The Ellipal Titan is the flagship crypto hardware wallet from the Hong Kong-based manufacturer, Ellipal. It features a full-colour touchscreen and it claims to be fully air-gapped device.
But is the Ellipal Titan really all that it claims to be? Is it truly air-gapped? And is it worth the high price tag?
In this Ellipal Titan review, I’ll walk through everything that this wallet has to offer. I’ll discuss its design, security features, pros, and cons, to help you determine if it’s suitable for your crypto.
Advantages & Disadvantages
Advantages
- Supports more than 10,000 coins and tokens on 40+ blockchains.
- Wallet interface uses a highly rated mobile app.
- Device never needs to connect to the internet to send or receive crypto.
- Uses QR codes to confirm transactions instead of Bluetooth or USB.
- Features a large full-colour touchscreen.
Disadvantages
- Software is not fully open-source.
- Device is both large and heavy.
- No web or desktop-based wallet interface.
- Fairly expensive for a hardware wallet.
Ellipal Titan Price
The Ellipal Titan is available from the Ellipal online store for US$169 (about £128 or €153).
This is fairly expensive for a hardware wallet, but it’s still more affordable than some other high-end devices.
Here’s how it compares:
| Wallet | GBP | EUR | USD |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ledger Nano S Plus | £69 | €79 | $79 |
| Trezor One | £62 | €69 | $69 |
| Ledger Nano X | £136 | €149 | $149 |
| Trezor Model T | £195 | €219 | $219 |
You can order the Titan from Ellipal’s online store and from other retailers, such as Amazon.
Supported Cryptocurrencies
The Ellipal Titan currently supports cryptocurrencies on 40+ blockchains.
This includes major coins such as:
- Bitcoin (BTC)
- Ethereum (ETH)
- Binance Coin (BNB)
- Dogecoin (DOGE)
- Cardano (ADA)
You can also use the Ellipal Titan to store the private keys to more than 10,000 ERC-20, BSC, TRX, and HECO tokens.
Check out Ellipal’s list of supported cryptocurrencies to learn more.
Wallet Design
What’s in the Box?
When you order an Ellipal Titan, your wallet will come in a compact box that’s wrapped in plastic.
Inside the box, you’ll find:
- Ellipal Titan crypto wallet
- Memory card
- Charging cord
- Recovery seed cards
- Security adaptor battery pack
- Instruction manual
Note that the wallet features a tamper-evident security sticker that should be in place when you receive your Ellipal Titan.
Physical Design
The Ellipal Titan is 118 x 66 x 9.7 mm in size and weighs approximately 138 g.
This is very large for a crypto hardware wallet. In fact, it puts the Titan more in line size-wise with a standard smartphone than it does with other hardware wallets.
The only other major hardware wallet that approaches the Titan in size is the SecuX V20, which is 98 x 98 x 15 mm and weighs 120 g. But both of these wallets are much larger than something like the Ledger Nano S, which measures 57 x 17.4 x 9.1 mm and weighs just 16 g.
If you wanted a hardware wallet that you could carry around in your pocket, the Ellipal Titan probably isn’t right for you. But if you’re looking for a wallet that you can keep at home for long-term crypto storage, the Titan might be a good choice.
Screen Layout (Touchscreen!) & Camera
One area where the Ellipal Titan stands out is in its large screen size. The Titan is built much like a smartphone in that it has a long, thin, rectangular body with a huge screen on one side.
Its LCD screen measures 88 x 49 mm, which is just a bit smaller than the 131 x 64 mm screen you get on the iPhone 13 mini. Plus, the large screen on the Ellipal Titan is a touchscreen, so reading wallet addresses and confirming transactions is as easy as it gets.
On the backside of the Ellipal Titan, you’ll also find a 5-megapixel camera. This camera is used to scan QR codes on the Ellipal mobile app so that the wallet never has to connect to the internet. You can control the camera using the device’s touchscreen, too.
Durability
Ellipal states that the Titan is built fully out of aluminium except for its LCD screen. Although this is one of the reasons why the Titan is fairly heavy for a hardware wallet, it does offer a lot of benefits over plastic as far as durability is concerned.
Since the Titan isn’t really designed for everyday carry, durability isn’t a huge concern. However, the device’s large screen size does mean that it’s more prone to scratches than something with a small screen like the CoolWallet S.
Wallet Interface
Like all crypto hardware wallets, the Ellipal Titan is solely designed to be a secure place to store the private keys to your crypto. If you want to send crypto or verify your wallet addresses, you need to connect your device to a wallet interface.
The Titan’s wallet interface is the Ellipal Mobile App, which is available on the Apple App and Google Play stores. It gets high ratings on both iOS and Android thanks to its clean interface and user-friendly design.
Ellipal designed the Titan to be completely air-gapped, so the only way to send information back and forth from your device to the mobile app is by scanning QR codes. You can also protect the wallet interface by requiring either one or two passwords.
Once you’ve logged in to the Ellipal Mobile App, you can take advantage of its many features, which include:
- Send & Receive Crypto: When used in conjunction with the Titan, you can use the Ellipal Mobile App to send crypto from your hardware wallet. You can also access your public addresses for your hardware wallet in the mobile app. For ERC-20 tokens, the wallet interface also lets you customise your gas fees and set gas fee limits.
- Set Up Multiple Portfolios: The Ellipal Mobile App lets you set up multiple portfolios to help you organise your crypto. For example, you can create one portfolio for long-term saving and another for spending.
- Real-Time Prices, Market News & Charts: You can view the real-time prices and price charts of your cryptoassets and other top coins in the Ellipal Mobile App. Inside the wallet interface, you can also read up on the latest crypto market news.
- Built-in DEX & Crypto Swaps: The Ellipal Mobile App has a built-in coin conversion tool that operates using Changelly and SWFT. It also has direct access to the Binance DEX (decentralised exchange) so you can swap supported coins without ever leaving your wallet.
- Purchase Crypto: In addition to a built-in DEX, Ellipal’s wallet interface supports MoonPay and Simplex so you can buy crypto using a credit card or Apple Pay. However, the fees can be quite high for these services, so double-check the rates before you buy.
- Crypto Staking: You can stake a handful of coins from within your Titan using the Ellipal Mobile App.
Unfortunately, the Ellipal Titan doesn’t currently have an official web or desktop-based wallet interface, so you’ll have to use a smartphone to interact with your wallet.
But the Titan does support MetaMask and WalletConnect, which is a third-party software that you can use to access a wide range of DApps (decentralised apps).
Security
Ellipal markets the titan as being a truly air-gapped and secure crypto wallet. But does it live up to the hype?
The reality is that Ellipal doesn’t provide much information about the security features of the Titan. What we do know is that the device has the following features:
- Doesn’t Connect to the Internet: True to its promise, the Ellipal Titan doesn’t ever need to connect to the internet or to any other internet-connected device. Unlike many wallets, which use Bluetooth or a USB cable to connect to a computer or smartphone, the Titan scans QR codes to confirm transactions (you can read about how that works in Ellipal’s get started guide). It also has a microSD card that you can use if you ever need to update the firmware on the Titan. Theoretically, this should give the Ellipal Titan an extra layer of security when compared to internet-connected wallets.
- Security Adaptor Battery Pack: The Ellipal Titan doesn’t have a USB port of any sort for charging. Rather, it has a battery pack adaptor kit that attaches to the Titan using magnets. You need to have it in order to charge the device as there’s no direct USB connection port. The idea behind this is that anyone who happens to gain access to your wallet would also need to have the proper battery back in order to charge it. I don’t know how much of a hurdle this really is for a committed crypto thief, but it’s a nice extra feature.
- Tamper-Proof Design: Ellipal claims that the Titan is fully tamper-proof. The wallet itself is designed to break if someone tries to open it up so that a hacker can’t actually access your assets. Ellipal also says that the Titan’s system is designed to delete its data if it detects a breach, in which case you would need your recovery seed in order to retrieve your coins.
- Recovery Seeds: With the Ellipal Titan, you’ll get a 12-word recovery seed when you initialise your device. Ellipal also lets you add a 13th word to your recovery seed in the form of a passphrase for an added layer of protection if someone were to get access to your wallet or mnemonic.
The problem is that a lot of these security claims are really hard to verify. This is because we know very little about who’s behind Ellipal (the company originated from an Indiegogo campaign) besides that it’s based in Hong Kong.
While this isn’t necessarily a deal-breaker, it makes it hard to know if we can actually trust Ellipal and its security features.
But the bigger problem is that the software for the Titan is not completely open-source. Some of the source code for the Titan is on Github, but not all of it is. As a result, we have to trust that the wallet does what Ellipal says it does because it’s impossible to verify all of the company’s claims.
Ellipal Titan Alternatives
If you don’t like how large and cumbersome the Ellipal Titan is, consider the Ledger Nano S instead.
The Ledger Nano S is one of the world’s most popular hardware wallets. It’s available for just a fraction of the price of the Titan and it’s about the size of a small USB stick. I particularly like the Nano S because its wallet interface, Ledger Live, is both powerful and super easy to use on mobile and desktop devices.
Check out my Ledger Nano S review for more information.
Or if you want a wallet with a touchscreen, check out the Trezor Model T.
The Trezor Model T’s touchscreen is much smaller than what you get with the Titan, but it’s built on a wallet that runs fully open-source code. Trezor is also a much more established company, so the Model T is a reputable alternative to the Ellipal Titan, even if it’s much more expensive.
You can find out more in my Trezor Model T review.
Ellipal Titan: The Best Hardware Wallet?
The Ellipal Titan is a sleek and innovative addition to the crypto hardware wallet market thanks to its large touchscreen and novel design.
Some of the features that I like about the Titan include:
- Ease of Use: The Ellipal Titan has a huge touchscreen and a user-friendly wallet interface, so it’s convenient enough for both new and experienced investors alike.
- Air-Gapped Design: You never have to connect your Titan to the internet in order to send or receive crypto because the wallet uses QR codes to process transactions.
- Large Number of Supported Cryptocurrencies: The Ellipal Titan supports more than 10,000 coins and tokens on more than 40 blockchains, which puts it on par with wallets from manufacturers like Trezor and Ledger.
But I have some major reservations about the Titan, especially because its software isn’t fully open-source. The device is also both heavy and expensive. Plus, it doesn’t currently have a desktop-based interface, so you can only use it with your smartphone.
What Do You Think?
But what do you think about the Ellipal Titan?
Do you think its security features are up to snuff?
Let me know in the comments below!