How do I move my Bitcoin to bit21?

You don't. Type your existing 12 or 24-word recovery phrase into bit21 and the same addresses appear, holding the same coins. Nothing moves on-chain, no fee, no waiting. About thirty seconds.

What does self-custody actually mean?

You hold the private keys. No company, no exchange, no government sits between you and your coins. If bit21 vanished tomorrow, your seed phrase still opens your wallet in any BIP39-compatible app.

What if I lose my phone?

Bitcoin is not stored on your phone. It lives on the network. The seed phrase is the key. Back the seed up on paper or steel and you can restore the wallet on any device, any time.

Does bit21 collect any data about me?

No account, no email, no phone number, no KYC. The wallet itself sends nothing identifying when it queries the blockchain. We have no list of users to leak even if we wanted to.

Which Bitcoin address types are supported?

All four standard types: Legacy (1...), SegWit Compatible (3...), Native SegWit (bc1q...), and Taproot (bc1p...). You can pick a type per wallet and bit21 finds funds across all of them automatically on import.

What is the Vault feature?

A vault uses Bitcoin's CheckLockTimeVerify opcode to make coins literally unspendable until a chosen block height. Bitcoin's own consensus enforces the lock. Not bit21, not us. Useful when you want to hold long-term and stop yourself from touching the stack early.

What is the time-locked vault for?

Forced patience. Lock a chunk of Bitcoin for a year, two years, whatever you need. The protocol holds it; nobody can unlock it early, including the people who built bit21. If you tend to fiddle with your stack during volatility, this removes the option.

Is bit21 open source?

Yes. The wallet code is public for anyone who wants to inspect or verify it. Most users use the official apps. The source is there if you ever care to look.

Can I use bit21 on iPhone?

Yes, through the web app at wallet.bit21.app. It runs in any modern browser, iPhone included. A native iOS app is in the pipeline.

Why Bitcoin only? Why not other coins?

Every extra coin adds code, complexity, and attack surface. Multi-chain wallets have more places to break. bit21 stays focused on Bitcoin because that is the asset that warrants this level of care. Not a limitation. A choice.

Yes. You pay standard Bitcoin network fees when you send a transaction; those go to miners. bit21 takes no cut.

← Back to Blog

April 10, 20265 min read

Why a Bitcoin-Only Wallet Is More Secure Than a Multi-Coin Wallet

Name: bit21 Bitcoin Wallet
Author: bit21

Most cryptocurrency wallets support hundreds of coins. Ethereum, Solana, Dogecoin, and whatever launched last week. This sounds like a feature. It is actually a security risk.

Every coin a wallet supports requires its own codebase, its own transaction logic, its own address derivation, and its own signing mechanism. More code means more bugs. More bugs mean more vulnerabilities. More vulnerabilities mean more ways to lose your money.

The Attack Surface Problem

In security, "attack surface" refers to the total number of points where an attacker could try to exploit a system. A wallet that supports 500 coins has a dramatically larger attack surface than a wallet that supports one.

Ledger, the hardware wallet manufacturer, experienced a supply chain attack in 2023 through a third-party JavaScript library used for their multi-coin support. The compromised code was injected through a dependency that had nothing to do with Bitcoin. If the wallet only supported Bitcoin, that attack vector would not have existed.

Focus Means Better Tools

When a development team supports 500 coins, their attention is split 500 ways. Bug fixes, UI updates, and security patches must be tested across all supported chains. Inevitably, some chains get less attention than others.

A Bitcoin-only wallet team puts 100% of their engineering into Bitcoin. Every feature, every security measure, every UX decision is made specifically for Bitcoin users. Coin control, UTXO management, fee estimation, address type support, and time-locked vaults all receive full attention.

Bitcoin Is Different From Cryptocurrency

Bitcoin is a decentralized monetary network with no CEO, no foundation controlling development, and no ability for any entity to change its monetary policy. Its fixed supply of 21 million coins is enforced by consensus rules that have remained unchanged for over 17 years.

Most other cryptocurrencies have central teams, pre-mined supplies, and the ability to change their rules at will. They serve different purposes and have different risk profiles. Treating them all the same in one wallet conflates fundamentally different things.

What a Bitcoin-Only Wallet Gives You

Full support for all four Bitcoin address types: Legacy (P2PKH), SegWit Compatible (P2SH-P2WPKH), Native SegWit (P2WPKH), and Taproot (P2TR). Full UTXO coin control so you can choose exactly which coins to spend. Time-locked vaults for long-term holding. Multi-address management with HD derivation across all paths.

These are features that multi-coin wallets either skip entirely or implement poorly because their priority is breadth, not depth.

Choosing the Right Wallet

If you hold Bitcoin for the long term, use a wallet that treats Bitcoin as the only thing that matters. Sparrow Wallet for desktop. bit21 for mobile and web. Coldcard for hardware. These tools are built by teams that understand Bitcoin at the protocol level.

Your Bitcoin deserves a wallet that was built for it. Not one that treats it as one item on a menu of 500.

Ready to take custody?

bit21 is a Bitcoin-only self-custody wallet. No KYC. No tracking. Your keys, your Bitcoin.

Open Web Wallet Download APK