Muun review: an easy phone wallet with a nonstandard backup

Muun describes itself as a self-custodial wallet for bitcoin and lightning. It is published by Muun Wallet, Inc. on the App Store and is also on Google Play. There is no desktop wallet. Support is offered in English and Spanish.

The apps are open source under MIT: Apollo for Android and Falcon for iOS. The newest Android source release is 56.0 from November 4, 2026, and the App Store shows iOS version 2.16.0 from September 7, 2026. The Android app requires Google Play services, which matters if you run a de-Googled phone.

Muun holds only bitcoin, so it sits in my ranked list on the software wallets page under my rating methodology.

Muun is a 2-of-2 multi-signature wallet. Your phone holds one key and Muun's servers hold the other, and all your outgoing transactions need to be signed with 2 keys. Muun cannot spend alone, and a thief with only your phone cannot either.

Instead of a seed phrase, Muun has you export an Emergency Kit with your private keys and output descriptors. Muun explains that a seed phrase alone would lack the information needed to spend multisig and Lightning funds independently. The kit holds both keys, and Muun says neither the Emergency Kit nor the Recovery Code is enough on its own to move funds.

If Muun ever goes away, its open-source Recovery Tool moves all funds to an address you choose, with no collaboration from Muun. You run it on a computer with your Emergency Kit PDF. The tool's latest release is v2.2.4 from February 21, 2023, so read its instructions now, not during an emergency.

Muun fits a new user who wants a single balance that pays on-chain addresses and Lightning invoices the same way. The store listing says you can make all payments from a single wallet and following the same steps.

Pick something else if you want a standard seed phrase you can restore in any wallet, a hardware wallet for signing, or your own node. BULL Wallet signs with Bitcoin-only hardware wallets by QR and connects to your own Electrum server, and the Blockstream app pairs with Jade and offers its own 2-of-2 accounts with a timelocked exit. For Lightning with real channels, see my Lightning wallet rankings.

Install Muun from the store links on muun.com. Setup takes minutes, and the backup step is what matters:

All of your Muun balance sits on-chain. To pay a Lightning invoice, Muun uses a submarine swap: an on-chain payment to a swap provider, who pays the invoice off-chain. Muun's 2019 post introducing the feature says the swap provider doesn't have custody of your funds at any moment and that it requires zero channel configuration.

For receiving, Muun's December 2020 post on turbo channels explains that a new channel can be used before it confirms, and Muun is upfront that there is a limited window of time where you trust Muun during that step. Turbo channels are enabled by default, and Muun says if you are not okay with this, you should disable turbo channels in settings.

The app is free. A Lightning payment carries a Lightning fee for routing plus a swap fee that includes the first on-chain transaction to the swap provider. Muun's own post names the trade-off: transactions still pay for an on-chain fee. When the mempool is busy, small Lightning payments get expensive, which is why I list cost as a con.

For on-chain sends, Muun uses a mempool-based fee estimator and lets you pick the fee. Muun claims it saves an average of 30% compared to other wallets; I have not tested that number.

Because Muun's server cosigns every outgoing transaction, Muun sees your spending. Muun's site and store listings say nothing about Tor or connecting your own node.

The App Store privacy label lists email address, device ID, usage data, and diagnostics as data not linked to you. Google Play says the app may collect personal info, app performance data, and device IDs, and shares no data with third parties. Both labels are self-reported. If privacy is your priority, my privacy wallet guide has better picks.

Muun's GitHub repositories for Android, iOS, and the recovery tool list no published security advisories, and Muun is not in my security incident tracker. Muun takes reports at security@muun.com, with a published PGP key.

One limit on review: the Android README says Muun is not accepting contributions in PR form. The source is public for audit, but development happens inside the company. Under the 2-of-2 design a stolen phone alone cannot spend, and the Emergency Kit with the Recovery Code lets you spend without Muun.

Muun is one of the easiest ways to start with bitcoin and Lightning on a phone, and its open-source recovery tool means Muun cannot trap your coins. I rank it below BULL and AQUA because every Lightning payment pays an on-chain fee, Muun's server sees and cosigns your spending, and recovery runs through Muun's own kit and tool instead of a standard seed phrase. Keep a small spending balance here and your savings on a Bitcoin-only hardware wallet.