Wallet

A crypto wallet does not hold coins the way a physical wallet holds cash. The coins are records on the blockchain. What the wallet holds is the private keys that prove ownership and authorize spending. The wallet software tracks your balances, builds transactions, signs them with your keys, and broadcasts them to the network.

Wallets come in several forms. Software wallets such as MetaMask, Phantom, and the Coinbase Wallet app run on a phone or in a browser and are convenient for daily use. Hardware wallets such as Ledger and Trezor keep keys on a dedicated device that never exposes them to the internet. Exchange accounts are custodial wallets where the company controls the keys on your behalf.

Setting up a self-custody wallet produces a seed phrase of 12 or 24 words. Anyone with that phrase can recreate the wallet and take everything in it, and losing it means the funds are gone forever. Writing it down on paper, storing it securely offline, and never entering it into a website are the fundamentals of wallet safety.