trackers estimate losses of roughly $72 million to $102 million; Ledger has not confirmed any figure. Ledger asked resellers in seven Asian markets (Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Hong Kong) to stop selling. MediaMarktSaturn pulled Ledger products after one customer report in Germany. As of October 17, 2026, Ledger had not announced compensation.

Ledger's statements name no US seller or customer, and Ledger has confirmed cases only in devices sold through CryptoBilis; reports from other sellers are under review. Ledger's reseller list still shows CryptoBilis, marked 'Sales temporarily paused'. Ledger's own documentation says its Genuine Check cannot detect physical implants if the original secure chip is intact.

So a reseller list is no guarantee. Ledger now bans open-shelf display and the resale of returned devices, but marketplace listings and discounted units remain the riskiest way to buy any hardware wallet. Trezor is also shrinking its reseller list from January 1, 2027.

Ledger Recover is an optional, paid backup tied to your ID, and it costs $9.99 a month after a free first month, with renewals billed in euros. The dollar amount can vary. Coincover runs it: your phrase is encrypted and split into three fragments, held by Coincover, Ledger and EscrowTech. You must pass an identity check, and US users can verify with a passport, national ID or driver's license.

A hardware wallet bought direct from its maker is the safest place for savings, because your keys stay off your phone and computer. Among app wallets, Rabby scored highest for security in our reviews. We found no confirmed breach of Phantom's own systems. The rest appear below.

Ledger also faces lawsuits in the US. In Baton v. Ledger SAS, a federal judge in California let privacy claims proceed in part in February 2025. A proposed class action filed August 27, 2026 in federal court in Manhattan seeks at least $500 million, citing the 2020 and 2023 incidents. The claims are unproven, and Ledger does not comment on legal matters.

The SEC's investor education office warns that self-custody means you have 'sole responsibility for the security of your crypto assets' private keys,' and that a lost or stolen wallet can mean losing access for good. Nobody can reset a recovery phrase for you. Build these habits from day one.

• Buy hardware direct from trezor.io or ledger.com, never discounted from a marketplace, social-media shop or second-hand seller.
• Run the setup checks. A new Trezor ships without firmware, and Trezor Suite runs authenticity and entropy checks; Ledger says its Genuine Check can't detect a physical implant if the original secure chip is intact.
• Write your recovery phrase on paper or metal, and never type it into a website or a support chat.
• Read the balance-change preview before you sign, and revoke token approvals you no longer use.
• If your details were in the Trezor or Ledger leaks, treat any wallet letter, email or call as a scam until verified.

Exodus is the best crypto wallet in the USA for beginners, unless you live in New York or Washington. It scored 4.6 out of 5 for ease of use in our review, and you can sell to a US bank through MoonPay by ACH. In those two states, though, swaps are off. That removes the feature most beginners want.

Phantom is the simplest start if you mainly want Solana, and it scored 4.7 for ease of use, the highest of the seven. Whichever app you pick, write the recovery phrase down before you fund it and send a small test amount first. Once the balance grows past what you'd be happy to lose, move it to a hardware wallet.

Most Americans holding more than a small amount should have both. Use a hot wallet, meaning an app, for spending and connecting to apps, and a cold wallet, meaning a hardware device, for savings. The pair works best when the app can sign with your hardware wallet, because your keys then stay offline while you use the app.

That table explains Ledger's high rank despite its incidents. It pairs with all five app wallets, while Trezor pairs with three. If you want Phantom with a hardware wallet, you need a Ledger. Not the Nano Gen5, though. Trezor owners can use Rabby, Exodus or MetaMask's extension.

Almost everything about responsibility. An exchange account is custodial. The exchange holds your crypto, sends you a Form 1099-DA when you sell and can restore access if you forget your password. A self-custody wallet gives you the keys instead. The FTC warns that if your wallet is stolen or compromised, no one can step in to help you recover your funds.

A wallet also needs a partner to reach your bank. Exodus sells through MoonPay to a US bank by ACH. Phantom pays out through Phantom Cash outside New York. Ledger's only confirmed US sell route pays to a card, and Rabby has none documented. Many Americans buy on an exchange and then withdraw to a wallet; our best crypto exchanges in the US list covers that side.

Mostly by tricking you into giving up your recovery phrase or signing a bad transaction. People reported $11.4 billion in crypto-related losses to the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center in 2025, including $7.2 billion in crypto investment fraud. People 60 and over reported $4.4 billion of it. Crypto ATMs alone cost victims $389 million.

Recovery scams, where fake firms promise to get stolen crypto back, accounted for $1.4 billion, which may include losses from earlier years. The FTC says people reported losing about $16 billion to all fraud in 2025, and it has published no crypto split for that year.

In June 2025 the FBI warned about wallet-draining NFT airdrops on the Hedera network, but no US government warning from 2024 to 2026 names a wallet brand. The FTC's alert about fake MetaMask emails dates from May 9, 2023. Brand-specific evidence comes from wallets and security firms. It shows one pattern. Scammers copy a trusted name, then ask for your recovery phrase.

• Kaspersky reported 26 phishing apps on Apple's App Store pushing infected wallet copies, Trust Wallet among them (April 20, 2026).
• Socket found at least 20 malicious Firefox add-ons built from Rabby's code in August 2026; Rabby has no Firefox version.
• A fake Ledger app on Apple's App Store took about $9.5 million from 50+ victims in April 2026, per investigator ZachXBT.

Report fraud at ic3.gov and ReportFraud.ftc.gov. The CFTC says to treat any wallet address you didn't create yourself with skepticism, and it calls crypto recovery offers a form of advance-fee fraud. Ignore anyone who contacts you afterward promising to get your coins back.

The apps are free; you pay through swap fees, partner fees and network fees. Rabby charges the lowest published swap fee, 0.25%, and MetaMask the highest, 0.875%, plus 1% on buys and sells, with Phantom at 0.85% on most swaps. Exodus builds its cut into the quoted rate. Trust Wallet's pages disagree on whether it charges one. On a $1,000 swap, Rabby saves you $6.25 against MetaMask.

Network fees count for tax too. When you pay gas in crypto, the IRS treats the coins you spend as a disposition. Each fee is a tiny taxable event. Good tax software picks it up from your wallet exports.

Broker reporting arrived at US exchanges in 2025, while Congress voided the rule that would have reached DeFi front-ends. Several of the wallets we rank also had security incidents or switched off features for US users. These are the dates that matter.

• January 1, 2025: Form 1099-DA reporting of gross proceeds begins, and basis is tracked wallet by wallet.
• December 2025: Trust Wallet's extension is compromised; Exodus settles with OFAC.
• March 17, 2026: the CFTC gives Phantom no-action relief that, Phantom says, does not cover DeFi derivatives or tokenized prediction markets.
• September 4, 2026: Trezor adds about 67,000 US orders to the ShipMonk exposure, for 80,689 customers in all.
• September 30, 2026: MetaMask discloses an infrastructure incident.
• October 7, 2026: Trust Wallet adds an in-app MoonPay checkout for US users.
• October 2026: Ledger confirms implants in some devices sold through CryptoBilis, and the Nano S Plus lists at $69, up from $59 as late as September 26.

None of this changed the basic advice. Keep savings on a hardware wallet bought direct, and pick an app wallet that still works in your state. We'll update this page as Ledger's investigation and the pending tax bills develop further.