Key Takeaway
The Tangem Ring is an innovative spin on traditional hardware wallets. But unless you intend to actually wear the ring, it’s better to grab the Tangem cards since they function the same. Remember that Tangem has no screen, making the wallet less safe than screened cold wallets.
- Unboxing
- Tangem Ring: An Innovative Refreshing Design
- Usual Beginner Friendly Setup On Tangem Ring
- Tangem App: Simple Yet Effective
- Which Crypto Tokens Does Tangem Support?
- Tangem Security: A Mixed Bag Of History
- Reputation & Reviews
- Tangem Ring Compared To Other Cold Wallets
- Final Thoughts: Cool Idea But Extremely Situational
What’s Inside The Box?
Tangem Ring: An Innovative Refreshing Design
Without a doubt, we were completely expecting this ring to be made of rubber or plastic. But it’s actually made of this material called Zirconia ceramic.
Sounds cool enough to give you crypto superpowers.
Literally shocked by how nice the ring looks out the box. It has a nice shine to it.
Super lightweight. And it feels similar to a wedding ring, solid and seemingly durable.
The ring is scratch and dust resistant, battery free and waterproof. We’d also consider it weatherproof, withstanding between -25 degrees celsius to 50 degrees celsius conditions when on the go.
Included is the ring and two cards. These two cards back up your private key incase of losing the ring.
If someone finds your ring, theyre unable to enter or reset your wallet and crypto assets.
Tangem Ring includes a 25 year warranty, which is crazy since no other hardware wallet does this.
Usual Beginner Friendly Setup On Tangem Ring
Tangem is still the easiest, most user friendly setup we’ve have come across yet, and that speed especially holds true even if you’re not an experienced crypto user.
It’s worth mentioning that the Tangem app is mobile only, compatible with both Android and iOS.
When setting up Tangem Ring, there’s three different options for users: generate a private key inside the wallet, generate with seed phrase or import existing seed phrase.
We can’t recommended enough to always generate your hardware wallets with a seed phrase.
Once you choose a backup option, we not only need to back up the ring, but the spare cards as well.
If we lose one of our cards or the ring, use these spare backup cards as protection, allowing us the ability to access our wallet and crypto holdings.
Set the access code, choose tokens and we’re into the app.
Tangem App: Simple Yet Effective
Tangem’s UI and UX isn’t anything particularly special, but it definitely gets the job done.
Inside we can buy, sell, swap and stake our crypto in-app.
Viewing market conditions is easy, as well as add tokens to your list.
Like most wallets you can add dapps, but these integrations are seriously lacking. For more advanced users, other wallets may provide better solutions.
Perhaps the biggest downside to Tangem app is lack of Hierarchical deterministic (HD) accounts.
We can only get 1 bitcoin wallet, 1 ethereum wallet, 1 solana wallet and so on.
Which Crypto Tokens Does Tangem Support?
Users can store thousands of different tokens using Tangem.
The company also recently added NFT support for Ethereum and Solana, which is handy.
Tangem Security: A Mixed Bag Of History
Tangem has never been hacked, which is excellent. But there was a recent scare where they were logging users’ private keys in support emails.
Read more about that here to come to your own conclusions.
The Tangem ring functions as a hardware wallet using two parts.
Firstly, the secure element EAL 6+ chip handles cryptographic actions, such as generating private keys. Secondly, a NFC chip is allows users to tap the device on their phone to confirm transactions.
Tangem makes it impossible for ring or card firmware to be updated. This security practice has been debated, as some see it as a pro and others as a con.
There have been two third party audits for Tangem so far. The first was in 2018 by the Swiss company Kudelski Security for the Tangem 1.0.
A second audit by Riscure in 2023 found similar results for the most recent Tangem 2.0 cards.
No audit for the ring can be found at this time.
As for open sourcing, since the ring uses a Samsung chip, this requires an NDA agreement. Long story short, that code is closed source.
But on a side note, the mobile app itself is open sourced, and can view their github here.
Reputation & Reviews
Tangem was founded in 2017 in Zug, Switzerland. Between 2017 to 2021, the company mostly worked in the B2B crypto market.
In 2021, Tangem pivoted to B2C, creating version 1.0 and the most recent Tangem 2.0. Most recently in 2024, the company launched the Tangem ring.
As for ratings, the wallet brand holds a 4.1 out of 5 on trustpilot.com.
With the Tangem Ring specifically, the device scored a 9.4 out of 10 on hardware-wallets.net, a 4.6 out of 5 on cryptonews.com and a 9.3 out of 10 on 99Bitcoins.com.
Here’s what users are saying about the Tangem Ring:
To get a true representation of Tangem’s reputation, consult their socials, check their metrics and read what other users and customers are saying.
Unfortunately there’s no live customer support. The only way to contact them is through email.
Tangem Ring Compared To Other Cold Wallets
How does the Tangem Ring ($160) differ from other popular hardware wallets we’ve tested?
Tangem
- Tangem card ($70): same as tangem card
Ledger
- Ledger S Plus ($59): USB-C only, 2 buttons, better token support and app
- Ledger X ($149): battery powered, bluetooth or USB-C connection, better token support and app
- Ledger Flex ($249): bigger screen, battery powered, bluetooth or USB-C, additional features, better token support and app
- Ledger Stax ($399): same as Flex with curved screen, and label binding
Trezor
- Trezor Safe 3 ($79): USB-C only, 2 buttons, similar app
OneKey
- OneKey Classic 1S ($99): USB-C or bluetooth, 4 buttons, better app
Coolwallet
- Coolwallet Go ($69):: same as Tangem
- Coolwallet Pro ($149): battery, small screen, clunky, slow
Safepal
- Safepal S1 ($50): QR codes for transactions, slower transactions, good app
Cypherock
- Cypherock X1 ($149): USB-C only, joystick, 4 card backups, worse app
Secux
- Secux Neo X ($179): bulky, heavy, worse app
Final Thoughts: Cool Idea But Extremely Situational
After using the ring for about a year now, the device has spent most of its time collecting dust.
Tangem Ring is a unique idea, but unless you wear a ring in everyday normie life, it’s unlikely that you’ll wear this one.
Reason being is that we just don’t use hardware wallets out and about in our daily lives, so whats the point of taking it with you?
That is, at least not yet.
For traveling, we can see the potential use case. But at a third of the price, cards can just as easily be slip into a wallet or purse.
So should you buy the Tangem Ring?
Unless you really, really, really want a unique hardware wallet to brag to friends (wasn’t me I swear) for a one time shock factor, just stick with the original Tangem cards.
You can actually personalize the cards way more with different brand or seasonal collaborations, while the ring comes Henry Ford’s favorite color… black.
If you’re a casual ring bearer and want to grab one, be sure to check my link for a discount.
Thanks for reading and catch ya in the next one!
Should I buy the Tangem Ring or cards?
It just depends what the purpose is. If you really enjoy wearing rings, try it out.
But for crypto storage alone, the cards are a third of the price and just as easy to carry around. They also have cooler design options.
What if Tangem servers go down?
Even if Tangem goes down or bankrupt, your crypto can still be accessed by downloading the opened sourced code on their github.
Is it safe to generate Tangem Ring without a seed phrase?
If you don’t plan on storing much crypto, it’s okay as a temporary solution. But the risk is that if you lose all your cards or ring, your crypto is gone. By generating a seed phrase, you can import that new seed phrase and access your crypto with software other than Tangem.
My Tangem Ring or card was stolen. What happens?
This is where access codes come in, acting as a password on your device to stop brute force attacks.
My phone was lost and/or broken with Tangem app. Is my crypto gone?
It’s still there! Just download the app and use your ring and cards on a new or different device.
Can I use Tangem Ring on PC, Mac or tablet?
No, because those devices cannot connect via NFC.