Arculus review

Arculus sells as a single purchase of $59.76 for a hardware wallet. On price it ranks 100 of 121 wallets, and it sits below Trezor at $79. Hardware wallets form the dearest group here, with the site maximum at €876.09.

Arculus is self custody, and self custody is listed as a headline feature, so the keys stay with you rather than a platform. The site median retail loss share is 70.15%, and holding offline is the point of a cold card. Backup runs on seed.

The card uses secure element embedded in the Arculus card, so signing happens inside the card rather than on a general purpose phone. It pairs over nfc with a phone, which keeps the setup cable free without moving the keys off the device.

Backup is seed, so a written recovery phrase is the restore route. That is simple to follow, but the recovery path rests on that phrase, and the design is not open source for outside review. Keep the phrase offline and separate from the card.

Arculus supports from 10,000 coins, a wider list than the median wallet in this category at 46. Coverage is broad for holding, though a cold card is built to store value rather than to swap between coins on the move.

Arculus connects over nfc by tapping the card to a phone, which suits anyone already handling crypto on a handset. The card itself has to be present for each use, so it complements a phone app rather than replacing it.

Arculus is not open source, so the firmware cannot be audited by outsiders. Most wallets in the wider category publish their code, at 73%, so anyone who wants to read the code first has clearer options elsewhere.

Support runs on email, phone and help centre, covering email, phone and a help centre. Across the wallets in this category a help centre is the most common route, at 79.6%, and a phone line is less common at 74.4%.