With the launch of the Brave Wallet, a free self-custody crypto wallet built directly into its desktop offering, the privacy-focused Brave web browser has continued its push into crypto.
The new wallet is positioned as a one-stop-shop for users to store, manage, and swap their crypto portfolio, according to the Brave browser, which has over 42 million users.
Unlike most hot wallets, Brave claims that the Brave Wallet is browser-native, which means it doesn’t require any extensions, reducing security risks and the need for additional CPU and memory.
“The crypto boom has vaulted blockchain applications into the mainstream, but like any rapidly-growing innovation, this swift rise is not without challenges. One of the hurdles is the crypto wallet industry’s reliance on extensions, which introduces friction for DApp [decentralized application] adoption and often leads to users losing funds via fake extension phishing scams,” said Brian Bondy, CTO, and co-founder of Brave.
Full-fledged crypto wallet
Using the Brave Wallet, users can send and receive cryptos, and see live and historical market data thanks to the integration of graphs with price data from CoinGecko.
The wallet will also enable them to buy using fiat currency through Wyre, and find the best price match against a list of providers with built-in swap functionality. Users can also connect the Brave Wallet with hardware wallets like Ledger Nano X and Trezor Model T.
The Brave Wallet supports all Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) compatible blockchains such as Polygon, xDai, Avalanche, and others.
Brave also highlights the fact that, unlike other wallet extensions, the Brave Wallet is built with an open MPL license, in order to foster contributions and build an active community of developers.
The Brave Wallet is free and users simply need to download the Brave browser or upgrade their Brave desktop browser to the latest v1.32 release. The Brave Wallet-related settings can be accessed from under the Wallet tab in the browser’s settings page (brave://settings/).
