Global Crypto Wallet Market Expected to Attain $60 Billion Value by the End of 2030
Cryptocurrency is now widely embraced as a legitimate asset class, and this has led to rise in demand for crypto wallets that provide a secure way of storing private keys. There are several factors driving the growth of this market such as crypto payment systems being inherently decentralized and much faster than traditional payment methods. Furthermore, the popularity of Web 3.0, NFTs and dollar backed cryptocurrencies have significantly sped the rate at which the cryptocurrency is being adopted.
According to Grand View Research, the global crypto wallet market was worth approximately USD 8.42 billion in 2022 with projected compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 24.8% from 2023 to 2030.
Another report from SkyQuest Technology estimated the crypto wallet market to attain $61.87 billion value by 2030. Crypto wallets come in various formats but the two distinct are hardware and software wallets. While software wallets also known as hot wallets are leading division by revenue share in the whole wallet market, the segment of hardware wallet isn’t behind either.
As per a report from Research and Markets, the hardware wallet market alone was valued at $442.56 million in 2021 and is projected to reach $3.6 billion by 2031, that is a CAGR of 23.7% from 2022 to 2031. The main appeal behind hardware wallets is that they store private keys to your digital assets in a physical device isolated from the internet. Thus, making it much harder for hackers to steal your assets as the information remains offline.
Some of the well-known names in the crypto wallet market are Trezor wallet, which offers reliable offline storage (the company being a subsidiary of SatoshiLabs s.r.o.), alongside BC VAULT, BitLox, CoolWallet, Cryptomeister, CryoBit LLC, Etherbit, Private Limited, Keystone, Ledger SAS, OpenDime, SafePal, SecuX Technology Inc., ShapeShift, Shift Crypto AG, and Sugi, which provide customers with various hardware wallets with distinct safety, usability, and security features.
Here are more key companies in the crypto wallet market that deserve a mention:
- BitGo
- Binance
- Coinbase Global, Inc.
- Trustology Ltd.
- Samourai Wallet
- Coinomi Ltd.
- Atomic Wallet
- Guarda Wallet
- Infinito Wallet
- BitPay, Inc.
- MyEtherWallet, LLC
- MetaMask
In North America, U.S and Canada account for the most revenue generated in the crypto wallet market. In Europe, the UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain are the biggest participants of the market. In Asia Pacific region, China occupies the largest space in the crypto wallet market followed by Japan, India, and South Korea. In Latin America, Brazil is the biggest player, and in the Middle East, its the UAE and Saudi Arabia.
As hot wallets account for most of the revenue share in the wallet market, we will look at how they work compared to cold wallets.
Hot wallets are always connected to the Internet, and as such, they are available in web-based format, in the form of a mobile application or desktop software. These are much easier to use and are almost always beginner friendly, whereas cold wallets require a bit of effort on the user’s part – not only to set up but also for regular usage.
This is to be expected given the additional layer of security they provide. Hardware wallets usually look like USB thumb drives which can connect to your desktop or mobile via external ports or Bluetooth whenever you want to make transactions or manage your assets.
Custodial and Non-Custodial Wallet
Private keys are proof of your ownership of cryptocurrency, these keys are alphanumeric sequences that usually contain 25-36 characters. The private keys allow you to access your funds that are stored on blockchain.
If you lose your private keys, you lose access to your funds forever and no one else can access them either. Each crypto wallet comes with pair of “keys” or more, these are private and public keys. Public keys are made to be shared with others as they sort of act like your bank account number and are used for receiving funds in your wallets.
When you use a custodial wallet, your private keys are managed by the entity or institution providing the wallet service. If you ever lose your password, you can recover it to regain access to your assets.
Whereas in the case of a non-custodial wallets also known as self-custodial wallets, the user is the true owner of their private keys. As your private keys are not managed by any institution, you have access to your assets any time of the day, the transactions are signed by the user not financial intermediaries, the users themselves are solely responsible for keeping the private keys safe.
MetaMask, Electrum, Edge Wallet, Exodus, Trezor and OKX are some of the notable providers of self-custodial wallets. Using custodial wallets requires a great deal of trust in the company, that said, the notable examples of custodial wallet providers are Coinbase, Binance, BitMex, Kraken, BitGo and Free Wallet.
