Analysis topic
Photo: Jason Dent / UnsplashWallets
These pieces cover self-custody and hardware wallets: seed phrases, Ledger and Trezor, MetaMask, Trust Wallet and Solana wallets, and the scams aimed at their users.
Specifications and fees come from each maker's own documentation. The wallet register holds the per-wallet records.
Every figure in these pieces traces to a document named at the foot of the page it appears on. Nothing here is a recommendation to gamble.
18 pieces, newest first
· 6 minCoinbase vs Coinbase Wallet: a custodial exchange account and a self-custody wallet, and the Base app renameCoinbase is a custodial exchange account where crypto is "stored on the platform"; Coinbase Wallet is a self-custody app where Coinbase "never has access to your recovery phrase". The wallet's App Store notes called it Base app for months, and since version 30.11 say "We're now Coinbase Wallet." · 6 minHow to buy Solana in the US: which exchanges list SOL, what they charge, and what moving it to a wallet costsCoinbase, Kraken, Robinhood, PayPal and Gemini each list SOL on their own pages, read on 14 October 2026; Cash App's crypto disclosures cover bitcoin and stablecoins, not SOL. Buy fees follow each platform's general crypto schedule. On-chain, Solana charges 5,000 lamports per signature, and the refundable rent-exempt minimum is being cut by up to 90% in five steps from September 2026. · 6 minHow to send bitcoin to another wallet, and how to find a bitcoin wallet address, step by stepSending bitcoin means pasting the recipient's address, choosing the amount and fee, and signing. Coinbase's web flow has 6 steps and Trezor Suite's has 4. Addresses start with 1, 3, bc1q or bc1p. Mempool.space recommended 1 sat/vB on 14 October 2026, and bitcoin.org says a transaction "cannot be reversed". · 6 minHow to set up a bitcoin wallet, step by step from the Blockstream and Trezor guidesA self-custody bitcoin wallet is set up by installing the app, generating keys, writing down a 12 or 24 word recovery phrase and checking it. Blockstream's app guide lists 4 steps; Trezor says its hardware setup takes about 15 minutes and wipes the device after 16 wrong PINs. · 6 minHow to transfer bitcoin to Cash App: finding your address, on-chain vs Lightning, and the $10,000 weekly capTo transfer bitcoin to Cash App, open the Bitcoin tile, tap Deposit bitcoin and copy the address, which changes after every deposit. On-chain deposits are capped at $10,000 in any 7 days and Lightning at $999. Cash App takes BTC only. · 6 minLedger Nano X review from Ledger's own pages, specs, price, Ledger Recover and two incidentsThe Ledger Nano X lists at US$99 on Ledger's US shop, read 14 October 2026, with an ST33J2M0 chip rated CC EAL5+, Bluetooth 5.2 and a 5 hour battery. Ledger Recover is a paid, optional key backup. Ledger's 2020 customer-data breach and 2023 Connect Kit attack did not break the device; both fed theft through phishing and malicious signing. · 6 minLedger Recover explained: how the 3 encrypted fragments, the ID checks and the subscription work, per Ledger's own documentsLedger Recover is an opt-in subscription, provided by Coincover, that encrypts a copy of the seed inside the device, splits it into three fragments held by Coincover, Ledger and EscrowTech, and releases two of them after two independent identity checks. Unpaid subscriptions are suspended after 3 months and fragments deleted after 9 more. · 6 minLedger vs Trezor, compared on chips, open source, Ledger Recover, prices and coin supportLedger and Trezor both sell hardware wallets with certified secure elements. Ledger's chip code is closed under its agreement with STMicroelectronics and it sells Ledger Recover, an optional ID-based phrase backup; Trezor publishes its code and sells no comparable service on the pages read. US prices on 14 October 2026 run US$69 to US$399 for Ledger and US$59 to US$249 for Trezor. · 6 minMetaMask vs Trust Wallet: what their terms say on custody, chains, swap fees and incidentsBoth are self-custody wallets whose terms say the company cannot recover a lost phrase. MetaMask publishes a 0.875% swap fee and names 19 networks; Trust Wallet says 100+ blockchains, publishes no standard swap fee, and reimbursed users after a December 2025 extension breach. · 6 minSolana wallets compared: Phantom, Solflare, Backpack, Ledger and Trezor on custody, fees, code and incidentsFive wallets that hold SOL were compared on what their own documents say. Only one, Backpack, puts a swap fee percentage in writing, and its blog contradicts it. Phantom's help centre said in September that its Google or Apple wallets split a key with Phantom; Solflare's terms say it never holds enough to move funds. · 6 minTrust Wallet scams: fake support, approval drainers, and the December 2025 browser extension incident, per Trust Wallet's own pagesTrust Wallet's own security pages describe fake apps, fake support agents, fraudulent airdrops, copycat tokens and approval drainers as the main scams against its users. Separately, a malicious v2.68 browser extension published on 24 December 2025 drained 2,520 addresses, with about $8.5 million in assets impacted, and the reimbursement process drew over 5,000 claims, many of them, Trust Wallet says, false. · 6 minUSDT TRC-20 wallet: which wallets hold Tether on Tron, what a transfer costs in TRX, and who can freeze itTRC-20 USDT is Tether's token on the Tron blockchain, at contract TR7NHqjeKQxGTCi8q8ZY4pL8otSzgjLj6t. Any wallet that holds Tron addresses can hold it, 16 of 30 on the register name Tron, but sending it costs TRX for energy and bandwidth, and Tether's terms let it freeze any holder's tokens. · 5 minWhat is a bitcoin wallet? Keys, addresses, and who holds them in each wallet typeA bitcoin wallet is software or a device that holds private keys and signs transactions; the coins stay on the blockchain. Bitcoin.org splits wallets by where the keys live. 24 of the 30 wallets on the CryptoGuardz register name Bitcoin among their chains. · 6 minWhat is a hardware wallet? What the chips do, what 8 devices cost, and where they failA hardware wallet is a dedicated device that holds the private keys and signs transactions away from the computer. Eight current Ledger and Trezor models list at US$59 to US$399 on their makers' shops, read 14 October 2026; the failures on record came from firmware, suppliers and phishing. · 8 minWhat is a seed phrase? The BIP-39 standard, and how 30 wallets handle recoveryA seed phrase is a list of 12 to 24 words, defined by the BIP-39 standard, from which a wallet derives every key it holds. Anyone with the words controls the funds. Of 30 wallets on the register, 11 offer a cloud backup and 3 split recovery with the provider. · 6 minSending crypto from an exchange straight to a casino: what the exchange can doOf twelve exchanges on the register, OKX, Bitget and MEXC prohibit gambling transfers outright, OKX and Gate attach a freeze or confiscation power to their gambling clause, Coinbase can claw back a transfer it links to prohibited use, and Binance, Crypto.com and HTX say nothing. Routing through a self-custody wallet moves the balance out of reach of those clauses; it does not change what they say. · 5 minMetaMask and crypto casinos: what MetaMask's own terms sayMetaMask's terms of use name no gambling rule. They do let MetaMask suspend access on enumerated grounds, disclose that its own stablecoin can be frozen by third parties, and cap liability at fees paid or 25,000 dollars if none were. · 6 minSelf-custody wallet safety: a checklist before you send anythingSeven checks drawn from MetaMask's and Phantom's own help centres, read on 28 September 2026. Both say their support will never ask for a recovery phrase, neither can undo a confirmed transfer, and Phantom supports neither Tron nor BNB Chain, two common USDT networks.