Microsoft Edge could get a built-in crypto wallet - and some folks aren't happy

Microsoft's Edge browser has been on a run of adding various bits and pieces of functionality of late, and the firm isn't letting up, with another new feature having been spotted: a crypto wallet.

The Edge team might be introducing a built-in way of managing your crypto assets right in the browser, as flagged up in a tweet by well-known leaker Albacore on Twitter (spotted by Bleeping Computer).

This feature consists of a 'non-custodial' crypto wallet (meaning you, not Microsoft, are in complete control of the funds within), supporting multiple Ethereum accounts (and maybe Bitcoin in the future).

The wallet is currently in early testing in the Dev channel for Edge, seemingly for a limited amount of testers, too, so it seems like it's very early days for the wallet. And remember, it may never see the light of day as such - plenty of features are briefly tested and then abandoned, after all.

Microsoft is on a big drive of late to add all manner of features to Edge. There's this potential crypto wallet, plus we've also seen the likes of VSR (Video Super Resolution), which is designed to upscale videos you watch in the browser to a higher quality (like NVIDIA's RTX VSR). And a built-in VPN is another recent example of added functionality.

What folks worry about is that with Microsoft going all-out to add features, Edge could become a bloated beast of a browser as a result. It's a fair point in some ways: in the case of the VPN, it's pretty weak sauce, and you really want a full VPN service anyway (you can't even change servers with the Edge VPN, so a good free provider is much better).

As for the crypto wallet, it's a pretty niche affair. Why not make it an extension rather than integrating it directly into Edge?

Whatever the case, rather than seeming to throw everything, including the kitchen sink, into the mix in an effort to attract new users to Edge, Microsoft should consider adopting a more cautious approach. Otherwise, all this might feel a little desperate, especially considering the lines Microsoft sometimes crosses in terms of promoting its browser within the Windows 11 (and 10) interface.

If Edge does indeed get a crypto wallet feature, it won't be the first browser to make this move, mind you. As you might recall, Opera took this path quite some time ago - back in 2018, to be precise - and Brave has a crypto wallet, too.