General Help


What are Custodial and Self-Custodial wallets?

The main difference between Custodial and Self-Custodial (also known as Non-Custodial wallets) is who stores the private backup keys (recovery phrases) for the wallet.

With Custodial wallets, the backup keys are stored with a 3rd party which is referred to as a Custodian. Custodial wallets are typically used by services and exchanges

Examples of Custodial wallet services:

  • NiceHash
  • Binance
  • Coinbase
  • The Wallet of Satoshi


While with Self-Custodial wallets, the backup keys are stored by the user. Those are generally used by dedicated storage wallets or hardware wallets

Examples of Self-Custodial wallets:

  • Electrum
  • Exodus
  • Ledger
  • Sparrow Wallet
  • Tangem
  • Trezor


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