How it works
Wasabi is a desktop-only Bitcoin wallet for Windows, macOS, and Linux, written in C# and shipped by zkSNACKs Ltd from Gibraltar. Keys are generated locally; the wallet downloads BIP-158 compact block filters and scans them client-side, so the project never sees which addresses a user holds. All network traffic is routed through an embedded Tor instance by default. Hardware-wallet pairing covers ColdCard, Trezor, Ledger, BitBox02, and Blockstream Jade through HWI.
The headline feature is CoinJoin, in version 2.x driven by the WabiSabi credential scheme — an upgrade over the original Chaumian rounds in Wasabi 1.0. Multiple users sign a single transaction with anonymity-set-sized outputs, breaking the heuristic links surveillance firms rely on. The wrinkle: as of June 2024 the zkSNACKs-run coordinator is dead. The wallet now connects to third-party coordinators — opencoordinator.org, coinjoin.swisscoordinator.com, and a small handful of others — listed in-app.
KYC & privacy
No account, no email, no telemetry. Installing the binary is the entire onboarding step; the wallet has nothing to phone home about because there is no server-side identity. Tor is enabled out of the box and is not optional in the default profile. The wallet itself is L1 anonymous.
Two facts complicate that posture. In 2022, zkSNACKs disclosed it would screen UTXOs in its coordinator against a Chainalysis blacklist, citing brand-risk concerns — a controversial move that fractured the privacy community and seeded forks. In April 2024, the company blocked US citizens and residents from its CoinJoin coordinator following the Samourai Wallet indictments; the coordinator itself was shut down on 1 June 2024. Neither event compromised wallet keys or user identity. Both shape what Wasabi privacy now means in practice: solid client-side software, no first-party mixing service, third-party coordinators only.
Strengths and limits
The code is the strongest part. The WalletWasabi GitHub repository has run for seven years with no funds-lost incident on users' coins; the July 2024 security disclosure described layer-7 DDoS against free coordinators and a malicious coordinator exploiting a fee parameter — patched in v2.1.0, with no client compromise. Tor-by-default, BIP-158 filters, coin control, silent payments, and broad hardware-wallet support add up to a serious desktop privacy toolkit.
Limits are honest. Wasabi is BTC-only and desktop-only — no Monero, no Lightning, no Android. Picking a coordinator is now a user decision: they vary in fee, liquidity, and political stance, and the in-app list has shrunk and shifted since 2024. The operator's policy reversal on blacklisting still colours how some users read the brand; that is an editorial concern, not a code-level one.
Verdict
Wasabi 2 is the wallet that survived its own coordinator. The client is non-custodial, open source, and still one of the cleaner BTC privacy stacks on desktop — but the operator posture (US block, the Chainalysis screen, in-house coordinator gone) belongs on the package, not buried in a changelog. Sound code, complicated company.
Grade: A- (8.8/10). Trust: CAUTION.
Wasabi 2 is a wallet whose code outlasted its operator's choices: the client remains non-custodial, OSS, and Tor-by-default, while zkSNACKs' coordinator is gone and US users are out. Sound stack, complicated brand. Grade: A- (8.8/10). Trust: CAUTION.
