The Safest Litecoin Wallets to Use

Litecoin made its mark in the world of cryptocurrencies early on, topping the charts as one of the first altcoins to exist, following Bitcoin's land from the moon in 2010. Established in 2011, LTC was forked from the Bitcoin source code, promising a pocket-sized version of the original blockchain that utilises a less stressful Proof-of-Work mining model through the intuitive Scrypt algorithm. As a result, users can enjoy faster transaction speeds with smaller fees through the Litecoin crypto coin network.

From an investment perspective, the coin has kept its place at the top of the charts by market cap for the past decade, garnering a community of supports who enjoy its low price point (compared to Bitcoin currency) and high trading volume. While LTC has since fallen off the top 10 altcoins—replaced by newly-minted competitors such as Dogecoin (DOGE) crypto and Uniswap—it still remains a popular cryptocurrency investment asset at the turn of the decade. Naturally, if you've decided to invest in LTC, it's important to choose the right wallet to securely store your coins.

Factors to Consider When Selecting a Good Litecoin Wallet

Like any other currency, cryptocurrencies need to be stored in a wallet for safekeeping. While exchanges can hold coins for investors, it's not recommended to leave coins sitting in a platform that's susceptible to malicious online hacks. On that note, there are plenty of wallets—both online and offline—that you can choose to safely store your LTC. These factors will help you narrow down your search to a few options.

Investment Behaviour

Choosing a wallet boils down to your investment behaviour—or how often you plan to trade LTC. For instance, if you're an active day trader, it's not recommended to store coins in an offline wallet, which takes more effort to sync with online exchanges, subsequently reducing your chances of gaining quick arbitrage profit whenever an opportunity arises. On the other hand, if you intend to hold LTC for the long term, then an offline Litecoin wallet may be ideal for enjoying an overall higher security level.

User Interface & Cryptocurrency Support

From a more technical standpoint, it's pertinent to choose a wallet that carries all the non-negotiable features relevant to your quality of life. There are thousands of wallets available, but only a few might have a specific portfolio management system you enjoy or easy connectivity to your favourite exchanges. Moreover, while LTC is a popular coin available in almost every wallet, it still helps to check whether your narrowed-down options fully support this coin.

Customer Service

One of the worst things that could happen is to experience technical bugs in the middle of the night while the market boasts a tempting trading opportunity—with no one to help you out. If you aren't particularly tech-savvy or tend to close trades outside of working hours, you'll find that 24/7 customer support is an incredibly underrated feature that can save you a coin or two.

Security

Security is a crucial consideration when choosing an LTC wallet. Some basic security measures to look out for are 12-24-word recovery seeds on top of a pin or password to access the wallet. However, with a quickly evolving technological landscape, investors gravitate toward even higher-level encryption methods, which differ from one wallet to another.

Best Litecoin Wallet: Online Wallets

If there's anything that sets online wallets apart, it's their unparalleled convenience—from being accessible anywhere through a smartphone to their ease of connectivity to almost any cryptocurrency exchange. While these wallets aren't as secure as their offline counterparts, they have proven to be crucial beginner wallets for small-scale investors and important companions to active day traders.

Web Wallet

A web wallet is easily accessible through any browser, usually through a browser extension. Unfortunately, this online wallet type is one of the least secure due to its inability to be accessed online. However, active traders may find that web wallets can be extremely convenient as syncing with other browser-based exchanges is almost instant. An example of a popular and widely-used Litecoin web wallet is Coinbase, which is available as a Google extension. On top of its wallet functions, the Coinbase web wallet is also a hub for decentralised applications, elevating its use case for desktop users.

Software Wallet

Litecoin software wallets are some of the most widely available options as many blockchain developers release a desktop wallet along with the ICO. While these platforms are secure (due to being released by the actual coin's developer), they are often limited to desktop users, making them off-limits for mobile-only investors. Litecoin's official wallet app is the Litecoin Core, which features a simple-to-use, beginner-friendly interface that's great for starting out. However, it doesn't support other cryptocurrencies due to being the official LTC wallet, making it unideal if you intend to diversify your portfolio.

Mobile Wallet

Mobile wallets are popular due to their convenience—they allow you to trade and transact on the go! Litecoin boasts a long list of reliable mobile wallets, but the official one goes by Litewallet (formerly LoafWallet). It was developed by the Litecoin Foundation and is an LTC wallet built for mobile devices, featuring an intuitive interface and Litecoin-specific features. However, if you intend to hold various cryptocurrencies, more generalised options, like the Coinbase and Exodus mobile apps, are some options to consider.

Best Litecoin Wallet: Offline Wallets

For seasoned investors and large-quantity coin HODLers, offline wallets are tough to beat. These cryptocurrency wallets often take the form of hardware—like a USB device or a piece of paper—and have the unique ability to completely disconnect from the online realm. That means no hackers, no spies, and no risk of losing coins from malicious software. However, while offline wallets can be connected to the internet to sync with exchanges and participate in transactions, the process can be a bit lengthy. Hence, these derivatives are recommended for investors who don't move coins multiple times per day.  

Paper Wallet

Paper wallets are unique to the cryptocurrency space and exist due to the unique method by which a wallet address can be accessed through a dedicated QR code. To put it simply, accessing a Litecoin paper wallet involves a bit of DIY on your end—you need to visit a wallet generator, save it as a web archive, generate an offline key, and print the code out. This method will allow you exclusive access to the Litecoin wallet, which will live offline on a piece of paper. However, while extremely secure, paper wallets are also susceptible to wear and tear—especially from natural disasters. Moreover, these are inconvenient access for regular trading, making them ideal only for long-term HODLers.

Hardware Wallet

Hardware wallets are synonymous with the likes of Ledger and Trezor, which have made names for themselves in the offline wallet niche. While there are many more hardware options available, these two are favoured by investors who are looking for secure and reliable options that, most importantly, support Litecoin. A hardware Litecoin wallet Australia comes in the form of a USB drive or similar devices and can connect to phones or desktops, where you can access software to manage your portfolio. These are more robust than paper wallets and offer features for regular traders while prioritising security above all else.

Other Options: Online Exchange Wallets

Online exchanges, from Coinbase to Binance and Kraken, allow you to hold cryptocurrencies on the platform. While these essentially live in your account, it's highly recommended to move your LTCs—and other coins—out of the exchange after purchasing for security reasons. As exchanges operate around the clock, they become more susceptible to attacks from notorious hackers. And while some reliable platforms haven't experienced a major hack since inception, many investors choose to be safe than sorry.

However, there is one downside to constantly moving coins between an exchange and a wallet: transaction fees. Litecoin fees are extremely low, but the cost adds up if you're an active trader that constantly closes small trades on the same day or week. In that case, some short-term and arbitrage traders choose to leave some coins in a crypto exchange to decrease the number of transaction fees between transfers, subsequently simplifying the trading process. However, do note that this option is not recommended if you intend to keep your coins for the long term!

Importance of Litecoin Wallet Security

The one downside to the cryptocurrency industry is its susceptibility to malicious threats and attacks organised by hackers. While technology continues to innovate, with safety, security, and privacy at the forefront of developers' efforts, hackers have also continued to find loopholes in the code—enabling them to breach even some of the strongest walls protecting cryptocurrency-related technology. The last thing you want to happen is to lose all funds to a hacked wallet, which is why choosing the best Litecoin wallet is important in securing high-level encryption, among other innovative measures that constantly improve your security and transaction safety.

Conclusion

Litecoin made its mark ten years ago, and it's still basking in the limelight today. But investing in the coin involves more than just wits and an eye for the market—you need to choose the best Litecoin wallet to align with your needs and trading preferences. On the bright side, due to LTC's popularity, there are plenty of online and offline wallets that support the coin. It all boils down to choosing the most secure option that suits your needs!