Keep your crypto safe from hackers
with a hardware wallet
Avoid online risks and keep full control over your digital assets.
Protect your crypto portfolio with a hardware wallet
A hardware wallet stores your private keys offline, so malware and phishing sites cannot reach them. You keep complete control over your Bitcoin and other coins, which makes it the most trusted option for long-term storage.
Why a hardware wallet is worth having
Coins left on an exchange or in a browser wallet depend on that service and that device staying safe. A hardware wallet signs transactions on the device itself, and your keys never touch the internet. Bitcoin, Ethereum and most altcoins can be stored safely and easily.
What a hardware wallet actually does
Your coins are not stored on the device. They live on the blockchain, and what a wallet holds is the private key that lets you move them. Whoever has the key controls the coins. A hardware wallet is a small device built to keep that key away from anything connected to the internet.
When you send crypto, your computer or phone prepares the transaction and passes it to the device. The device shows the address and the amount on its own screen, you confirm with its buttons, and it signs the transaction inside the device. Only the signed transaction goes back to the computer. The key never leaves, so malware on your computer cannot copy it.
The device is locked with a PIN. When you set it up, it gives you a recovery phrase: 12 to 24 words that can rebuild your keys on a new device. If the device is lost, broken or stolen, your coins are still yours, as long as the recovery phrase is safe.
For more depth, with the best-known models compared, read Crypto Hardware Wallets: The Ultimate Guide to Secure Your Digital Assets.
Exchange, app or hardware wallet
Where your crypto can be kept, and what each choice trusts.
- Who holds the keys
- The exchange holds them for you.
- Main risk
- A hack or failure of the exchange, or a frozen account.
- Best for
- Coins you trade often.
- Who holds the keys
- You do, on a phone or computer that is online.
- Main risk
- Malware, and fake sites that ask you to sign or to type your phrase.
- Best for
- Small amounts you spend or move every day.
- Who holds the keys
- You do, on a device that never goes online.
- Main risk
- Losing the recovery phrase, or being tricked into giving it away.
- Best for
- Savings you plan to hold for months or years.
Do you need one?
A simple test: if losing the crypto you hold would really hurt, it is worth a hardware wallet. That is usually the case once you plan to hold for months or years rather than trade it this week.
If you trade every day with small amounts, an exchange or an app is more practical. Many people keep both: a small balance for trading, and the rest on a hardware wallet.
How to choose a hardware wallet
Six things to check before you buy.
Make sure the wallet and its app support every coin and network you use, including tokens on other chains. Support differs most for smaller coins.
The address and the amount should show on the device's own screen, so you can check them before you confirm. A device without a screen has to trust your computer.
A secure element chip resists someone who has the device in their hands. Open-source firmware lets independent experts check what the device does. Some wallets have one of the two, some both.
Every good wallet backs up to a recovery phrase written in words. Look for an optional passphrase (an extra word only you know) and, for larger sums, multisig, where several devices must approve a payment.
By USB cable, Bluetooth or QR codes. The keys stay inside the device either way. A wallet that never connects to anything gives an attacker the fewest ways in.
Choose a maker with a long record and regular firmware updates, and buy from its own shop or an authorised seller. Never buy second hand: a device can be tampered with before it reaches you.
Ledger, Trezor and BitBox at a glance
Three makers we link to. All three back your wallet up with a recovery phrase, have their own app for desktop and phone, and have been making hardware wallets for years.
A French company that has sold hardware wallets since 2014. Ledger devices keep the keys in a certified secure element chip and work with Ledger's own app on desktop and phone. The range includes models with Bluetooth, and they support thousands of coins and tokens.
See Ledger walletsFrom SatoshiLabs in Prague, which launched the first hardware wallet in 2014. Trezor's firmware and app are open source, so anyone can check how they work, and its newer models add a secure element chip.
See Trezor walletsFrom Shift Crypto in Switzerland. BitBox wallets combine open-source firmware with a secure chip, come in a multi-coin and a Bitcoin-only edition, and can keep a backup on a microSD card as well as on paper.
See BitBox walletsSetting up your wallet safely
The first hour decides most of what can go wrong later.
- Buy it new from the maker or an authorised seller, and check that the box is sealed.
- Install the maker's app from its official website. Type the address yourself rather than following an ad or a link in a message.
- Let the device create a new recovery phrase. If a phrase comes in the box, printed or on a scratch card, the device is not safe: send it back.
- Write the words down in order, on paper or a metal backup, and keep them somewhere private, safe from fire and water. Never type them into a phone or computer, and never take a photo of them.
- Choose a PIN you will remember. Enter a wrong one too many times and the device wipes itself; then only the recovery phrase brings your wallet back.
- Send a small amount first and check that it arrives. If your device can check your written backup, do that before you move the rest.
- Each time you send or receive, compare the address on the device's screen with the one on your computer.
- Install firmware updates only through the maker's own app.
Mistakes that cost people their coins
- Typing the recovery phrase into a website, an app or a form. A real wallet only asks for it on the device itself, and only when you restore it.
- Keeping a photo of the phrase, or a copy in cloud notes or email.
- Answering "support" on social media or by email. Scammers watch for people asking for help and send them to fake sites.
- Downloading the wallet app from an ad or a link in a message instead of the maker's site.
- Confirming a transaction without reading the address on the device's screen.
- Keeping a single copy of the phrase, so one fire, flood or house move can lose it for good.
Tracking a hardware wallet with Coinfolytics
A hardware wallet keeps your coins safe, but it will not tell you what you paid or what you have made. Coinfolytics does that without ever touching the device: record your trades yourself or bring them in from an exchange's CSV file, or import its public addresses, which let anyone read the balance but never move it.
We never ask for your recovery phrase, and nothing on the site can sign a transaction. More in How to track any crypto wallet by address.
Questions
The Ledger, Trezor and BitBox links on this page are affiliate links: if you buy through them, Coinfolytics may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you.