Choosing an IOST wallet for mainnet and BEP-20

The short answer

The right IOST wallet depends on which version of the token you hold. If your IOST sits on the original IOST blockchain, the official wallet is iWallet Pro, a Chrome extension published by iost.io. Android users can also use TokenPocket. If you hold the BEP-20 token on BNB Smart Chain, which is the version most global exchanges and DEXs now deal in, any BSC wallet works, and MetaMask is the one the IOST docs recommend.

What does not exist matters just as much. There is no native IOST app for Ledger, mobile support for mainnet IOST is limited to TokenPocket on Android, and there is no standalone desktop program for ordinary users. Many people search for those things, and scammers know it. The rest of this guide walks through each option, shows how a mainnet account is created, and gives you the exact network settings for BEP-20 IOST and the IOST Layer 2.

If you only want to buy and hold, leaving IOST on a regulated exchange is a legitimate choice too. We cover the trade-offs below. For the mechanics of moving coins, read our guide to sending IOST alongside this page.

Three kinds of IOST, three kinds of address

Since the IOST 3.0 launch on 8 March 2025, the name “IOST” covers three different things. First, there is native mainnet IOST on the original chain, which launched on 25 February 2019 and still produces a block every half second. It is sent to a human-readable account name such as myname_01, and exchanges ask for a memo when you deposit it.

Second, there is BEP-20 IOST, a token on BNB Smart Chain at a single official contract. It is sent to an ordinary 0x address and never uses a memo. Third, there is the IOST Layer 2, an OP Stack rollup that settles to BNB Chain with chain ID 182. Gas on the L2 is paid in BNB, and its official bridge moves only BNB so far. Our IOST 3.0 explainer covers why the project split this way.

The practical point is simple. A wallet that handles one of these may not handle the others, and exchanges usually support only one network for deposits. Coincheck, for example, lists only the IOST network for IOST. Sending BEP-20 tokens to an exchange address that expects mainnet IOST is a classic way to lose funds. Always check the network label on the deposit screen before you copy anything.

Moving between the two token versions is possible in one direction. The official iBridge at iostbridge.com converts mainnet IOST into BEP-20 IOST, with a minimum of 10,000 and a maximum of 1,000,000 IOST per transfer. The reverse route, from BNB Chain back to mainnet, is still described on the bridge page as coming soon, so think twice before bridging if you may want native IOST back.

Wallet options compared

Tap a card to flip it. Each one shows which version of IOST the wallet handles and the catch you should know about.

For most people holding mainnet IOST, iWallet Pro is the sensible default because it comes from the project itself and is the wallet the official airdrop claim page expects. It runs as an extension in Chrome, so it works on Windows, macOS and Linux desktops. Its store rating is modest and the user base is small, which tells you something about how niche self-custody of mainnet IOST has become.

TokenPocket is the main mobile option, but its own help pages limit mainnet IOST to the Android app. Older guides also mention Math Wallet, which listed IOST in 2019–2021. We could not find a current primary source confirming that support, so we do not recommend relying on it.

Trust Wallet is a partial case. Its token registry lists the official BEP-20 IOST contract as active, and its open-source core library even includes an IOST mainnet coin definition. Whether the app exposes native IOST to users could not be confirmed, so treat Trust Wallet as a BEP-20 wallet. MetaMask is straightforward: it holds BEP-20 IOST on BNB Chain and can connect to the L2, nothing more.

Exchange custody is the quiet favorite in Japan and Korea. Holding IOST at Coincheck, OKJ or Upbit means no keys to lose, and exchange holders received their share of the IOST 3.0 airdrop automatically. The cost is dependence. When the mandatory go-iost v4.0.0 upgrade landed in October 2026, exchanges paused IOST deposits and withdrawals for several days. Upbit, for instance, paused from 21 to 26 October. Our exchange comparison shows which venues support which network.

Creating a mainnet account

IOST mainnet does not use random hex addresses. Every account has a name of 5 to 11 characters, built only from lowercase letters, digits and underscores. Names like tokyo_fan or iostsaver1 are valid; Tokyo-Fan is not. Pick something you do not mind sharing, because the name is what people and exchanges send coins to.

The unusual part is that an account cannot create itself. A new account has to be created by an existing account, and the creator pays. The system pledges 10 IOST for gas on the new account, and the standard command-line tool also buys 1,024 bytes of RAM. At recent RAM prices that adds up to roughly 11.6 IOST in total. The pledge is locked rather than spent, and RAM can be sold back, so the cost is more of a deposit than a fee.

In practice you have a few ways in. iWallet Pro added one-click account creation in a 2025 update, though we could not confirm what it costs or who pays the pledge. TokenPocket offers activation codes, friend-assisted creation by QR code, or paid creation. Third-party creation services exist too, such as iostaccount.io, which the IOST developer docs mention. Older guides describe sending IOST to a creator account with a memo, or free creation on sites that have since gone quiet; check that any service is still active before you send anything.

Once the account exists, it already has the 10 IOST pledge that gives it gas. A transfer uses about 9,000 gas, so a fresh account can make roughly 100 transfers a day without paying a token fee. That resource model, and why failed transactions still use gas, is explained in our sending guide and in more depth on the technology page.

Owner key and active key

Each IOST account has an owner permission, which can change the account’s keys, and an active permission, which signs everyday transfers. Multi-signature setups are supported for teams. Keys are base58 strings; guard the owner key most carefully.

Keys and backups

Whoever holds the private key controls the account. There is no password reset, no recovery email and no help desk that can move your coins back. That is true for every self-custody wallet, but IOST adds one wrinkle: the account has two permission levels. The owner key can change permissions and replace keys, while the active key signs normal transactions. Advanced users can keep the owner key offline and use only the active key day to day.

Back up keys on paper or another offline medium, in more than one place. If you use the iwallet command-line tool, remember that it stores the key in a JSON file inside the .iwallet folder in your home directory, so that file needs the same care as a written key. Disk encryption and an offline copy are the minimum.

The official IOST security page is blunt about this: never submit keys, seed phrases or passwords anywhere. A real wallet asks for a private key only when you import an account into that wallet. A website, a Telegram “admin”, an airdrop form or a “migration” page never needs it.

Adding BEP-20 IOST and the IOST L2

BEP-20 IOST behaves like any other BNB Chain token. In MetaMask or Trust Wallet, switch to BNB Smart Chain (chain ID 56), choose “import token”, paste the contract address below and confirm 18 decimals. The IOST docs call this contract the only official IOST token contract. You need a little BNB in the same wallet to pay gas for transfers.

The IOST Layer 2 is added as a custom network. Enter the network name, RPC URL, chain ID 182, BNB as the currency symbol, and the L2 explorer. Chainlist also lists it as “IOST Mainnet” if you prefer adding it in one click. Be realistic about what you will find there. Our research sampled thousands of L2 blocks and found almost no user activity, and no official IOST token contract has been deployed on chain 182. For holding IOST, the BEP-20 token on BNB Chain is what matters.

You can verify the contract yourself on BscScan and look up mainnet accounts on iostscan.com. Our own IOST explorer checks a mainnet account name or a 0x address in one box. For a sense of what your holdings are worth, the live IOST price page shows current market data.

One more detail for history buffs: a legacy ERC-20 IOST token from 2018 still exists on Ethereum. It was swapped into mainnet IOST in 2019 and is not the token exchanges trade now. If a wallet shows an Ethereum “IOST” balance, check which contract it comes from before assuming it is spendable on an exchange.

No IOST yet? Start with a stablecoin

A common route is to buy crypto or BNB with a card on a long-running exchange such as CEX.IO (operating since 2013), move it to an exchange that lists IOST, then withdraw IOST to your wallet. CEX.IO does not list IOST itself and does not serve Japan.

Get your first crypto

Desktop and hardware options

People searching for an “IOST desktop wallet” usually want something like a downloadable program. That does not exist for ordinary users. The honest desktop options are iWallet Pro running inside Chrome on Windows, macOS or Linux, MetaMask in a desktop browser for BEP-20 IOST, and the iwallet command-line tool for developers and node operators. The command-line tool can sign transactions offline, which is useful for cold-storage setups, but it assumes you are comfortable in a terminal.

Hardware wallets are where expectations clash with reality most often. Ledger’s own asset list has no native IOST coin. A community project called iost-ledger-app was published on GitHub in 2020, but it was never an official Ledger app and has seen no real activity in years. What Ledger does support is the BEP-20 IOST token, so a Ledger can hold IOST that has already been bridged or bought as BEP-20, using Ledger’s BNB Chain support.

If you want hardware-level security for mainnet IOST, the closest approach is an offline machine with the command-line tool, keeping the owner key off any internet-connected device. It works, but it is a project. For most holders, a registered exchange or a carefully backed-up browser wallet is the realistic choice. If you are weighing those risks more broadly, our page on whether IOST is safe looks at the bigger picture.

Phishing and fake tokens

Search results for “Ledger IOST” are crowded with fake “Ledger Live” pages hosted on free site builders and course platforms. They usually ask you to type your recovery phrase to “sync” or “update” IOST support. No such update exists, and Ledger will never ask for your recovery phrase. Close the tab.

The same pattern shows up around the IOST 3.0 upgrade. Pages offering a “migration to IOST 3.0” or an urgent “swap” of mainnet tokens are scams. There has never been a mandatory migration; the mainnet keeps running, and the bridge to BNB Chain is optional. Fake airdrop claim sites are covered in detail on our IOST airdrop page.

Finally, check where links come from. The official IOST channels are listed on the project’s security page: iost.io, iostscan.com, the two bridges and the L2 explorer, plus the official X, Telegram, Facebook, LinkedIn and Medium accounts. Even a link that appears on an official site does not make a third-party service official. Real support staff do not send the first direct message, and nobody legitimate needs your private key.