Articles · The wallet
Rainbow started out as a wallet for Ethereum and turned into an app with a couple of dozen networks, swaps, leveraged trading and bets on how events turn out. We go through what is actually there and, above all, where money must not be sent.
14 September 2026 · verified at publication
A wallet address is the same everywhere across EVM networks: the same 42 characters work in Ethereum, in Base and in twenty other networks. Hence the commonest and most expensive beginner's mistake — money sent in a network the wallet does not carry. The transaction goes through successfully and the funds really do sit at your address, but the app knows nothing about that network and shows nothing.
Rainbow's official support page puts it plainly: if a network is not on the list, do not send tokens in it to your address. Getting them back afterwards means importing the secret phrase into another wallet that understands that network — one more occasion to take the phrase off the paper.
The list from the official support page, in the same order. We grouped it by purpose, which makes it clearer what each one is for.
| Group | Networks | What for |
|---|---|---|
| The base | Ethereum | The main network. The highest fees and the deepest liquidity. |
| Large layers on top | Base, Optimism, Arbitrum, Polygon, Linea, Scroll, zkSync | The same tokens and applications as in Ethereum, with fees tens of times lower. Most everyday operations live here. |
| Their own ecosystems | Zora, Blast, Ink, Unichain, Abstract, Katana | Networks built around individual products — marketplaces for digital items, exchanges, publishing platforms. |
| Separate blockchains | BNB Smart Chain, Avalanche, Gnosis, Sonic, Berachain, HyperEVM, Gravity, WorldChain | Independent networks with their own coin for paying fees and their own set of applications. |
| Communities | ApeChain, Degen Chain | Networks that grew around communities. Degen sits on top of Base, which makes it a layer on top of a layer. |
Source: rainbow.me/support/app/supported-networks. The list changes — check against it rather than against this article if you are about to send a large sum.
Out of twenty-four networks the project's token is issued in exactly one. The reason is simple: the fee. Crediting cashback, entering staking and leaving it are separate transactions, and in Ethereum each of them would cost more than the reward itself. In Base they cost fractions of a cent, which is what makes the mechanics work at all.
The practical consequence: when you buy RNBW, you buy it in Base. A token with the same name in another network has nothing to do with the project. The real contract address is 0xa53887F7e7c1bf5010b8627F1C1ba94fE7a5d6E0, and there is at least one fake RNBW in Base, so what needs checking is the address, not the name in a list. How tokens move between the project's addresses is laid out on the Flows diagram.
The basic thing and the main one. The key is created on the device and never leaves it; Rainbow can neither freeze your wallet, nor cancel a transfer, nor restore access. That is the strength and the whole of the responsibility at once.
Swaps inside the app, including across different networks. The app takes its own fee for this — 0.85% — and it comes on top of the network fee and the price difference. It is this fee that cashback to token holders is paid out of.
Through built-in third-party providers. This is the only place where identity verification may be needed, and the requirement comes from the provider, not the wallet.
Rainbow's home page currently advertises leverage of up to 50× on bitcoin, the S&P 500 index, gold and oil. That is no longer a wallet but a trading terminal, and it deserves to be treated as one: fifty-times leverage means a two per cent move against you wipes out the position entirely.
Prediction markets — elections, sport, central bank rates. Technically this is trading contracts; economically it is a wager.
Cashback from the swap fee, and staking of the token. What that comes to in figures right now is on the Staking page, where the live yield is computed from the contract's state rather than from promises.
Through the browser extension or by scanning a code with the phone. This is where money is lost most often: the signature a site asks for may mean not "sign in" but "allow everything to be taken".
Worth stating outright: over the past year Rainbow has shifted from a good-looking Ethereum wallet towards a trading app. The site's home page today leads with leverage, prediction markets and real-time quotes rather than storage and digital collectibles. None of that is good or bad in itself, but a wallet is worth choosing with your eyes open: a product that earns on turnover is built differently from a product that simply holds a key.
You can verify that claim yourself instead of taking our word for it: what the team is changing in the code right now shows up in the feed on the Pulse page — it is assembled straight from the open repositories.
The secret phrase is the only copy of your access. Neither Rainbow, nor we, nor anybody else can restore it.
A mistake in the network cannot be undone. Check it with the sender and check it on your side.
0.85% on a swap comes on top of the network fee. On small amounts it passes unnoticed; on large ones it adds up to real money, and cashback gives back only part of it.
Leverage and prediction markets live in the same app as storage, yet they are built for different things. Mixing money that is being held with money that is in play on one wallet is a poor idea if only because a liquidated position can reach the rest.