ZachXBT slams hardware wallets — how much of it is fair?

Onchain investigator ZachXBT, known for unraveling major crypto hacks, has made waves with some blunt words: hardware wallets, he says, are unreliable for signing transactions and hardly suitable for storing meaningful funds. His alternative: a dedicated, radically stripped-down iPhone used exclusively for signing. Ledger takes particular criticism — its frequent UI updates, he argues, keep breaking functionality.

The criticism isn’t baseless. Anyone who has been interrupted mid-transaction by a surprise firmware update knows the pain. And a current iPhone with its Secure Enclave genuinely is a decent vault.

Still, some perspective helps: ZachXBT’s approach assumes a fair amount of technical skill — he says so himself. For most users, a properly set up hardware wallet with a tested backup remains the more practical route to self-custody, especially compared to leaving coins on an exchange.