What is a Seed Phrase?
The short answer
A set of 12 or 24 words that is the master key to a crypto wallet — anyone who has it controls everything inside, forever.
A seed phrase (also called a recovery phrase) is generated when you set up a non-custodial wallet. It is your private key written in human-readable words. It can restore your wallet on any device, which is exactly why it must never be shared, photographed, or typed into anything online.
A simple way to picture it
Think of it as the single master key to a safe with no other lock and no backup key held by anyone else — whoever has it can open the safe, and there is no way to reset it if it’s lost or stolen.
Related terms
Full glossaryMeme Coin
A cryptocurrency whose value is driven largely by community attention and internet culture rather than a specific technical…
All-Time High (ATH)
The highest price a cryptocurrency has ever reached.
Wallet
Software or hardware that holds your private keys and lets you use crypto — not a place coins…
Airdrop
Free distribution of a new token to existing holders of another crypto or to early users of a…
Pump and Dump
A scheme where a group artificially inflates a coin's price through hype, then sells at the peak, leaving…
Layer 2
A network built on top of a layer 1 blockchain to make transactions faster and cheaper.
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