App demo videos for crypto products: how to show the wallet step without real funds

If you build a crypto card, a DeFi dashboard or a tax tool, your demo video has a scene you do not own: the moment the user connects or funds from their wallet. Here is a shot list that works, what the app stores allow in a preview, and how to film that scene without real funds and without misleading anyone.

Published: 21 October 2026

The scene you do not own

Most crypto products are not wallets. A card that spends stablecoins, a dashboard that reads your DeFi positions, a tax tool that imports your addresses, a payment link for merchants: every one of them starts in the user's wallet. The demo video has to show that moment, and it is the one screen in the story that does not belong to you.

Teams usually fill it with one of three things, and each causes trouble. The founder's own wallet puts a real address, real holdings and a real history in a video built to be shared; why showing crypto online makes you a target explains why that matters, and what the hide balance toggle still shows why masking the total is not enough. A fresh test wallet is safe but empty, so the story has no beginning. And a testnet wallet shows faucet tokens with odd names and odd amounts that distract from the product.

A shot list that works for crypto products

Whatever the length, a demo video follows one user through one job. This structure fits a website demo of about a minute, and it compresses for shorter formats.

The audience changes how much room scene 2 gets. On a website or in a launch post, it is a few seconds of setup. In an investor meeting, the demo usually sits inside a larger story; Y Combinator, for instance, keeps its one-minute founder video separate from the product demo, and says the founder video is not the place for a demo. In an onboarding tutorial, scene 2 can be longer, because new users need to recognize the screen they will see in their own wallet.

Numbers inside your own app

Scenes 4 and 5 show numbers too: a card balance, a portfolio value, a rate, a fee. Seed a staging account with sample data that is plausible and consistent from scene to scene, so the 2,400 USDC that leaves the wallet in scene 3 is the amount that arrives in scene 5. Rates and fees should be the real ones on the day you record, with the date in the caption if they move. Never show a balance, a yield or a speed your product cannot actually deliver: inside your own interface, every number is a claim about the product.

What the app stores allow in a preview

Store previews are the one place where the rules are written down. Apple's App Review Guidelines say screenshots should show the app in use (2.3.3), and that previews may only use video screen captures of the app itself, with narration and text overlays allowed to explain (2.3.4). Google Play asks for a preview that shows the actual in-app experience, with at least 80% of the video representative of the user experience, and notes that only the first 30 seconds autoplay. It also refuses age-restricted videos and asks you to turn off ads on the one you link.

So a store preview is your app and nothing else: no simulated third-party wallet, no staged scene from another app. If the funding step matters, show it as your own app presents it. The technical side, from resolutions to frame counts, is in app preview video specs.

Prop or proof: the rule from the sandpaper case

Outside the stores, the line between an acceptable prop and a deceptive demo was drawn by the US Supreme Court in FTC v. Colgate-Palmolive Co., decided April 5, 1965. A shaving cream commercial appeared to show the product shaving sandpaper. The "sandpaper" was a mock-up: plexiglass with sand applied to it. The Court held that using an undisclosed mock-up as proof of a product claim is deceptive. It also explained the difference with a commercial that shows mashed potatoes standing in for ice cream: there, the prop is not being used as proof of the claim.

That distinction maps neatly onto a crypto demo video:

• Prop: the user's wallet in scene 2, which sets up the story and claims nothing about your product.
• Proof: everything your product does. Speed, fees, yields, supported tokens and the screens of your own app are the claims, so they must be real recordings.

Recording the funding step

1. Point a staging build at a testnet or your payment provider's sandbox, so real money never moves on camera.
2. Create a dedicated demo wallet for the shoot from a new recovery phrase. On EVM networks an account keeps the same address on every chain, as MetaMask's help center explains, so a personal account used on testnet still exposes your mainnet address.
3. Fund it with round, plausible amounts, and hide stray test tokens.
4. Leave the approval prompt on screen long enough to read. Users need to recognize it later, and hiding it suggests something to hide.
5. Silence notifications and use a clean browser profile with no personal tabs or extensions.
6. Label any simulated frame on screen, for example with a small "Illustration" tag.

For capture settings and cursor work, see recording a wallet screen video.

A simulated wallet for the context scene

Scene 2 is where a different kind of tool earns its place.

A larp wallet, also called a crypto wallet app simulator, is an app that shows a believable crypto wallet screen built from the balances you type in, for videos, skits, pitch decks and demos. It holds no funds and touches no blockchain.

You type the starting point your user story needs, for example 2,400 USDC and a little ETH, and capture the screen. It is also useful for storyboards and slides drawn before the product is finished. We make one of these apps, My Larp Wallet. Product teams use the same kind of screen for empty and full states, layout tests and support documentation; five uses for product teams covers those. For hackathon builds, the web3 hackathon demo video applies the same split between story frames and the working demo.

Where the line is

A simulated wallet can set the scene. It can never stand in for your own product's interface, show a feature that does not exist, or show balances as traction, customer deposits or returns. Keep it out of store previews, label it wherever it appears, and record everything your product does for real. Our terms of use forbid using our screens to make anyone believe in assets that do not exist, or to obtain an investment on the strength of a fictional financial position.

Sources

• Apple, App Review Guidelines, 2.3.3 and 2.3.4 (screenshots and previews), 2026
• Apple, App Store Connect Help, App preview specifications, 2026
• Google Play Console Help, Add preview assets to showcase your app, 2026
• Supreme Court of the United States, FTC v. Colgate-Palmolive Co., 380 U.S. 374 (text via Cornell LII), April 5, 1965
• Y Combinator, The application video, 2026
• MetaMask Support, The Ethereum address format and why it matters

Questions

How do I make an app demo video?

Pick one user and one job, write a script around it, and screen-record your real app doing that job from start to finish. Add a voiceover and captions, cut the waiting, and put the core of the job early: on Google Play only the first 30 seconds of a preview autoplay. Record on a staging build with demo accounts so no real customer or founder data appears.

What should a fintech app demo video show?

The core job end to end, on the real interface: how money gets in, what the product does with it, what the user sees at the end, and the steps and fees as they really are. Balances on screen should be clearly sample data, never figures that read as performance, returns or customer deposits.

Can I use mockups in an app demo video?

For context scenes outside your product, such as the user's wallet before they connect, a labeled mockup is fine on a website or in a pitch. In store previews, no: Apple's guideline 2.3.4 says previews may only use video screen captures of the app itself, and Google Play wants at least 80% of a preview video to represent the user experience. Never mock up your own product to show features that do not exist.

How long should an app demo video be?

For store previews, follow the store: Apple previews run 15 to 30 seconds, and only the first 30 seconds of a Google Play video autoplay. For a website or a pitch there is no rule, but one user's job shown in about a minute holds attention better than a tour of every screen.

Can I use my own crypto wallet in a demo video?

Better not. A demo video is meant to be shared, and a wallet on screen can show an address, holdings and history that anyone can look up. On EVM networks the same account keeps the same address on every chain, testnets included. Create a dedicated demo wallet for recordings and keep personal funds out of the frame.