Coinbase Wallet vs Phoenix

Comparing: two wallets
Decided by: Editorial rating
Last reviewed: 2026-08-26

Coinbase's self-custody wallet is now Base App, and the product has moved its center of gravity to Base.

Phoenix4.0Bitcoin-only

A real Lightning node on your phone from the team behind Eclair, with a published fee table and a privacy tradeoff ACINQ states outright.

Verdict: Phoenix

Phoenix rates higher on our rubric: 4.0 against 3.1 for Coinbase Wallet.

Criterion: Editorial rating
Coinbase Wallet: 3.1
Phoenix: 4.0

Coinbase Wallet and Phoenix, 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.

Coinbase Wallet and Phoenix compared fact by fact from their reviews; a check marks the side a decidable criterion favours.
Fact	Coinbase Wallet	Phoenix
Editorial rating	3.1	4.0 (favoured on this row)
Status	Available	Available
Made by	Coinbase	ACINQ
Price	Free download	Free download
Who holds the keys	self-custodial, keys held on your device, unlike the custodial Coinbase.com exchange account	self-custodial, a real Lightning node running on your phone behind a 12 word seed
Bitcoin-only	No	Yes
Runs on	iOS, Android	iOS, Android
Screen	Not stated	Not stated
Connectivity	Not stated	Lightning only, connecting to ACINQ's nodes, with the option to watch the chain through your own Electrum server
Released	2018, relaunched under the Base App name	December 2019, alongside ACINQ's Eclair node implementation
Countries on the maker's list	No published list	No published list
Last reviewed	2026-08-26	2026-08-26

Pros and cons, side by side

Coinbase Wallet

What works

Genuinely self-custodial and separate from the custodial Coinbase.com exchange account
Backed by a large listed company with a real security team and a bug bounty
Apple Pay deposits and a familiar trading interface for people already using Coinbase
Holds bitcoin alongside Ethereum, Solana and Base assets in one app

What to watch

The product has been rebranded as Base App, so most reviews and guides describe an app that no longer looks like this
Built around Base and trading rather than around bitcoin, with no Lightning and no coin control
coinbase.com/legal/wallet now returns a 404, so there is no wallet-specific terms document to read
A hot wallet on a phone, with no secure element
The May 2025 support contractor breach put real customer names and addresses in criminal hands, which fuels convincing impersonation

Phoenix

What works

A real self-custodial Lightning node on the phone, not an account on somebody's server
Fees published as a table on ACINQ's own site: 0.4% plus 4 sat to send, free to receive when you have liquidity
Standard BIP39 seed on a BIP84 path, recoverable in Electrum if ACINQ ever disappeared
Built by ACINQ, which develops the Eclair implementation and runs a large routing node
Rotating taproot receive addresses, with swaps that look like ordinary transactions on chain

What to watch

ACINQ's own FAQ says Phoenix offers no privacy advantage over a custodial wallet and that ACINQ knows the destination and amount of payments
Receiving without enough inbound liquidity costs 1% plus mining fees, and a new channel costs 1,000 sat
No on-chain balance, which makes it a spending wallet rather than somewhere to park savings
Recovering from a force close takes roughly 720 blocks, about five days
Wake-up notifications rely on Google services, so GrapheneOS users need the sandboxed Play Services app
Was off US app stores from May 3, 2024 until some point in 2025, which is why some reviews still call it unavailable there

Frequently asked questions

Is Coinbase Wallet or Phoenix better?

Phoenix rates higher on our rubric: 4.0 against 3.1 for Coinbase 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 Coinbase Wallet and Phoenix free?

Yes, both are free to download. What differs is who holds the keys: Coinbase Wallet is self-custodial, keys held on your device, unlike the custodial Coinbase.com exchange account; Phoenix is self-custodial, a real Lightning node running on your phone behind a 12 word seed.

Is Coinbase Wallet or Phoenix bitcoin-only?

Phoenix is bitcoin-only; Coinbase Wallet supports other assets too. Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana and Base network assets, per the app's own sign-in page

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

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