Nunchuk, an open source mobile multi-sig Bitcoin wallet, is now securing over $1 billion as its self-custodial architecture proves its strength during real-world government pressure.
Nunchuk, the open source mobile multi-signature Bitcoin wallet launched in 2020, has rapidly become one of the most trusted self-custody tools in the ecosystem. The company states that its assisted services now help secure more than one billion dollars in Bitcoin, noting that “it is our (paid) assisted services that have helped users secure +$1B in BTC thus far.”
Built around user-held keys, transparent code, and strict non-custodial principles, Nunchuk offers a feature-rich toolkit that is rare in the mobile market. Most mobile wallets still lack multi-signature support, while Nunchuk incorporates hardware and software key options, SegWit, Taproot, and the first major mobile implementation of miniscript for safer Bitcoin smart-contract logic.
The wallet’s open-source architecture was put to an extreme test in 2022, when Canadian Freedom Convoy activists used Nunchuk to secure more than 20 BTC donated to the Honk Honk Hodl campaign. The volume of inputs “actually broke the wallet,” according to founder Hugo Nguyen, prompting a rapid update to support transaction signing at scale.
The crisis escalated when the Canadian government invoked the Emergencies Act and issued a Mareva injunction ordering Nunchuk to freeze funds and reveal user data. As a non-custodial open-source provider, Nunchuk could not comply. Its now-famous response stated: “We cannot ‘freeze’ our users’ assets… We do not have knowledge of ‘the existence, nature, value and location’ of our users’ assets. This is by design.”
Roughly 70 per cent of donated funds remained censorship-resistant, reinforcing the value of transparent, decentralised design.
Today, Nunchuk stands as the only fully featured open source mobile multi-sig wallet, offering advanced inheritance tools, decaying multisigs, and user-friendly templates to support secure self-custody without intermediaries.
