GLOSSARY // Crypto
Crypto Wallet
A crypto wallet stores the private keys that let you spend your coins — it does not hold the coins themselves, which live on the blockchain. A hot wallet stays connected to the internet for convenience; a cold wallet keeps the keys offline on a device or paper for safety.
The rule that trips up newcomers: whoever holds the keys holds the coins. Leave your coins on an exchange and you are trusting that company; move them to a wallet you control and the responsibility is entirely yours, with no password reset if you lose the keys. Both models have lost people everything, in opposite ways.
A holder keeps a small spending balance in a phone hot wallet and moves the bulk to a cold hardware wallet in a drawer. If the phone is hacked, only the small balance is exposed; the cold storage never touched the internet to be reachable.
Related terms
Educational only — not financial advice. Definitions simplified for clarity; markets are messier than definitions.