Zengo

Is Zengo safe?

Zengo has a clean record and a careful design, but it asks you to trust a company in a way a normal wallet does not. Instead of a seed phraseSeed phraseA list of 12 to 24 words that can restore a crypto wallet and all its funds. Anyone who has it controls the wallet.More in the glossary, it splits your key into two shares, one on your phone and one on Zengo's servers, and both must work together to sign. Zengo reports no hacked accounts since it was founded in 2018. We score it 68/100, a C.

What holds the score back is that you cannot take a full key and walk away while Zengo is running, the app's code is closed, and the audits Zengo says it commissions have not been published.

How Zengo's keyless wallet works

When you create a wallet, Zengo generates two independent secret shares. The Personal Share stays on your phone; the Remote Share stays on Zengo's server. Signing is a joint computation between them, and the full private key is never assembled. A thief with your phone alone, or a hacker who breaches Zengo's servers alone, gets half of what is needed. And there are no 12 words for a fake support agent to talk you out of.

The trade-off is that Zengo's server takes part in every transaction. Zengo says the server validates transactions before they are broadcast, that this could in theory be used to block a transaction, and that it has never done so. So the company cannot spend your funds, but it can stand between you and them. Our rubric puts this model in the 50–69 band for key management, as it did for Simple.

How recovery works

Zengo calls its recovery system 3FA. An encrypted copy of your Personal Share is kept on Zengo's server, and the key to decrypt it, the Recovery File, sits in your own iCloud, Google Drive or Dropbox. To restore on a new phone you confirm your email, open the cloud file and pass a 3D FaceLock scan, and the share is decrypted on your device.

This is stronger than recovery by email alone. Someone who takes over your email or cloud account still needs your face. But it has its own failure mode: if you lose your phone and also lose one of the three factors, you can be locked out. Zengo suggests a second email, a second cloud copy and a second trusted face.

Can you leave Zengo with your crypto?

In normal use you leave by sending your coins to another wallet. Zengo's help centre says the wallet has no private key, and we found no user-initiated key export.

The exit Zengo documents is for the case where the company stops working, which it calls Chill Storage. Zengo deposited a master decryption key with the escrow firm EscrowTech and appointed the Israeli law firm JRG as trustee to check Zengo's "proof of life". If the trustee finds Zengo is no longer operating, it posts the key to a dedicated GitHub account that every Zengo app watches. The app then decrypts its copy of the Remote Share, combines it with your Personal Share and rebuilds standard private keys you can load into other wallets. Zengo says it simulated the release before launch and moved real Bitcoin this way.

That is a more thought-through plan than most MPC walletsMPC walletA crypto wallet that splits the private key into several shares held in different places, so no single device or company holds the whole key.More in the glossary offer, which is why key management scores 57 rather than lower. But it depends on lawyers, an escrow firm and a GitHub account working as described, at the moment the company is failing.

Zengo Pro subscribers can also set up Legacy Transfer: you name a recipient, share a Legacy File with them and set an inactivity timer, and if you do not open the app before it runs out, they can take over the wallet.

Zengo's scam protection

ClearSign, Zengo's built-in Web3 firewall, colours each dapp request: green for a verified message, yellow and a second confirmation for a transfer leaving your wallet, and a warning when an "approval" actually hands access to a private address. Withdrawals above an amount you set can require a face scan, which stops someone who has your unlocked phone. Zengo markets extra theft protection as part of its paid Pro tier.

Most requests stay neutral white when Zengo has no data on them, and we found no full balance-change simulation of the kind Rabby shows on every signature. Scam protection scores 75.

Transparency and privacy

Zengo's research team publishes its MPCMPC walletA crypto wallet that splits the private key into several shares held in different places, so no single device or company holds the whole key.More in the glossary cryptography on GitHub, including the widely used curv library under MIT and several threshold-signature libraries under GPL-3.0, plus white papers on recovery and transaction simulation. The mobile app is closed. Zengo says it runs regular external audits by "reputable firms" and has a bounty programme, but names no auditor and publishes no report or reward table. Transparency scores 55.

Zengo Ltd. is an Israeli company, and its terms fall under Israeli law. On 15 April 2026 eToro said it had agreed to buy Zengo; eToro said there would be no immediate impact on users and that it plans to link the two apps later. A new owner does not change how your key shares work, but check the terms if the app is merged into eToro's. We found no enforcement action or data leak. Its App Store label says identifiers and usage data may be used to track you across other companies' apps, more than wallets such as Rabby declare.

How to stay safe with Zengo

1. Set up all three recovery factors, then add a second email and a second cloud backup.
2. Turn on the face-scan requirement for withdrawals above an amount you choose.
3. Read ClearSign's colours; a yellow transfer you did not expect is a reason to stop.
4. Zengo has no seed phraseSeed phraseA list of 12 to 24 words that can restore a crypto wallet and all its funds. Anyone who has it controls the wallet.More in the glossary, so anyone asking for one "to verify your Zengo wallet" is not from Zengo.
5. Keep larger long-term savings on a hardware wallet where you hold the only key.

How we scored it

Security record (85) is Zengo's strongest factor: no reported losses since 2018. Transparency (55) and key management (57) are the weakest, because the app and its audits are not public and Zengo's server is needed to sign until the escrow exit is triggered.