Choose a wallet
The capabilities that make a wallet safe for Atomicals, how to test for them in ten minutes, and what to do if yours fails.
Protocol behavior Verified 2026-08-31
Describes the Atomicals protocol itself at the pinned reference revision. It does not promise that any product exposes it.
- Page ID
-
guides/choose-a-wallet - Normative authority
- Atomicals reference implementation
- Networks
- mainnet
- Documentation version
- 2026.08
- Audience
- everyone, holder
- Owner
- bitcoin-universe-docs
- Sources
-
- Atomicals ElectrumX
at
v1.5.2.0
- Atomicals ElectrumX
at
- Known limitations
-
- This page describes required capabilities. It does not endorse any product. See the ecosystem registry for evidence based records.
このコンテンツはまだ日本語訳がありません。
Before you start
Section titled “Before you start”- Supported networks: mainnet.
- Status: protocol behavior. These requirements come from how allocation works, not from any product.
- You do not need to move anything to run these tests.
The capabilities that matter
Section titled “The capabilities that matter”| Capability | Why it matters | If missing |
|---|---|---|
| Lists outpoints, not just address totals | You cannot reason about allocation without outpoints | Unusable for Atomicals |
| Marks coloured outputs per Atomical | So you know which outputs carry value | Unusable |
| Excludes coloured outputs from fee selection | Prevents the most common loss | Unusable |
| Shows expected units per output before signing | Lets you catch a burn before it happens | High risk |
| Shows the burn figure | Makes the failure visible | High risk |
| Preserves input and output order | Reordering changes the allocation result | High risk |
| Shows the signature hash flag | Lets you refuse an unexpected scope | Risky for swaps |
| Names its data source and freshness | Lets you judge how current the answer is | Inconvenient |
The ten minute test
Section titled “The ten minute test”- Ask the wallet to show your unspent outputs. If it only shows a balance, stop here.
- Confirm it marks which outputs carry Atomicals, and which Atomical each carries.
- Start a plain BTC send while holding coloured outputs. It should exclude them, or warn clearly.
- Start an ARC-20 transfer. It should show, per output, the satoshi value and expected units.
- Deliberately set a change output larger than the remainder. It should show a non-zero burn figure and require a second confirmation.
- Cancel everything. You have not spent anything.
A wallet that fails step one or three is not suitable for holding Atomicals.
Check before signing
Section titled “Check before signing”Nothing here signs anything. If a wallet asks for a seed phrase, private key, or wallet export file at any point in this test, stop and do not continue with that product.
If it fails
Section titled “If it fails”Move the assets to a wallet that passes, using a transaction you modelled first with the allocation visualizer. Do the move from the safer side: build the transaction in a tool you trust and sign it, rather than letting the unsafe wallet choose inputs.
Keep a dedicated cardinal pool for fees. See prepare BTC and UTXOs.
Source
Section titled “Source”Wallet safety and wallet integration. Product records with last-verified dates are in the ecosystem registry.