Which is the Best Steel Wallet to Keep your Seed Phrase Safe?

What is a steel wallet and how do they work?

Should you buy a steel wallet to protect your crypto investment?

Before reviewing some of the best steel wallets, let’s take a look at what they are and how they protect your cryptocurrency seed phrases or passwords.

The (not so) old adage “not your keys, not your crypto” means that unless you’re comfortable leaving your crypto and keys on an exchange, you are responsible for securing your crypto with the use of hardware wallets for example Trezor or KeepKey.

However, if you forget your seed phrase (i.e. a combination of random words generated by your cold wallet in order to access your crypto) there’s no help desk to call, no password recovery system, no nothing!

People shouldn’t keep this information in electronic format (extremely risky!) so they often keep it written down on paper, far from risk-free as anyone with children or pets can attest to.

Consequently, steel crypto wallets have become popular as a way to securely record seed phrases and passwords. A steel wallet is another cold storage (i.e. (not capable of being connected to the internet) wallet that securely backs up the seed phrase to your other hardware wallets so you never lose access to your crypto. A steel wallet also acts as a backup should your hardware wallet break or be lost or stolen so that you can transfer you can access your crypto on its blockchain from a new hardware wallet.

For more information about cold wallets and how to keep your crypto safe read our article here.

Steel wallets let you keep your private keys, all different kinds of passwords (not just crypto ones), and wallet recovery seeds offline and engraved in stainless steel (or other metals, such as titanium). These wallets are impervious to hacking, fire, flood, and even electromagnetic pulses (EMPs) and keep your private information safe without any third-party involvement. The characters of your seed phrase are stamped into the tiles to provide maximum longevity.  

Ellipal Mnemonic Metal

Ellipal’s metal crypto wallet is fireproof, waterproof, mold-proof and insect-proof. It allows users to securely store the first 4 letters of each word of their 24-word seed phrase (BIP mnemonic phrases are recognized when the first four letters are entered into a compatible hardware wallet).

The Ellipal Mnemonic Metal is compatible with every BIP39 wallet such as Ledger, Trezor, Ellipal hardware wallets.

The Ellipal Mnemonic Metal comes with a one-year warranty. It retails for $39, or can be bought as part of a bundle along with the Ellipal Titan Hardware Wallet, which is a secure “air-gapped” hardware wallet (meaning it’s never tethered to a device that’s connected to the internet).

The Most Secure Steel Wallet: Billfodl Multishard

While a reasonably well-hidden steel wallet should be almost impossible to find, Billfodl’s Multishard protects against someone finding the steel wallet and accessing the seed phrase to steal your crypto.

The Multishard protects against this by splitting your seed phrase into 3 separate parts so that a thief will need to find at least 2 of the 3 pieces to gain access to the seed phrase.

• Part one holds words 1-16
• Part two holds words 9-24
• Part three holds words 1-8 and 17-24

The Billfodl Multishard uses a high-grade marine-grade 316 stainless steel and is resistant to temperatures up to 1200C/2100F. It’s also built to withstand over 1,000,000 volts of electricity, which means it would even survive a nuclear strike, or a microwave bomb!

Keystone Tablet 

If you think the above steel wallet options are over-engineered for your needs and if you want something that just works well and is very inexpensive then check out Keystone Tablet (formerly the Cobo), which at $39 can’t be beaten on price!

The Keystone tablet is designed to withstand temperatures of up to 1455°C or 2651°F. It’s also composed of 304-grade stainless steel, which means that it will not corrode if submerged in water.

The Keystone Wallet comes with the following included:

• four sheets of metal letters,
• two security seal stickers,
• screws,
• a screwdriver,
• tamper evident stickers,
• and a guide on how to set up the Keystone Wallet (which is pretty straightforward – as you can see below).

Cryptosteel Capsule

Cryptosteel styles itself as “the mother of all backups” for your wallet seed phrase.

The characters of your seed phrase are stamped into the tiles to provide maximum longevity. You assemble your own password from the pieces provided and then lock it into your Cryptosteel. 

The Cryptosteel Capsule comes with over 800 stainless steel tiles with up to 123 characters of information. It’s waterproof, fireproof and shockproof. The capsule is essentially a steel tube, in which you stack your seed phrase. There are enough tiles provided to safely store your BIP-39 seed phrases (which only require you to know the first four letters of each word).

CryptoTAG

CryptoTAG is made from titanium making it incredibly hard-wearing, virtually indestructible but some assembly is required! Unlike, the other steel wallets in this review, the CryptoTAG requires you to hammer the letters into the plate yourself.

The CryptoTAG has been tested at temperatures up to 1667 degrees Celsius, put under a pneumatic hammer, and even shot with a 9mm round!

It comes with a heavy-duty hammer to literally pound your seed phrase into these plates. It’s the Lambo of steel wallet options!

See how to set up the CryptoTAG here:

CryptoTAG’s FAQs suggest that as titanium is a much denser metal than steel, it is more likely to be found with detection equipment whereas stainless steel should blend in with other steel items.

Read the Ultimate Guide to Keeping Your Crypto Safe in 2023

The Ultimate Guide to Keeping Your Crypto Safe in 2023