Aqua vs Cake Wallet

Comparing: two wallets
Decided by: Editorial rating
Last reviewed: 2026-08-25

A self-custodial Bitcoin, Liquid and Tether USDt wallet built for people who need cheap dollars on a phone, not only bitcoin.

Cake Wallet3.3

Open source Monero-first wallet with real bitcoin privacy tools, carrying a 2021 key generation bug that is still costing people coins.

Verdict: Aqua

Aqua rates higher on our rubric: 3.6 against 3.3 for Cake Wallet.

Criterion: Editorial rating
Aqua: 3.6
Cake Wallet: 3.3

Aqua and Cake Wallet, fact by fact

Every row is from the two reviews as of their review dates, with sources on each. A check marks the side a decidable criterion favours; rows without one are information, not a score.

Aqua and Cake Wallet compared fact by fact from their reviews; a check marks the side a decidable criterion favours.
Fact	Aqua	Cake Wallet
Editorial rating	3.6 (favoured on this row)	3.3
Status	Available	Available
Made by	JAN3	Cake Labs
Price	Free download	Free download
Who holds the keys	self-custodial, with the seed stored on your device in Keychain on iOS or EncryptedSharedPreferences on Android	self-custodial, seed and keys generated and stored on your own device, with no account and no telemetry
Bitcoin-only	No	No
Runs on	iOS, Android	iOS, Android, Windows, macOS, Linux
Screen	Not stated	Not stated
Connectivity	On-chain bitcoin, the Liquid Network, and Lightning through submarine swaps rather than channels of its own	Tor for all traffic, connection to your own node, Ledger hardware signing, and silent payments plus PayJoin on the bitcoin side
Released	2024, by JAN3	2018, launched as the first open-source Monero wallet on iOS
Countries on the maker's list	No published list	No published list
Last reviewed	2026-08-25	2026-08-25

Pros and cons, side by side

Aqua

What works

Self-custodial, with the seed kept in the phone's own secure storage and no documents required to open a wallet
Bitcoin, Liquid and Tether USDt in one app, which is the point for anyone who is paid or saves in dollars
Aqua's own figures put a $100 USDt transfer at three cents over Liquid against eight dollars over Ethereum
Network fees on USDt can be paid in USDt, so there is no separate gas token to hold
Replace-by-fee support, so a stuck transaction can be bumped instead of waited out
Client source published on GitHub, and Aqua says it collects no personal data or transaction logs

What to watch

Not bitcoin only: a large part of the app is about stablecoins
Liquid balances are secured by the Liquid federation rather than by bitcoin's own mining
Lightning runs through third-party submarine swaps rather than channels Aqua manages
USDt transfers over Tron or Ethereum depend on SideShift's liquidity, as Aqua's own FAQ says
In-app bitcoin purchases are run by outside providers, so the country rules and the support queue are theirs
A prepaid card and lending are advertised as coming rather than shipped

Cake Wallet

What works

Open source under an MIT license, with a public repository that is actively developed
Self-custodial with no account and no KYC, and, in Cake's words, zero data collection or telemetry
Genuine bitcoin privacy tooling: silent payments and PayJoin, plus Tor for all traffic and your own node
Handles Monero properly, which almost no other multi-asset wallet does
Ledger hardware wallet support, plus Cake's own two-factor option and biometric unlock
Reachable outside the app stores: direct APK, Accrescent, and Windows and Linux builds

What to watch

Bitcoin wallets created before v4.1.7 are permanently unsafe and have to be replaced, not just updated
The Milk Sad researchers traced sweeps of those weak wallets continuing into 2024, three years after the warning
The flaw was in Cake's own key generation code rather than a third-party library, and it ran through 2020 and 2021
Multi-asset by design, so it carries far more chains and far more code than a bitcoin-only wallet
Monero's privacy guarantees and much more transparent chains share one app, which takes care to use well

Frequently asked questions

Is Aqua or Cake Wallet better?

Aqua rates higher on our rubric: 3.6 against 3.3 for Cake Wallet. The rating follows the product rubric published on our about page; the rows above set custody, price and platforms side by side so you can check it.

Are Aqua and Cake Wallet free?

Yes, both are free to download. What differs is who holds the keys: Aqua is self-custodial, with the seed stored on your device in Keychain on iOS or EncryptedSharedPreferences on Android; Cake Wallet is self-custodial, seed and keys generated and stored on your own device, with no account and no telemetry.

Is Aqua or Cake Wallet bitcoin-only?

Neither: both support assets beyond bitcoin. Aqua: Multi-asset: bitcoin on chain, Liquid bitcoin, and Tether USDt on Liquid and several other chains. Cake Wallet: Multi-asset: Monero, bitcoin, Lightning, Litecoin, Ethereum, Solana, Zcash, Bitcoin Cash and more.

The full reviews: Aqua and Cake Wallet, each with its sources, and every wallet we review.

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