Phoenix vs Trust Wallet

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

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.

Trust Wallet2.9

Use the phone app, think twice about the extension: an attacker published a malicious build of it on December 24, 2025.

Verdict: Phoenix

Phoenix rates higher on our rubric: 4.0 against 2.9 for Trust Wallet.

Criterion: Editorial rating
Phoenix: 4.0
Trust Wallet: 2.9

Phoenix and Trust 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.

Phoenix and Trust Wallet compared fact by fact from their reviews; a check marks the side a decidable criterion favours.
Fact	Phoenix	Trust Wallet
Editorial rating	4.0 (favoured on this row)	2.9
Status	Available	Available
Made by	ACINQ	Trust Wallet
Price	Free download	Free download
Who holds the keys	self-custodial, a real Lightning node running on your phone behind a 12 word seed	self-custodial, keys generated on your own device and never held by Trust Wallet
Bitcoin-only	Yes	No
Runs on	iOS, Android	iOS, Android, Browser extension
Screen	Not stated	Not stated
Connectivity	Lightning only, connecting to ACINQ's nodes, with the option to watch the chain through your own Electrum server	Not stated
Released	December 2019, alongside ACINQ's Eclair node implementation	2017
Countries on the maker's list	No published list	228
Last reviewed	2026-08-26	2026-08-25

Pros and cons, side by side

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

Trust Wallet

What works

Keys are generated on your device, and Trust Wallet's terms describe it as non-custodial software rather than an account
The mobile apps were untouched by the December 2025 browser extension compromise
Trust Wallet published a dated timeline that names its own leaked publishing key as the way in
It decided to reimburse affected users voluntarily and put the process in writing
One app holds bitcoin alongside Ethereum, Solana and hundreds of other chains

What to watch

An attacker shipped a malicious build of the Chrome extension directly to users, so installing it means trusting a publishing pipeline that has failed once
Trust Wallet counts 2,520 affected addresses against over 5,000 reimbursement claims, and reviews them case by case with no published deadline
Keys sit on an internet connected phone, so this is a hot wallet: savings belong on a hardware wallet instead
Bitcoin is one chain among hundreds, and the interface is built around tokens and dapps rather than around bitcoin
The Earn feature is unavailable in 33 countries and territories, including the United States, the United Kingdom and most of the European Economic Area

Frequently asked questions

Is Phoenix or Trust Wallet better?

Phoenix rates higher on our rubric: 4.0 against 2.9 for Trust 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 Phoenix and Trust Wallet free?

Yes, both are free to download. What differs is who holds the keys: Phoenix is self-custodial, a real Lightning node running on your phone behind a 12 word seed; Trust Wallet is self-custodial, keys generated on your own device and never held by Trust Wallet.

Is Phoenix or Trust Wallet bitcoin-only?

Phoenix is bitcoin-only; Trust Wallet supports other assets too. Bitcoin alongside Ethereum, Solana and hundreds of other chains and tokens

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

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