Hot, Cold, and Just Right: A Look at the Best Smart Contract Wallets in 2025
The key aspects of crypto storage solutions are flexibility, security, and ease of use. Security is the most critical of them because recovering lost crypto is difficult, even impossible. It's estimated that as many as 4 million Bitcoins have been lost forever, which is almost 20% of all the Bitcoins ever mined.
The subject of the best type of crypto wallet for storage will remain prominent in 2025. Both hot and cold wallets have proponents, as do smart contract wallets, which are becoming increasingly popular as the golden mean for crypto storage. Hardware wallets are the most common type of cold wallet. These tiny devices link to computers to store assets. When sending and receiving cryptocurrency, they connect to the internet, but they keep funds offline other than that, making them very safe. Inconvenience is their most significant disadvantage. The user must link their wallet to move crypto, meaning transactions can take a long time.
The good, the bad, and the golden
Hot wallets store cryptocurrencies online. They are easy to use, almost always free, and provide full control over the assets held. They are typically available as mobile and desktop apps, and users can quickly send and receive crypto. They come with a recovery phrase, which they can use to retrieve their assets if they lose access to their wallets. However, they risk their wallets being hacked because hot wallets store crypto online.
Smart contract wallets are the golden mean, combining the best of hot and cold ones. They are built using blockchain-based smart contracts that automate and enhance operations. They are a flexible solution because they are managed on the blockchain; users can interact with them via interfaces or apps. They are always online, which resolves the inconvenience experienced with cold wallets. At the same time, their security is comparable because one can configure their features similarly to how they could with a traditional bank account. Automation makes them more advanced than cold wallets, which can only store keys. They are not as easy to use as hot wallets but more intuitive than cold ones.
There are quite a few smart contract wallets on the market already. This guide presents the best of the best.
1. Ambire Wallet
Ambire Wallet is a self-custody EVM wallet launched in 2021, focusing on cryptocurrency holders' security and experience. The intuitive interface streamlines onboarding to Web3. The wallet uses account abstraction, serving as the gateway to Web3 apps and giving users the ability to manage their digital assets securely and easily. Ambire focuses on the broader Ethereum ecosystem. It's available on popular layer-one blockchains like Ethereum, Avalanche, and Fantom, but also layer-twos like Arbitrum and Optimism.
Users only need an email and password to register and retrieve an account. Ambire Wallet can be used with 2FA or a hardware wallet for additional security. It offers the option of prepaying network fees, eliminating the need to calculate them each time. Users pay fees in ERC-20 tokens or stablecoins. The wallet's transaction simulation function shows users the exact effect of transactions on their balances, so there are no surprises upon approval.
Ambire Wallet users can combine transactions, which means grouping and broadcasting them together, saving money and time. They can exchange tokens on blockchains without having to authorize the specific chain to spend tokens first. In other words, the authorization is broadcast together with the exchange.
2. Avocado Wallet
Avocado Wallet was launched in 2023 by Instadapp, a DeFi development platform that links protocols and dApps working on EVM. Initially, the wallet's main goal was to simplify DeFi transactions. Avocado is a decentralized web app, available on desktop and mobile, that supports multiple DeFi protocols from one interface. This allows users to execute transactions across blockchains while being connected to a single network.
Like Ambire, Avocado uses account abstraction, which improves self-custodial wallet safety and security by eliminating user reliance on private keys and allowing them to program their wallets. This enhances the potential of onboarding members of the general public to non-custodial crypto wallets.
Avocado users can send and receive crypto across blockchains without paying high gas fees or switching wallets. Data privacy is guaranteed via end-to-end encryption, and users have complete control over their wallets.
3. Sequence Wallet
Sequence Wallet predates Avocado by about a year and has adopted the best practices in the account abstraction space. Like Ambire, it uses a complex multichain tech stack to deliver a seamless foray into Web3. Sequence was introduced by Horizon, an all-in-one development platform for Web3 games. It remains among the top choices for Web3 gamers, boasting features such as an integrated chat system, support for specific game tokens, and fast fund transfers.
It also offers the option to prepay gas fees, simplifying the onboarding of new users who may not understand these costs. When fees are prepaid, users can better predict their transaction costs and budget for blockchain operations. They won't run out of funds while participating in time-sensitive DeFi activities. They don't need to interact with the blockchain repeatedly, lowering the risk of errors and exposure to phishing attacks.