Ashigaru Review 2026, The Post-Samourai Privacy Wallet That Actually Works

When U.S. authorities arrested Samourai Wallet's founders in April 2024 and seized their servers, a certain breed of Bitcoiner lost their primary tool for transaction privacy. The void didn't last long. By September 2024, Ashigaru emerged as an open-source fork, and by mid-2025, it had resurrected the one feature that made Samourai legendary: Whirlpool coinjoins.

The question privacy-focused Bitcoiners keep asking is whether this spiritual successor delivers the same protections without inheriting the same legal risks. After reviewing documentation, user discussions, and third-party coverage, here's what the evidence shows.

What Ashigaru Actually Is

Ashigaru is a self-custodial Bitcoin wallet forked from Samourai Wallet's final public codebase (version 0.99.98ii). It's fully open-source under GNU GPL v3, meaning anyone can inspect, modify, or audit the code. The project is community-driven with no central company behind it.

The name itself is telling. Ashigaru were the foot soldiers of feudal Japan, the common warriors who did the actual fighting while samurai got the glory. The branding signals something intentional: this is Samourai's legacy, carried forward by the community rather than celebrity developers.

The mobile wallet hit version 1.0.0 by June 2025, bringing significant UI/UX improvements, better Tor library integration, and RBF (replace-by-fee) enhancements. One notable change: Whirlpool mixing was removed from the mobile app entirely and moved to a separate desktop application called Ashigaru Terminal.

The Privacy Toolkit

Ashigaru carries forward essentially all of Samourai's privacy features:

PayNyms (BIP-47 Reusable Payment Codes): Instead of generating a new address for every transaction manually, PayNyms let you share a single code that generates unique addresses behind the scenes. This means you can publicly post your PayNym without compromising privacy.

Tor-Only Networking: All network traffic routes through Tor by default. This prevents your IP address from being linked to your Bitcoin activity.

Dojo Integration: You can connect Ashigaru to your own full node running Dojo, eliminating any reliance on third-party servers. This is the gold standard for privacy: your wallet talks only to your node, over Tor.

Coin Control and UTXO Management: Full visibility into your unspent transaction outputs, letting you choose exactly which coins to spend. Essential for avoiding accidental privacy leaks.

Stonewall and Stowaway: Transaction construction techniques that make it harder for blockchain analysts to determine who paid whom. Stowaway is particularly interesting as a peer-to-peer coinjoin between two parties.

Ricochet: Adds extra hops between your wallet and the destination, creating distance from any coins that might be flagged by exchanges or other services.

Whirlpool Returns, With Caveats

The big news in June 2025 was Whirlpool's resurrection. For those unfamiliar, Whirlpool is a Zerolink-based coinjoin implementation. Multiple users combine their Bitcoin into a single transaction with equal-sized outputs, making it cryptographically impossible to link specific inputs to specific outputs.

The new implementation runs through Ashigaru Terminal, a text-based (TUI) desktop application forked from Sparrow Wallet's codebase. It's Tor-only, with the coordinator accessible exclusively as an onion service.

Current pools include 0.025 BTC and 0.25 BTC denominations. The anti-Sybil fee structure charges 5%, and each Tx0 (the transaction that prepares your coins for mixing) supports a maximum of 20 UTXOs.

User reports from mid-2025 describe successful mixing sessions, though liquidity naturally depends on how many people are actively using the pools at any given time.

What's Missing

No independent security audit has been published for Ashigaru as of early 2026. The code is open-source and can be reviewed by anyone with the technical skills, but it hasn't received the formal third-party scrutiny that some users expect from financial software.

This isn't unusual for community-driven projects operating on limited resources, but it's worth acknowledging. You're trusting the code to be free of vulnerabilities based on community review rather than professional certification.

The separation of Whirlpool from the mobile app also adds friction. Where Samourai users could mix directly from their phones, Ashigaru users now need to run separate desktop software. This is arguably more secure (desktop environments offer better operational security for sensitive operations) but less convenient.

The Legal Shadow

Samourai's founders, Keonne Rodriguez and William Lonergan Hill, were arrested in April 2024 on money laundering charges. Authorities alleged the wallet facilitated over $100 million in illicit transactions. As of December 2025, reports indicated the incoming administration was reviewing the case for a potential pardon, though the legal situation remains unresolved.

Ashigaru exists in an uncertain regulatory environment. The wallet itself is legal software (it's just a Bitcoin wallet), but coinjoin coordinators occupy a gray area that law enforcement has clearly shown interest in. The Tor-only coordinator architecture provides some protection against seizure, but it doesn't eliminate regulatory risk entirely.

Users should understand this context. Privacy tools aren't illegal, but they attract scrutiny. Make your own assessment of the risks.

Who Should Consider Ashigaru

Ashigaru makes the most sense for users who:

• Previously relied on Samourai and want to continue using familiar tools
• Prioritize transaction privacy and understand UTXO management
• Are willing to run their own Dojo node for maximum sovereignty
• Accept the tradeoffs of community-developed software without formal audits
• Are comfortable with the technical requirements of mixing via Terminal

It's probably not ideal for:

• Bitcoin beginners who haven't learned basic wallet hygiene
• Users who need a simple, polished mobile experience above all else
• Anyone uncomfortable with regulatory uncertainty around mixing services

The Bottom Line

Ashigaru has accomplished something notable: keeping Samourai's privacy toolkit alive when it could have disappeared entirely. The mobile wallet works. Whirlpool mixing works. The core privacy features that made Samourai valuable remain intact.

But this isn't a direct continuation. It's a fork maintained by volunteers, operating in a more hostile regulatory environment, without the resources of the original project. The lack of formal audits matters. The separation of Whirlpool from mobile adds friction. The legal questions around mixing haven't been resolved.

For privacy-focused Bitcoiners who understand these tradeoffs, Ashigaru represents the best available continuation of Samourai's mission. It actually works, which is more than many post-shutdown alternatives can claim.

Whether it's right for you depends on how much you value transaction privacy, how comfortable you are with the technical requirements, and how you assess the legal landscape. Those are questions only you can answer.