Coinbase Wallet review

Coinbase Wallet is not quite Coinbase Wallet any more: coinbase.com/wallet now loads Base App, Coinbase's rebuilt self-custody app for its own Base network, and if you came here looking for a bitcoin wallet that is the first thing to know. The sign-in page describes it as a place to trade on web and mobile, shows BTC alongside ETH, SOL and a wall of tokens, offers Apple Pay deposits, and advertises up to 3.35% APY on USDC held in it, accrued daily and paid weekly.

The distinction worth getting right is custody. Your Coinbase.com exchange account is custodial: Coinbase holds the keys, can freeze the account, and can help you back in if you lose your password. This app is the opposite: the keys are generated and held on your device, Coinbase cannot move the funds, and if you lose the recovery phrase there is nobody to ask. Same brand, opposite model, and the confusion between them is what phishing calls claiming to be Coinbase support are built on.

For bitcoin specifically, be clear-eyed about what this app is for. It is a trading front end for Base and Ethereum with bitcoin along for the ride, not a wallet designed around bitcoin's features. There is no coin control, no fee bumping worth the name and no Lightning. If bitcoin is the only thing you hold, a bitcoin-focused wallet will serve you better, and hardware will serve you better still.

Two more things a reader should know. Coinbase disclosed in May 2025 that criminals had bribed a small number of overseas customer support contractors to hand over customer records; the company said names, addresses and identity documents were taken for a fraction of its users, and that passwords, two factor codes, private keys and funds were not. Self-custody keys were never within reach of that, which is the argument for self-custody in one sentence. And coinbase.com/legal/wallet, where the wallet's own terms used to sit, now returns a 404, so there is currently no wallet-specific agreement to read.