Crypto wallet

A crypto wallet is software or hardware that stores the keys controlling your coins and lets you send and receive them. Despite the name, a wallet does not hold the coins themselves; those exist only as entries on the blockchain. The wallet holds the private keys that prove you may move them.

Wallets come in several forms: mobile and desktop apps, browser extensions, and dedicated hardware devices. They can be custodial, where a company such as an exchange holds the keys for you, or non-custodial, where only you hold them, usually backed up by a seed phrase.

Every wallet involves a trade-off between convenience and security. A useful rule is to keep small spending amounts in an app and larger savings in a hardware wallet, with the seed phrase backed up offline.