Seed Phrase Backup: How to Store Your Recovery Phrase Safely

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Your seed phrase backup matters more than the wallet you bought. The device can break, get lost or be stolen and you can simply buy a new one; the recovery phrase is what actually restores your crypto. Store it offline, on a medium that survives fire and water, in a place only you (and, if you plan for it, your heirs) can reach. Never store it digitally.

That is the whole principle. The rest of this guide is about doing it well, because there are several sensible ways to back up a recovery phrase and a handful of habits that quietly undo all of them.

What a seed phrase is, in one paragraph

When you set up a hardware or software wallet, it generates a list of words, usually 12, 20 or 24. Those words encode the master key from which all your addresses and private keys are derived. Anyone with the words can rebuild your wallet on any compatible device, anywhere in the world, without your PIN. That is why the phrase is both your safety net and your biggest single point of failure.

Wallet makers use different names for it: recovery phrase, seed phrase, mnemonic, wallet backup. Same thing. Most wallets use the BIP39 standard; Trezor’s current devices default to a 20-word SLIP39 backup, which also enables the multi-share option discussed below.

The rules that never change

• No photos, screenshots, notes apps, password managers, email or cloud storage. Anything that touches an internet-connected device can be copied without you noticing.
• Nobody legitimate will ever ask for it. Not the manufacturer, not your exchange, not “wallet support” on social media. People asking for your words are thieves; our guide to common crypto scams shows how they usually approach you.
• Write the words in order, and check the spelling. Wallets use a fixed word list, so a misspelled word may still be guessable, but a swapped order is a real problem.
• Test the backup. Several wallets let you check the backup on the device without resetting it. Do this once after setup.

Paper backups: fine, with limits

The card that comes in the box is perfectly good to start with. Paper is cheap, private and easy. Its weaknesses are physical: fire, water, ink that fades and paper that gets thrown away during a clean-out.

If you use paper:

• Use a pencil or archival pen, and write clearly in block letters.
• Store it in a sealed bag, inside something that does not look valuable.
• Do not label it “crypto” or “Bitcoin seed”. A plain envelope among other papers is less interesting to a burglar than a box marked “wallet”.

For small amounts, a well-kept paper backup is a reasonable choice. As the value grows, most people move to metal.

Metal backups: built to survive

A metal backup stores the words on stainless steel or titanium, by stamping, engraving or slotting letter tiles into a frame. The point is resistance to house fires, floods and corrosion, which paper cannot offer.

What to look for:

• Material: stainless steel or titanium. Avoid cheap alloys with low melting points.
• Format: stamped plates are compact and hard to tamper with silently; tile systems are reusable but have more loose parts.
• Fit for your backup type: a 12-, 20- or 24-word phrase needs enough space. If you use a multi-share backup, you need one plate per share.
• Readability: you should be able to read every word years from now without guessing.

Trezor sells its own steel plate, the Keep Metal, in versions for 12-, 20- and 24-word backups; the 20-word version was listed at €99 on trezor.io in October 2026 (about €84 during a promotion at the start of November). Other makers offer similar products. You do not need a branded plate, but you do need one designed for the job: a kitchen-drawer solution rarely survives a real fire.

Paper, metal or multi-share: at a glance

	Paper card	Metal plate	2-of-3 multi-share on metal
Typical cost	Free, in the box	Roughly €30 to €100 per plate	Three plates, so roughly three times as much
Survives a house fire	No	Yes, if steel or titanium	Yes
Survives water damage	Poorly	Yes	Yes
If a thief finds one copy	Funds at risk	Funds at risk	One share alone reveals nothing usable
Effort	Low	Medium	High
Usual way it fails	Fire, water, thrown away	Kept next to the device, or misread	Losing track of the shares

Where to keep the backup

A backup is only useful if it survives what destroys your device, so do not keep both in the same drawer. Common options:

• At home, in a separate place from the device: discreet, fire-resistant if possible.
• A second location you trust, such as a family member’s home. This protects against one location being lost, but adds one more place that has to stay secure.
• A bank safe deposit box. Secure against burglary and fire, but access is limited to opening hours, and in some situations the contents can be frozen or become hard to reach for heirs.

Two copies in two places is a common middle ground. Every extra copy makes loss less likely and theft a little more likely, so think about which risk worries you more.

One copy, two copies or shares: a worked example

The trade-off between losing a backup and having it stolen is easier to see with numbers. The figures below are hypothetical, chosen only to show the shape of the trade-off.

Assume each place where you keep a backup has a 2% chance per year of the backup being destroyed or lost (fire, flood, a clear-out), and a 1% chance per year of someone finding it. Assume the places are independent and that you check them once a year and replace anything lost.

Setup	Chance per year all usable backups are gone	Over ten years	Chance per year a thief can use what they find
One full copy	2%	about 18%	1%
Two full copies, two places	0.04%	about 0.4%	about 2%
2-of-3 shares, three places	about 0.12%	about 1.2%	about 0.03%

How the numbers work: with two copies, you are only left without a usable backup if both are lost in the same year (2% × 2%). But a thief needs to find only one of them, so theft risk roughly doubles. With 2-of-3 shares, the backup only fails if at least two of three shares are lost, and a thief also needs two, which is why both risks stay low.

The lesson is not the exact percentages. A second full copy protects you against loss at the cost of more exposure to theft. Shares protect against both, at the cost of complexity, and only if you really keep them in separate places and check them.

Adding a passphrase

Many wallets let you add an optional passphrase on top of the recovery phrase (sometimes called the “25th word”). The passphrase creates a separate hidden wallet: the same seed with a different passphrase opens a different set of addresses.

The benefit is strong: someone who finds your words alone cannot reach the funds behind the passphrase. The cost is equally strong: if you forget the passphrase, nobody can recover it, and the words alone will open only the empty “standard” wallet. If you use one, back up the passphrase separately from the seed, and make sure it is something you will still know in ten years.

Multi-share backups (Shamir backup)

A multi-share backup splits your wallet backup into several shares, of which a minimum number is needed to restore. A 2-of-3 setup, for example, creates three shares; any two of them rebuild the wallet, and any single share on its own reveals nothing usable.

This removes the single point of failure:

• If one share burns, you still have two.
• If a thief finds one share, it is useless without a second.

Trezor’s current models support multi-share backups based on the SLIP39 standard. They are more work to manage, since you have to store each share in a different place and keep track of them, but for larger holdings or long-term self-custody they are worth considering. Note that not every wallet brand supports SLIP39 shares, so check compatibility before you rely on one.

Mistakes we see again and again

Typing the phrase “just to check”

Entering your recovery words on a website or in a computer app to “validate” them is the classic way to lose everything. Restore only on the hardware device itself.

Laminating paper

Lamination can trap moisture and melts in a fire. A sealed bag and a fire-resistant location do more.

One backup, kept next to the device

A single fire or burglary then takes both. Separate them.

Splitting the words yourself

Writing words 1 to 12 on one card and 13 to 24 on another feels clever, but each half leaks half the secret and losing either half makes restoring very hard. If you want splitting, use a proper multi-share backup, which is designed for it.

No plan for the people you leave behind

If nobody knows the backup exists, it can be lost forever. You do not need to share the words, but someone you trust should know that there is something to find and how to get help.

A simple setup that works for most people

1. Write the phrase on the card that came with the device and check it with the device’s backup check.
2. Transfer it to a metal plate once the amount you hold matters to you.
3. Keep the metal backup in a different place from the device; consider a second copy in a second location.
4. Destroy temporary copies properly once the permanent backup is done.
5. Review the setup once a year: can you still find it, read it and reach it?

The device you choose is a matter of taste and budget; our EU hardware wallet buyer’s guide compares current options. The backup is not a matter of taste. Treat it as the real wallet.

Sources: Trezor product and support pages on wallet backups, Keep Metal and multi-share backups; BIP39 and SLIP39 specifications (checked October and November 2026). Information as of November 2026.