Is It Safe to Leave Money in a Crypto Wallet?

Yes, it is completely safe to leave money inside a crypto wallet because, as long as you do not reveal the password, private key or seed phrases to anyone.

Several whales have left crypto in their wallets for over a decade, and they have accessed them easily.

To help secure your assets better, just write the seed phrases and back them up in at least two to three different places, such as paper, mnemonic cards, or a secure digital storage vault.

To Choose Best One, Explore Our Guide on Top Crypto Wallets

Please note that throughout this article, money is used to refer to cryptocurrencies and stablecoins and not fiat. Fiat money cannot be stored in most self-custody crypto wallets except PayPal.

Why Crypto Wallets are Highly Secure?

Wallets are inherently safe in crypto because of the encryption technology they use. Top wallets like MetaMask use AES-GCM for data encryption and ECIES for digital signatures.

Most private keys in your wallet are stored locally and not on any server, which protects them from internet viruses, malware, spyware, and other threats. Further, when the wallet is locked, i.e., not in use, these keys are encrypted.

Wallets also use a secure algorithm like BIP-39 to generate public keys, and subsequently, these public keys are used to generate private keys.

Real Life Examples Where Funds Kept in Crypto Wallets were Safe Over Several Years

Ancient Bitcoin Whale Accesses Crypto First Time After 2009

An ancient Bitcoin whale has accessed their crypto, almost 17 years after initially mining it in 2009. All these years, the wallet was kept safe despite hard forks, soft forks, upgrades, and the introduction of new technologies to Bitcoin.

Source: https://x.com/arkham/status/1838543209577730499

My Personal Experience

One of my wallet addresses has been kept secure in this way since 2024. I access the wallet once every few months to assess my diversification. There has been almost no issue in all these years as MetaMask (the wallet provider) manages all the technological requirements to maintain the wallet.

All I ever did was secure the wallet in a way shown below and avoid common mistakes.

Best Practices for Crypto Wallet Safety

1. Private Key must be kept offline, written on paper, or stored in another tool such as a mnemonic. It should never be kept in unsecured digital storage such as cloud drives.
2. Seed Phrases should not be accessed randomly. It should only be done when you have lost all wallet backups and written phrases.
3. You should never share any wallet details except the public address with anyone, irrespective of who they claim to be, not even law enforcement (real ones do not even ask).
4. You should log in to your wallet every few weeks to ensure everything is ok.
5. You should keep an eye on top cybersecurity news, such as Cysecu to be aware of the latest incidents and prepare accordingly.
6. After every major security breach in the news, you should move your wallet holdings to a new wallet.

Common Mistakes in Real Life Where Wallets Were Compromised

1. Clicking a picture of your wallet seed phrase, images stored on the phone can be accessed by almost every installed application.
2. Sharing private keys or seed phrases with people claiming to be customer support, genuine users, or law enforcement.
3. Sharing wallet keys or seed phrases with the people you trust. Even if they are not stealing anything, their lack of security practices could put you at risk.
4. Bragging about crypto holdings because many times users have been compromised digitally or put at physical risk such as kidnapping, ransom demand, etc.

Frequently Asked Questions