Monero Web Wallets in 2026: MyMonero Is Gone, and What to Use Instead
There is no safe general-purpose Monero web wallet in 2026. The one that most guides still recommend, MyMonero, went offline on 6 January 2026 and destroyed its server data on 6 February. Its operators gave the reason plainly: light wallets that require your view key are increasingly at odds with where Monero privacy is going.
That is not a gap waiting to be filled by a better website. It is a consequence of how Monero works, and it is worth understanding before you paste a seed phrase into a browser tab.
Key points
- MyMonero is gone. Offline 6 January 2026, data destroyed 6 February 2026. It was not an exit scam -- three months' notice, seeds worked throughout.
- In our directory, every scam-flagged wallet is browser-based. Across 31 desktop, mobile, hardware and CLI wallet listings there are zero scam flags.
- Zero of our 5 web and browser wallet listings are verified. One is scam-flagged, one is flagged questionable.
- A view key does far more than most guides admit: it decrypts your incoming amounts and reveals your full address set, not just "when" you were paid.
- A remote node is not a web wallet. Remote nodes never receive any key. Conflating them is the most common error in this topic.
Why Monero cannot have a MetaMask
On Ethereum, a balance is a number attached to a public address. Any public node will tell you what it is, with no secret required. A browser wallet only needs your private key to sign, never to read.
Monero has no equivalent lookup. Your funds sit in one-time stealth outputs that are not linked to your address on-chain. To find which outputs are yours, something has to trial-decrypt every output on the chain -- and that requires your private view key.
So any service that scans for you must hold your view key. That is the whole reason "Monero web wallet" is a fundamentally different object from "Ethereum browser wallet", and it is why the category never matured.
What a view key actually exposes
This is where most articles are out of date, including, at time of writing, part of the official Monero FAQ -- which says a light-wallet server "will know when you receive money, but it will not know how much".
That understates it. An open issue on the Monero project tracker, filed in February 2019 and still open, sets out what the private view key alone yields: the shared secret for every output can be computed, the encrypted output amount can be decrypted with it, and the wallet's public spend key -- and therefore its main address and every subaddress -- can be recovered.
The accurate statement is: hand over your view key and the holder learns your entire receive history, every amount, and your full address set, permanently and retroactively. They cannot spend your funds. They can see almost everything else you have received.
They also cannot reliably see your outgoing transactions, which is why a view-only wallet shows a wrong balance once you have spent anything. It is a receive log, not a balance.
The four things called "web wallet"
| Type | Who holds the spend key | Who holds the view key | Can they steal? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fully custodial (exchange, hosted wallet) | The server | The server | Yes, unilaterally |
| View-key light wallet (the MyMonero model) | You | The server | Not with the key alone -- but see below |
| Client-side browser wallet (keys local) | You, in the tab | Claimed local | Depends entirely on the JavaScript served to you |
| Local wallet on a remote node | You, on your device | You. Never shared. | No |
Two things about this table matter more than the rest.
The third row mostly does not exist. A genuinely client-side Monero browser wallet would have to download and trial-decrypt the entire output set inside your tab. Nobody ships that. Every "non-custodial browser Monero wallet" we have examined collapses into row two once you read its own FAQ.
Row two is not theft-proof either. The view key cannot spend, but a web wallet builds transactions in JavaScript that the server delivers on every page load. There is no signature, no pinned version, no reproducible build. A server can serve different code to one user, once. That is the structural gap between a browser wallet and a downloaded, signed binary -- and it is exactly the mechanism alleged in the long-running case against one blacklisted Monero web wallet.
What our directory data shows
We track 35 wallet listings. Splitting them by type produces an unusually clean result:
| Wallet type | Listings | Verified | Scam-flagged |
|---|---|---|---|
| Web wallets | 4 | 0 | 1 |
| Browser wallets | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Mobile wallets | 16 | 5 | 0 |
| Desktop wallets | 9 | 3 | 0 |
| Hardware wallets | 4 | 2 | 0 |
| CLI wallets | 2 | 1 | 0 |
Across 31 desktop, mobile, hardware and CLI listings there is not a single scam flag, and 11 are verified. Across 5 web and browser listings, none are verified, one is scam-flagged and one is flagged questionable. The sample is small, so treat it as a signal rather than a proof -- but it points the same way as everything else in this article.
The listing flagged questionable is instructive. It presents itself as an open-source, non-custodial wallet that runs entirely in the browser, and its homepage says keys never leave your device. Its own FAQ then explains that its self-hosted light-wallet server scans the blockchain using your view key. Both statements appear on the same site. That is not necessarily dishonest -- but "keys never leave your device" is not an accurate summary of a design that ships your view key to a server, and it is the kind of gap a reader should catch before funding anything.
What happened to MyMonero
MyMonero ran from 2014 and was, for most of that time, the Monero web wallet. In October 2025 it announced it was sunsetting; the announcement drew 135 upvotes on r/Monero. The timeline:
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 6 October 2025 | Sunset announced, stewardship transitioning to Cake Wallet |
| 6 January 2026 | Service fully offline |
| 6 February 2026 | All server data destroyed, explicitly including stored view keys, transaction history, metadata, logs and backups |
It is worth being clear that this was an orderly shutdown, not a rug pull. The announcement addressed the exit-scam question directly, gave three months of notice, documented migration paths, and no view keys or history were transferred to the successor. Users kept control via their seed throughout.
The stated reason is the part to carry forward: light wallets requiring view keys are increasingly at odds with Monero's privacy evolution, and the operators preferred to sunset rather than compromise. When the category's flagship closes on principle, "which web wallet should I use instead" is the wrong follow-up question.
The demand did not disappear with it. A thread titled "monero lacking a web wallet" appeared on r/Monero in February 2026, and a new browser wallet launch in April 2026 drew 29 upvotes. People still want this. It still does not exist safely.
Remote node is not the same thing
This confusion costs people real privacy, in both directions -- some avoid remote nodes thinking they are custodial, others use hosted wallets thinking they are equivalent to a remote node.
| Remote node | Light-wallet server | Custodial web wallet | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Keys shared | None | Your view key | Everything |
| Scanning happens | On your device | On their server | On their server |
| They can see | Your IP and request timing | Every incoming output and amount, all your addresses | Everything, and they can spend |
| Main risk | IP linkage; a malicious node can supply bogus decoys | Full receive history disclosure | Loss of funds |
The official downloads page splits its wallet list on exactly this line: wallets that "connect to remote nodes and scan the blockchain on your device, without sharing any key with the nodes", versus wallets that "share your private view key with a remote server". As of now the second list contains exactly one entry. The first contains most wallets you have heard of.
If you use a remote node, prefer one you run or one you trust, and route over Tor where you can. Our remote node privacy guide covers the setup, and we list node services in the directory.
When a hosted or browser wallet is actually fine
The category is not universally useless. It is useless for savings. These four cases are defensible:
- Merchant or donation monitoring with a view-only wallet. This is an officially endorsed use case -- validating incoming payments to cold storage, watching donations. Use a dedicated receive-only wallet so the balance stays accurate, since outgoing transactions will not display correctly without importing key images.
- A throwaway receive-only address for a single payment you sweep out immediately. Exposure is bounded to that one flow.
- A balance on a service you are actively trading on. This is a counterparty position, not a wallet. Size it to what you would accept losing, and sweep it when the trade is done.
- Genuine emergency access from hardware you do not control -- and then treat that seed as burned afterwards.
What to use instead
Ranked by how well they preserve privacy:
- A view-only wallet in real software. Create one in the official GUI or a supported desktop wallet by restoring from your address and private view key with the spend key left blank. Keys stay on your machine. This is the correct answer for "I want to check a balance without exposing spend keys".
- Self-host a light-wallet server alongside your own node, then point a light client at it. Your view key never leaves infrastructure you control, and you still get instant balances on a phone. This is the real replacement for a web wallet, and it needs roughly 100GB of SSD.
- A local-sync mobile or desktop wallet on a trusted remote node. No keys shared at all. For most people this is the practical answer -- see best Monero wallets 2026 and our wallets category, where 11 of 35 listings are verified.
- Someone else's light-wallet server -- only with a dedicated wallet whose entire receive history you are content to hand over permanently.
- A hosted browser wallet -- not recommended for anything you would mind losing.
Evaluating any wallet in six questions
- Who holds the spend key? If it is anyone but you, this is a counterparty, not a wallet.
- Who holds the view key? If a server scans for you, it holds it -- and can reconstruct your addresses, incoming outputs and amounts. Can you choose or self-host that server?
- Can you export the seed, and does it restore elsewhere? Test it in the official GUI before funding. MyMonero passed this test even at shutdown.
- Open source -- but is the delivery verifiable? For a website, reading the source in developer tools only tells you what was served to you, at that moment. Nothing prevents targeted delivery.
- Reproducible builds and signed releases? No web wallet can offer these. It is the cleanest line between a website and an application.
- Is the exact domain right? Typosquatting is the dominant attack in this space, with documented fakes of major wallets and directories differing by one character.
Two red lines: any site asking for your seed phrase or private spend key is a scam, without exception. And view-key sharing, while normal for light wallets, should only go to a server you or someone you trust operates.
One thing to watch: FCMP++ is expected to introduce outgoing view keys, which would expand what a view-key-holding server can see. It has not activated on mainnet -- we track the status in is FCMP++ live.
FAQ
Is there a safe Monero web wallet in 2026?
No general-purpose one. MyMonero, the long-standing option, shut down in January 2026 specifically because view-key light wallets conflict with Monero's privacy direction. In our directory none of the 5 web or browser wallet listings are verified, one is scam-flagged and one is questionable. Use a local-sync wallet, or self-host a light-wallet server.
What happened to MyMonero?
It announced its sunset on 6 October 2025, went offline on 6 January 2026, and destroyed all server data including stored view keys on 6 February 2026. It was an orderly wind-down with three months of notice and working seeds throughout -- not an exit scam. Stewardship transitioned to Cake Wallet.
Can a light-wallet server see how much Monero I receive?
Yes. This is the most common misconception, and part of the official FAQ still understates it. The private view key lets the holder decrypt output amounts and recover your public spend key, and therefore your main address and every subaddress. It cannot spend your funds, but it sees your receive history retroactively and permanently.
Is using a remote node the same as using a web wallet?
No, and the difference is large. A remote node receives no keys -- your device downloads blocks and scans locally. The node sees your IP and request timing, and a malicious one can supply bogus decoys. A light-wallet server holds your view key. A custodial web wallet holds everything.
How do I check my Monero balance in a browser without risk?
You do not, really. The closest safe equivalent is a view-only wallet created in real software from your address and private view key, with the spend key left blank. If you want it accessible from a phone, self-host a light-wallet server next to your own node so your view key stays on infrastructure you control. Note that a view-only wallet shows an inaccurate balance once the wallet has outgoing transactions.
Is an online wallet the same as an online exchange account?
Functionally, an exchange balance is a custodial wallet -- someone else holds the keys. The distinction worth making is intent: an exchange balance is a position you are actively trading and should sweep when finished, not a place to store Monero. Either way, if you did not write down a seed, you do not hold the coins.