Custodial vs non-custodial wallets

When you store cryptocurrency, the safety and accessibility of your funds depends on who controls the private keys. There are two fundamental models: custodial and non-custodial.

	Custodial	Non-Custodial
Who holds the keys?	A third party (exchange or platform)	You
Access method	Username & password	Seed phrase (24 or 12 words)
Recovery if locked out	Platform support can help	Only possible with seed phrase
Platform risk	Funds affected if platform is hacked or insolvent	Funds unaffected by any platform
DeFi / dApp access	Not possible	Required
Examples	Binance, Coinbase, OKX	Tonkeeper, Ledger, Trust Wallet

Custodial wallets

Custodial wallets are managed by a third party — most commonly a centralized exchange (CEX) — which holds your private keys on your behalf. You access your funds through a login and password on the platform. The advantage is that a forgotten password can be recovered through the platform's support process. The risk is that your funds are only as safe as the platform: if it is hacked, frozen by regulators, or becomes insolvent (as happened with FTX in 2022), you may lose access to your assets.

Non-custodial wallets

Non-custodial wallets give you full ownership of your private keys, represented as a seed phrase. No company or platform holds them. You are solely responsible for keeping the seed phrase secure — if it is lost, access to the wallet cannot be recovered by anyone, including Tonkeeper.

Non-custodial wallets are required for interacting with decentralized exchanges (DEXs), DeFi protocols, NFT marketplaces, and dApps. Custodial wallets held on exchanges do not give you access to the broader crypto ecosystem.

💡 Tonkeeper is non-custodial. Your keys are generated and stored on your device only. Tonkeeper has no server-side access to your wallet and cannot recover it if the seed phrase is lost.