Long-established open-source Bitcoin wallet with Lightning support
Privacy 8.6
Safety 8.5
Wallets Since 2019 Reviewed 22 Oct 2026
Phoenix review
Self-custodial mobile Lightning wallet from ACINQ with automatic channels and swaps
- No account needed
- Never holds your funds
- Open source
- Accepts Lightning
- No email needed
- Company named
ID never required KYC 0 Documentation reviewed
Privacy
8.6/ 10
Excellent
Safety
8.5/ 10
Excellent
Based on terms and documentation. No test transactions published yet. See the arithmetic
Phoenix review in short
Phoenix is a wallet operating since 2019. Its terms put it at KYC level 0 of 4: ID never required. NoKYC Score grades it 8.6/10 for privacy (excellent) and 8.5/10 for safety (excellent). In its favour: no account needed, no email needed and no phone number. No incidents are on record.
- Category
- Wallets
- KYC level
- 0 of 4: ID never required
- Grades
- Privacy 8.6/10, Safety 8.5/10
- Sign-up
- No account needed
- Custody
- non-custodial
- Fees
- Sending via Lightning 0.4% + 4 sat; receiving with existing liquidity free; receiving with insufficient liquidity or requesting liquidity 1% + mining fees; channel creation 1,000 sat; on-chain sends pay user-chosen mining fees.
- Limits
- By default incoming payments are rejected if the fee exceeds 5,000 sat or 50% of the amount (adjustable).
- Jurisdiction
- France
- Incidents on record
- 0
- Last reviewed
- 22 Oct 2026
Cite this review
NoKYC Score, "Phoenix review", reviewed 22 Oct 2026, https://nokycscore.com/service/phoenix-wallet
Also available as plain text.
What Phoenix is
Phoenix is a self-custodial Bitcoin Lightning wallet for iOS and Android developed by ACINQ SAS, a Paris-registered company. The app runs a Lightning node on the phone; its 12-word seed stays on the device and ACINQ states it cannot access it. Channels are opened only with ACINQ's own node, which also calculates payment routes, so ACINQ learns each payment's final recipient and amount; the FAQ says Phoenix currently offers no privacy advantage over custodial wallets in this respect. On-chain deposits and withdrawals use swap-in and splice-out with ACINQ's node, and inbound liquidity can be bought from it; there is no built-in purchase of bitcoin and no account or identity step. Connections to ACINQ and Electrum servers can go through Tor, and users can point the app at their own Electrum server. Wake-up notifications use Apple or Google push services. The terms exclude unnamed restricted jurisdictions and sanctioned countries. Source code is public under the Apache 2.0 licence.
What Phoenix offers, and what to watch
9 of 13 privacy and safety features, 0 warnings in its terms.
"Not stated" means its own pages do not say.
Identity
- ID never required Yes The terms rule identity checks out, or the design makes them impossible.
- No account needed Yes Usable without creating an account, or the account is only a random number.
- No email needed Yes An email address is not required to sign up or use it.
- No phone number Yes A phone number is never required.
Payment
- Accepts Monero Not stated
- Accepts Lightning Yes Bitcoin Lightning payments: fast, cheap and more private than on-chain.
Access
- Tor onion address Not stated
- Works without JavaScript Not stated
Trust
- Never holds your funds Yes The operator never controls user funds, so it cannot freeze them.
- Open source Yes The code that matters is public and can be inspected.
- Independent audit Not stated
- Company named Yes The operating company and its jurisdiction are published.
- 5+ years operating Yes Has operated continuously for five years or more.
Warnings
- May ask for ID Not in terms
- Screens deposits Not in terms
- Holds your funds Not in terms
- Email required Not in terms
- Phone number required Not in terms
- Closed source Not in terms
- Nobody accountable Not in terms
Does Phoenix require KYC?
- 0 Never
- 1 Not mentioned
- 2 Rare
- 3 On risk flag
- 4 Mandatory
KYC level 0: ID never required. The terms rule out identity checks, or the design makes them impossible.
Self-custodial wallet with no account; the terms and FAQ do not request any identity information, and the seed never leaves the device.
How the grades add up
Both grades start at 50 points and move by fixed, published amounts. Nothing is adjusted by hand. The total is divided by ten.
Privacy
8.6- Starting points 50
- KYC level 0: ID never required +20
- No registration +6
- No email needed +3
- No phone needed +1
- Accepts Lightning +1
- Open source +2
- Non-custodial +3
- Total, clamped to 0–100 86
Safety
8.5- Starting points 50
- Open source +8
- Non-custodial +12
- Legal entity disclosed +5
- 5+ years operating +10
- Total, clamped to 0–100 85
Test ledger
Real transactions run by our editors. A badge without a ledger is an assertion; this is the proof.
No test transactions published yet
The grades above rest on Phoenix’s terms and documentation. Tests will appear here with the date, route, amount band and result as they are run.
Incidents on record
No incidents are on record for Phoenix. If you have a documented case, report it.
User reviews
Reviews never change a grade. Reviews with a transaction reference are marked.
No reviews yet.
Write a review
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Phoenix: common questions
Does Phoenix require KYC?
Phoenix is rated KYC level 0 of 4 on this site: ID never required. Self-custodial wallet with no account; the terms and FAQ do not request any identity information, and the seed never leaves the device.
Is Phoenix safe to use?
Phoenix has a Safety grade of 8.5 out of 10 and a Privacy grade of 8.6 out of 10. No incidents are on record. Evidence level: documentation reviewed.
Is Phoenix legit?
Phoenix is a working wallet that has operated since 2019. It publishes the company that runs it, in France. Being real is not the same as being safe: its Safety grade here is 8.5 out of 10, built from custody, liquidity, track record and incidents.
Is Phoenix a scam?
NoKYC Score does not label services as scams; it records documented incidents with their sources and outcomes. No incidents are on record for Phoenix.
Do I need an account or email to use Phoenix?
No account needed.
What fees does Phoenix charge?
Sending via Lightning 0.4% + 4 sat; receiving with existing liquidity free; receiving with insufficient liquidity or requesting liquidity 1% + mining fees; channel creation 1,000 sat; on-chain sends pay user-chosen mining fees. Fees were recorded from Phoenix's own pages and can change; check before you send.
What are Phoenix's limits?
By default incoming payments are rejected if the fee exceeds 5,000 sat or 50% of the amount (adjustable).
Does Phoenix have a Tor onion address?
No official onion address was found on Phoenix's own pages.
Which cryptocurrencies does Phoenix support?
Phoenix supports BTC.
Can I use Phoenix over Tor?
Phoenix does not publish an official onion address.
Listing history
- Listing added as unrated. Not yet confirmed against the service's own pages.