Around December of last year, I decided to prepare for the end of the crypto bullrun. I needed a place to store my crypto when the bullrun was over. There were a few options to choose from such as Ledger and Trezor which are the two famous names in the cold wallet scene. I got recommended Tangem by a friend that used it and it peaked my interest. I thought it was interesting because instead of a physical device like Ledger and Trezor, they use an NFC card. This NFC card is way more convenient to keep in my wallet and carry around with me.
According to their website and some research, they have never been hacked since creation. I think that's an amazing fact to note down when deciding to purchase a cold wallet for crypto. To make any transactions whether sending or swapping, you need the tangem card, biometric scan and an access code. For someone to steal your funds, they would have to take your phone, know the password to your phone, have the tangem card, have your finger and also know an access code. That is some insane security and I can see why they've never been hacked. To back that up, the chip on the card has an EAL6+ grade which is the highest security assurance for chips so it wouldn't be that easy to hack into.
Source: Tangem Website
After using it for a while, I want to share what I like about Tangem. First of all from the start, I liked how I could purchase a Tangem card with crypto. I paid in Solana for the 3 cards set and I did panic at first because it took a few minutes to register. After the purchase was confirmed through the blockchain, an email was sent to me including an invoice saying I made the purchase and that they would send another email with the tracking ID once confirmed.
Source: Tangem Website
I also like how they are using an app with the card. I liked how it was easy to set up. As for the app, the UI was super friendly to the point even a newbie could use it and not find it too complicated to understand. The rates I feel are quite fair and the gas fees aren't too bad.
Well nothing is perfect. There are some downsides to the Tangem card. If you lose all you cards, then your wallet is basically gone forever but that's basically the same as losing your seed phrase. On top of that, you need two cards to reset the access code but you shouldn't be forgetting that access code anyways! Something to note is that it doesn't support all tokens (sadly it doesn't support hive at the moment). If I'm not wrong, Trezor and Ledger support a lot more tokens and also support NFTS. At the moment, Tangem doesn't support NFTs but they plan to down the road.
All in all though, I don't feel the downsides are too bad. I'm not having any issues so far and I love how easy it is to use. It does the job and I'm not worried about losing money since I'm not using this wallet to connect to anything like my metamask is. Nowadays, scammers are getting good and with the bullrun here, I'm sure they are way more active so do what you can to protect yourself by keeping some funds in a cold wallet if you're not using them! I am not sponsored in any way. I am just sharing my experience along with facts that are all publicly available on their website and online! If you have any questions about the Tangem card, do ask in the comments and I will try to answer them if I'm able to.