2014–2015
Bitwala begins in Berlin
The original Bitwala grew out of Berlin’s early Bitcoin scene.
Your money, freed.
Bitcoin & Lightning, stablecoins and local currencies in one self-custodial wallet.
One passkey. No seed phrase. Multisig protected. Web, iOS and Android.
Pay. Get paid. Keep control.
Send & receive
Bitcoin & Lightning, stablecoins and supported crypto assets.
Use local currencies
Bank transfers, card and local payment rails where available.
Keep the keys
Self-custodial from the first passkey. No exchange holding your Bitcoin.
Global internet money ↔ local currencies
One passkey. Your wallet.
Self-custody without the usual seed-phrase onboarding. Multisig protection and recovery are part of the wallet architecture.
Self-custodial · Seedless · Passkey-based · Multisig · Recovery without Nuri
Read the deeper security model →
- Independent recovery and exit paths
- Hardware security keys / physical passkeys
- Hardware-wallet cosigning
- Open-source recovery tooling
- Programmable permissions for agents
Pay in. Move. Pay out.
Pay in
Bitcoin & Lightning, stablecoins and supported crypto assets.
Move
Send, receive, swap, request and convert from one wallet.
Pay out
Bitcoin & Lightning, stablecoins, bank transfer, card and supported local rails.
The on-chain Cash App.
Cash App utility. Bitkey-style ownership. One passkey.
Nuri combines everyday payments with self-custody, open wallet infrastructure and replaceable banking rails.
Wallet first. Services second.
How Nuri compares.
Only capabilities Nuri itself supports are used here. ✓ = documented match, ~ = partial or materially different model, — = no equivalent.
| Capability | Nuri | Cash App | Bitkey | Blitz | Muun | Strike | Wallet of Satoshi | Bitrefill | Bitwala | AQUA | Phoenix |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Global access | ✓ | — | ~ | ✓ | ✓ | ~ | ~ | ✓ | ~ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Self-custodial | ✓ | — | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | — | ~ | ~ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| No seed phrase | ✓ | — | ✓ | — | ~ | — | — | — | ✓ | — | — |
| Passkey-based | ✓ | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ~ | — |
| Multisig protected | ✓ | — | ✓ | — | ✓ | — | ~ | — | ~ | ~ | — |
| Recovery without vendor | ✓ | — | ✓ | ~ | ✓ | — | ~ | ~ | ~ | ~ | ✓ |
| Web + iOS + Android | ✓ | — | — | ✓ | — | — | — | ~ | — | — | — |
| Bitcoin & Lightning | ✓ | ✓ | — | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ~ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Stablecoins | ✓ | ✓ | — | ✓ | — | ~ | ~ | ~ | ✓ | ✓ | — |
| Card + bank transfers | ✓ | ✓ | — | — | — | ~ | — | ✓ | ✓ | ~ | — |
| 100% open source · MIT | ✓ | — | ~ | — | ✓ | — | ~ | — | ~ | ~ | — |
Why keep yellow cells? →
Wallet architecture changes quickly. Yellow means we should re-check the exact competitor implementation before publishing a hard public claim.
From Berlin to a new Nuri.
The name has history. The current product is a new chapter with a different team, architecture and ownership.
2021
Bitwala becomes Nuri
The original company rebrands as Nuri and expands its consumer-finance ambitions.
2022
The old Nuri shuts down
The original Nuri files for insolvency; services are discontinued in December 2022.
2023
Bitwala returns
A new Bitwala company relaunches separately with former team members and acquired IP.
15 Jan 2025
The fork
Bitwala announces that the Nuri brand and nuri.com will move to new ownership and operate independently.
2025–2026
A new Nuri is built
Emin Mahrt and the new Nuri team rebuild the product around passkeys, self-custody, Bitcoin & Lightning, stablecoins and replaceable banking rails.
The fork matters: on 15 January 2025, Bitwala publicly announced that the Nuri brand and nuri.com would move to new ownership and operate independently.
Built by people you can reach.
Emin Mahrt — Founder, Nuri
Emin grew up in Berlin and has worked on Bitcoin, Ethereum and wallet infrastructure since 2013. He helped build æternity and later served as Chief Product Officer of Börse Stuttgart Digital Exchange (BSDEX). Today he leads the new Nuri team.
Want to ask about the product, security model, history or where Nuri is going? Talk directly to the founder.
Open by design.
100% open source · MIT licensed
Nuri is designed to be readable by humans and software. Public pages can be exposed as Markdown, with llms.txt, OpenAPI and MCP surfaces for agents.
Get started now.
Create the wallet first. Add card, banking and local rails when you need them.