Seed Phrase
In plain English
The 12 or 24 words that back up your entire wallet. Anyone who has them controls your crypto — and if you lose them, nobody can restore your access.
What is a seed phrase?
A seed phrase — also called a recovery phrase or mnemonic — is a list of 12 or 24 ordinary words generated when you create a self-custody wallet. From those words, the wallet mathematically derives every private key and address it will ever use.
Why words instead of keys
A private key is a long string of characters that is easy to mistype and impossible to memorise. The BIP-39 standard maps that randomness onto a fixed list of 2,048 simple words. The result is far easier to write down and check by hand, while remaining just as hard to guess: a 12-word phrase has roughly 128 bits of entropy, which no computer can brute-force.
Because the phrase regenerates the whole wallet, it works across apps. Lose your phone, install a different wallet, enter the same 12 words, and your funds reappear — they were never in the app, only on the blockchain.
How to store it
Write it on paper or stamp it into metal, and keep it offline. Never photograph it, type it into a note-taking app, store it in a password manager synced to the cloud, or email it to yourself. Malware specifically hunts for seed phrases in files and screenshots.
Consider two copies in separate physical locations, so a fire or flood does not wipe out your access.
The rule that matters most
No legitimate support agent, exchange, wallet developer or airdrop will ever ask for your seed phrase. Every request for it is a theft attempt, without exception. Entering your phrase into a website is the single most common way people lose their crypto permanently.