What is a recovery phrase?
A recovery phrase is essentially a human-readable form of your crypto wallets’ private keys and is usually displayed as a 12-word phrase.
Every crypto wallet you create or own has its own private key, imagine the private key as your online banking password, and each crypto wallet (account) has a different private key (password) that allows you to access the funds.
It’s a nightmare to remember or keep all your crypto wallets’ private keys securely and that’s why when you first create your Crypto.com DeFi Wallet, each coin’s private key is run through a standardized algorithm to become one master private key, and this master private key is then run through another standardized algorithm to become your 12-word recovery phrase.
Now that you understand the importance of your 12-word recovery phrase - it’s the master private key that allows you to access your crypto assets inside your Crypto.com DeFi Wallet!
You should never ever share your recovery phrase with anyone else, not even a Crypto.com staff - just like you will never share your online banking password with others!
Anyone who knows your recovery phrase will be able to access and spend your funds from anywhere. This is why your recovery phrase is so important to you and you should back up your recovery phrase during wallet creation and keep your 12-word phrase in a secure and physical location.
Additionally, you can find more information on how to import or recover a wallet using the recovery phrase here.
Where are my private keys stored?
Your private keys to your crypto assets are generated and encrypted locally on your device. The private keys are never stored in the cloud nor on any of our servers. They remain 100% in your control and ownership.