Cake Wallet vs Mycelium

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

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

Mycelium3.7

One of the oldest bitcoin wallets still shipping, strong on Android with deep UTXO control, and an iPhone build nobody has verified.

Verdict: Mycelium

Mycelium rates higher on our rubric: 3.7 against 3.3 for Cake Wallet.

Criterion: Editorial rating
Cake Wallet: 3.3
Mycelium: 3.7

Cake Wallet and Mycelium, 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.

Cake Wallet and Mycelium compared fact by fact from their reviews; a check marks the side a decidable criterion favours.
Fact	Cake Wallet	Mycelium
Editorial rating	3.3	3.7 (favoured on this row)
Status	Available	Available
Made by	Cake Labs	Mycelium
Price	Free download	Free download
Who holds the keys	self-custodial, seed and keys generated and stored on your own device, with no account and no telemetry	self-custodial, keys generated and held on the phone, recoverable only from a backup you write down
Bitcoin-only	No	No
Runs on	iOS, Android, Windows, macOS, Linux	iOS, Android
Screen	Not stated	Not stated
Connectivity	Tor for all traffic, connection to your own node, Ledger hardware signing, and silent payments plus PayJoin on the bitcoin side	Optional Tor, connection to your own Bitcoin node, NFC, and hardware wallet support for Trezor, Ledger and KeepKey
Released	2018, launched as the first open-source Monero wallet on iOS	Android on July 1, 2013 and iPhone on December 17, 2014, per WalletScrutiny
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

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

Mycelium

What works

Shipping on Android since July 1, 2013, one of the longest unbroken runs of any mobile bitcoin wallet
Real UTXO control on a phone: unspent output visibility, fee bumping, watch-only and single-address savings accounts
Passed all seven of WalletScrutiny's wallet tests, including public source code and an unobfuscated binary
Hardware wallet support for Trezor, Ledger and KeepKey, plus spending directly from paper wallets
Direct APK download, an Obtainium link and a published signing certificate, so Google Play is not the only way in
Optional Tor and your own node, with each third-party service able to be turned off on its own

What to watch

The iPhone app trails badly: WalletScrutiny lists 3.22.0.2 for Android against 2.10 for iPhone
Mycelium's iOS source repository on GitHub is archived, with no commits since June 2024
WalletScrutiny says no iOS build has ever been reproduced, so the reproducibility claim covers Android and not iPhone
WalletScrutiny discloses that its own authors have contributed to Mycelium, so its verdict is not fully independent
No longer bitcoin only: Ethereum and ERC-20 accounts add code a bitcoin-only wallet does not carry
Dated interface, and support runs through a single email address with no live channel

Frequently asked questions

Is Cake Wallet or Mycelium better?

Mycelium rates higher on our rubric: 3.7 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 Cake Wallet and Mycelium free?

Yes, both are free to download. What differs is who holds the keys: Cake Wallet is self-custodial, seed and keys generated and stored on your own device, with no account and no telemetry; Mycelium is self-custodial, keys generated and held on the phone, recoverable only from a backup you write down.

Is Cake Wallet or Mycelium bitcoin-only?

Neither: both support assets beyond bitcoin. Cake Wallet: Multi-asset: Monero, bitcoin, Lightning, Litecoin, Ethereum, Solana, Zcash, Bitcoin Cash and more. Mycelium: Bitcoin first, with Ethereum and ERC-20 accounts in the same app.

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

More comparisons

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