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Are you looking for a wallet to store your crypto in?
Among the biggest names in the market now is Guarda Wallet. Non-custodial, free and for various crypto, this crypto wallet has many advantages. In this article, you’ll discover the main characteristics of Guarda and how to use it in this Guarda wallet review.
| Hot/Cold | Hot |
| Custodial/Non-custodial | Non-custodial |
| Support | Online, desktop, mobile application and Chrome extension |
| Supported crypto | More than 400,000 assets |
| Built-in functions | Purchase, exchange, staking, loan and Visa card |
| Price | Free |
| Costs | No commission but possible partners fees |
| Available in French | No |
Guarda
Guarda
Guarda Wallet is a free crypto wallet where you can store crypto. Just as with a typical bank account storing fiat money, this crypto wallet will protect your digital assets. Today, there are various types of crypto wallets. For an overview of Guarda, keep the following in mind:
Guarda is the product of GUARDARIAN OÜ. This company is based in Tallinn, Estonia. It’s authorized by the Financial Intelligence Unit License (FIU) to provide crypto to the public.
The first Guarda crypto wallet was released in 2017. At that time, it only stored Ethereum (ETH) tokens. Over time, the company has diversified its offering by increasing the number of accepted cryptocurrencies, wallet services and integrated features.
The creators of Guarda Wallet define their vision as follows—“Our core values are freedom of privacy and high-level security.”
Now let’s go into detail about the characteristics of the Guarda wallet app.
There are several ways to categorize crypto wallets. One of the most common is to distinguish between “hot” and “cold” variations with different storage capabilities.
A hot wallet is used through an internet connection. Therefore, crypto is quickly accessible for payments and transfers. Often, all you need is an internet connection to access a hot wallet with your personal device. This is the case with Guarda Wallet. There’s no Guarda hardware wallet. To create a Guarda cold wallet, you’ll first need a device like Ledger Nano X.
As a result of accessibility, however, hot wallets are more vulnerable from a security standpoint. Indeed, whatever the protective measures are taken, being connected to the internet means that a hot wallet is more exposed to hacking and technical vulnerabilities.
On the other hand, a cold wallet keeps your funds offline.
Cold wallets are typically “hardware wallets,” which are physical-USB keys in most cases. By staying offline, cold wallets are better protected from cyberattacks. On the other hand, they have other disadvantages such as reduced accessibility and the risk of loss or theft.
Overall, hot wallets are like cash accounts while cold wallets are like savings accounts. The two are complementary. You can use Guarda Wallet as online storage for your everyday transactions, but a cold wallet will secure the crypto that you don’t immediately need.
User privacy and anonymity are important for the creators behind Guarda. This is why Guarda Wallet is a “non-custodial” interface. The difference between custodial and non-custodial can be summarized by determining who holds a wallet’s private key.
All crypto wallets are associated with both a public and private key. The true owner of any crypto wallet is identified by who owns the private keys of the wallet.
In the case of a custodial wallet, which are also called “guarded or hosted,” a third party, like an exchange, owns the private keys and, therefore, ultimately has control of the funds.
With a non-custodial wallet like Guarda, the user maintains ownership of their private keys. They, therefore, keep direct ownership of their own crypto. Keys, backup files and other private data are never saved on Guarda servers.
Only the user can store their private data.
Guarda Wallet is compatible with over 50 blockchains. These include major networks like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Cardano and Solana.
In addition to pure coins, which host their own blockchain, Guarda can store tokens that rely on third-party blockchains. This wallet supports ERC-20 tokens, NFTs, Binance tokens (BEP2), Binance Smart Chain, TRON 10 and 20 tokens; WAVES, OMNI, EOS, NEO, Hedera and XinFin. This list continues to be added to each year.
In total, Guarda Wallet can store over 400,000 assets at your command.
Guarda is available in four different formats—web, desktop, mobile and as a Chrome extension.
Here’s a better look the options:
Like any system for crypto storage, with Guarda you can receive, store and send cryptocurrencies. However, the wallet uses different features to manage crypto in one interface.
You can buy crypto directly from a Guarda wallet. Simplex will be your intermediary when you do. You can avoid going through an exchange before sending crypto to your wallet.
There are two payment methods for purchasing crypto:
Once a purchase is made, your crypto is automatically transferred to Guarda.
Guarda
Guarda
You can also trade crypto directly within Guarda Wallet. Without this feature, you’d have to open an account on an exchange platform and then send crypto to that exchange. Guarda only does crypto-to-crypto exchanges. If you want to exchange crypto to fiat currency, you need an actual exchange. With Guarda, you cannot sell crypto directly from your wallet.
Guarda Wallet supports staking but only for certain tokens. Staking is how you make your personal assets available to fund a public network. In return, you receive interests on your stake. As of February 2024, Guarda offers staking for the following crypto and APY rates:
In total, Guarda offers staking for 15 tokens with an APY rate of up to 25%!
Users can also take out a crypto loan from Guarda. The principle here is simple. You can borrow crypto if you’re holding tokens that you’d rather not use when you need liquidity. First entrust your funds to Guarda, and it’ll make your deposit available as stablecoins—USDC or USDT.
As an example, if you deposit $1,000 USD worth of BTC, Guarda will, at least, lend out around $500 USD but in the form of USDC or USDT. You will then have to pay a fixed interest rate on your loan. You will not be charged any other fees for the loan over the first 30 days.
A crypto loan can be useful but only in certain conditions. Through loans, you can access extra liquidity in a few minutes and without having to set up a file or wait for any validation.
Guarda’s crypto card is a must-have if you want to spend crypto in your daily purchases. The Guarda bank card is a VISA-prepaid card issued by Walletto UAB. The card is:
The crypto card can be loaded with BTC, ETH, ADA, BCH or other tokens. With the Guarda Visa card, you can spend up to $9,000 per month. When you activate the card, you’ll receive $20 as a gift. However, the fees for using this card are relatively high:
Guarda
Guarda
Getting your Guarda wallet comes at no cost. Likewise, you can receive crypto and store them on your wallet without additional fees. When it comes to sending, buying or exchanging crypto, things are not as straightforward. Yes, Guarda claims to not charge any commissions, but this is not the case for the intermediaries that the platform uses such as Simplex.
It’s not always easy to understand the amount of fees charged during each transaction.
However, Guarda Wallet strives to be transparent on the subject of transaction fees.
If the fees are not clearly stated, you can still see how much crypto you’ll receive.
The fee is ultimately the difference you pay. For example, if you buy BTC with a credit card, you can see how many BTC you receive versus how much BTC actually costs.
