If you’re a crypto investor from Canada, you can choose between a wide range of crypto wallets for Canada-based users. We’re showcasing a diverse selection of crypto wallet options to ensure every cryptocurrency investor can find a wallet to best suit their needs.
We’re highlighting two hardware crypto wallets, two exchanges with a stellar track record on security, and four software wallets that will allow you to stay in control of your private keys.
List of the best crypto wallets for Canadian users
- Ledger Nano S Plus — Affordable hardware wallet with strong security
- Ledger Nano X — A hardware wallet with Bluetooth connectivity
- Kraken — A rock-solid crypto exchange with a stellar track record on security
- Coinbase — A safe crypto exchange with a large selection of listed coins
- MetaMask — The gold standard for Ethereum wallets
- Rabby — An Ethereum wallet with extra security features
- Trust Wallet — A software wallet that supports a huge selection of cryptocurrencies
- Electrum — A popular and easy-to-use software wallet for Bitcoin
What you need to know
Due to regulations, some cryptocurrency-related services are unfortunately not available to users from Canada.
We’ve selected 8 cryptocurrency wallets that are available to Canadians and will provide a great place to store, send, and receive cryptocurrencies.
If your cryptocurrency investment represents a significant amount of money for you and you’re willing to expend some effort to securely back up your recovery phrase, we recommend you strongly consider a hardware cryptocurrency wallet. When used properly, a hardware crypto wallet provides a very high level of security for your cryptocurrency holdings.
Many cryptocurrency investors keep a small amount of cryptocurrency in a hot wallet for making transactions while keeping the majority of their crypto portfolio in cold storage using a hardware wallet. If you want to learn more about the different types of wallets you can use, check out our article comparing hot wallets vs. cold wallets.
If your investment in cryptocurrency is relatively small or you don’t want to take on the responsibility to make sure your private keys and recovery phrase are safely backed up, it might be better for you to store your cryptocurrency on a crypto exchange. This is why we’re also featuring two exchanges in our list of the best crypto wallets in Canada.
While this is not the most popular opinion among hardcore cryptocurrency enthusiasts, we believe that those who are new to crypto or aren’t too technically savvy can actually benefit from keeping their cryptocurrency on a high-quality exchange such as Kraken or Coinbase compared to self-custodying their crypto.
The 8 best crypto wallets in Canada: Examining top picks for 2024
In the following sections, we are going to examine the best crypto wallets for Canadian crypto users and go through their main strengths and weaknesses to help you decide which might be best for you.
1. Ledger Nano S Plus — Affordable hardware wallet with strong security
The Ledger Nano S Plus is the most popular hardware crypto wallet on the market. One of the main reasons for the popularity of this hardware wallet is that it strikes a very good balance between being affordable and offering very strong security. After all, the purpose of hardware cryptocurrency wallets such as the Ledger Nano S Plus is to store private keys in an offline environment. For the price of CA$114, it’s hard to find a better solution for securing your cryptocurrency holdings.
The Ledger Nano S Plus supports more than 5,500 different crypto assets, so it’s a great choice regardless of which cryptocurrencies you plan to invest in.While it is true that you need to connect your hardware wallet to your desktop computer or mobile phone when you want to make a transaction, your hardware wallet will only sign the transaction (if you provide approval), but not leak your private keys to the device it’s connected to. This will protect your cryptocurrency holdings even if your computer or phone is infected with malware.
As you set up your Ledger Nano S Plus (or any other hardware wallet), the device will display a recovery phrase, which is an ordered list of 12 words. This recovery phrase will allow you to access your cryptocurrency even if you lose your hardware wallet. It’s very important that you back up your recovery phrase securely, and never share it with anyone. For additional peace of mind, you can back up your recovery phrase with a metal recovery phrase backup, which will be able to withstand even the most extreme conditions (for example, a house fire or flooding).
2. Ledger Nano X — A hardware wallet with Bluetooth connectivity
The Ledger Nano X is a slightly more advanced alternative to the Ledger Nano S Plus. Functionally, these two devices are almost exactly the same, but the Ledger Nano X offers a unique feature—it can be connected to other devices via Bluetooth and is compatible with the Ledger Live app on both iOS and Android.
In contrast, the Nano S Plus can only connect to other devices through a cable. When used with Ledger Live on a mobile device, it only offers supports Android. Of course, both the Nano X and Nano S Plus can be used with desktop computers.
While the Bluetooth connectivity of the Ledger Nano X will be a nice perk for those who are mainly making their crypto transactions on mobile devices, it comes at a cost—the Nano X (CA$209) is nearly twice as expensive as the Nano S Plus.
3. Kraken — A rock-solid crypto exchange with a stellar track record on security
Kraken, a cryptocurrency exchange established in 2013, has consistently been one of the leading players in the crypto industry. Even though it’s been in operation for more than a decade now, Kraken’s cryptocurrency wallets have never been affected by a security breach. This is an impressive feat given that cryptocurrency exchange hacks are unfortunately a relatively common occurrence.
Kraken is widely regarded as one of the safest crypto exchanges on the market and one of the best crypto trading platforms for Canadian users. It offers users 2-factor authentication and other measures to protect their accounts against unauthorized access. Although the selection of listed cryptocurrencies is slightly smaller compared to what you’ll be able to find at some competitors, it still offers a diverse range of crypto assets that will suffice for the vast majority of crypto investors.
Another great feature of Kraken for Canadian users is that it offers trading pairs denominated in the Canadian dollar. For example, you can trade BTC against the Canadian dollar directly on Kraken without having to use stablecoins or another crypto token. This simplifies the process of investing and trading crypto and makes it easy to cash out profits.
4. Coinbase — A safe crypto exchange with a large selection of listed coins
Coinbase is a pioneer in the cryptocurrency industry that has been offering crypto trading services since 2012. In 2021, the company achieved a major milestone by securing a public listing on the NASDAQ stock exchange (under the ticker COIN). The transition to a publicly-traded company imposes a higher level of scrutiny on Coinbase's operations, which can provide more peace of mind to customers. Meanwhile, privately held exchanges can be more opaque about their internal operations, which makes it more difficult for customers to assess potential risks.
Coinbase has gained popularity as an entry point for investors venturing into the crypto space. Its user-friendly interface simplifies the process of depositing money from a bank account via wire transfer or using a card to purchase cryptocurrency, making it an ideal choice for beginners.
In addition, Coinbase has maintained very high security standards throughout more than a decade of operations, as its cryptocurrency wallets have never been compromised. Therefore, if you want to store your cryptocurrency on an exchange instead of using your own wallet, Coinbase is arguably the best choice on the market alongside Kraken.
5. MetaMask — The gold standard for Ethereum wallets
MetaMask is a wallet for Ethereum, as well as blockchains that are compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (examples include BNB Chain, Polygon, and Avalanche). Most commonly, MetaMask is used as a web browser extension, but you can also download it as an app on your mobile phone.
You can use MetaMask to hold ETH or any token issued on the Ethereum blockchain. In addition to the basic functionality of sending and receiving Ethereum-based crypto assets, MetaMask also offers some extra features such as on-chain token swaps, buying and selling cryptocurrency through various crypto onramps, and a portfolio tracking feature.
If you’re planning to actively engage with blockchain-based apps such as decentralized finance protocols and NFT marketplaces, MetaMask is definitely worth a strong consideration. You can use MetaMask as a hot wallet, or pair it with a hardware wallet such as the Ledger Nano S Plus for added security.
6. Rabby — An Ethereum wallet with extra security features
Rabby is an Ethereum wallet that provides a compelling alternative to MetaMask, which currently holds a dominant position in the Ethereum wallet market. Rabby is quickly becoming a serious competitor in this space thanks to innovative features and a proactive approach to security. When you’re about to approve a transaction with Rabby, the wallet scans the transaction in order to identify potential risks. If you’re trying to interact with a DeFi protocol that has previously been hacked, for example, the Rabby wallet will notify you of the exploit.
Rabby also employs a transaction simulation mechanism that informs users about what the transaction they’re about to approve is actually going to do. This feature helps protect users from losing their funds to malicious smart contracts.The Rabby team is quite open about prioritizing security over user experience. This makes Rabby a suitable option for advanced users, but this wallet is perhaps not the best choice for beginners.
Rabby is currently available as a web browser extension and as a standalone desktop app. However, the team is also working on releasing a mobile app version of the wallet.
7. Trust Wallet — A software wallet that supports a huge selection of cryptocurrencies
Trust Wallet is a multi-chain wallet, which means that it can be used to store and transact with cryptocurrencies on a variety of blockchains. This wallet is best suited for users that own many different types of cryptocurrency, and would like to manage all of them with a single app. The wallet supports Bitcoin, Ethereum (and EVM-compatible blockchains), XRP and many other popular cryptocurrencies.
Trust Wallet is easy to use-with a user interface that will suit both beginners and advanced crypto investors. Users can view their crypto portfolio value in the currency of their choice, monitor their history of on-chain transactions, and effectively manage multiple cryptocurrencies.
The wallet also integrates a DApp (decentralized application) browser, which allows users to interact with decentralized applications directly from Trust Wallet. In addition, Trust Wallet also provides cryptocurrency buying and selling, token swaps, and a staking feature. It also boasts its own native token, called the Trust Wallet Token, which enables users to participate in governance.
8. Electrum — A popular and easy-to-use software wallet for Bitcoin
Electrum is a software wallet for Bitcoin that can be used as a standalone desktop application or as a mobile app. Electrum is a non-custodial wallet, which means that the user manages their private keys themselves. Itcan function as a standard Bitcoin wallet, but it can also function as a multisig wallet. Interestingly enough, Electrum supports third-party plugins, which allow users to fully customize their user experience to best suit their needs.
The Electrum wallet functions through a decentralized network of servers to make it highly resilient and limit downtime. If you wish, you can also run your own Electrum server yourself.
If you’re someone who is exclusively investing in Bitcoin and would like to use a software wallet, Electrum might just be the best Bitcoin wallet for Canada-based users. If you also want to invest in other cryptocurrencies, a multi-chain wallet might be a smarter choice.
The bottom line — What’s the best crypto wallet in Canada?
Before we conclude, let’s quickly recap the best crypto wallets for Canada-based users with a comparison chart.
| Type | Custodial? | Recommended for | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ledger Nano S Plus | Hardware wallet | No | Long-term cryptocurrency storage | CA$114 |
| Ledger Nano X | Hardware wallet | No | Long-term cryptocurrency storage, use with mobile devices | CA$209 |
| Kraken | Crypto exchange | Yes | Users who have smaller amounts of crypto or aren’t comfortable with self-custodying their coins | Storing crypto is free (fees are charged for trading and other services) |
| Coinbase | Crypto exchange | Yes | Users who have smaller amounts of crypto or aren’t comfortable with self-custodying their coins | Storing crypto is free (fees are charged for trading and other services) |
| MetaMask | Software wallet (browser extension or mobile app) | No | Active Ethereum users | Storing crypto is free (offers additional services that might incur a fee) |
| Rabby | Software wallet (browser extension or desktop app) | No | Active Ethereum users who want additional security features | Free |
| Trust Wallet | Software wallet (browser extension or mobile app) | No | Users who have many different types of cryptocurrency and like to transact frequently | Storing crypto is free (offers additional services that might incur a fee) |
| Electrum | Software wallet (desktop app and Android app) | No | Bitcoin users who make transactions frequently | Free |
If you’re interested in more tips related to crypto investing, make sure to check out our ultimate guide to investing in crypto.
