Wallets Overview

The difference between custodial and non-custodial XRP wallets, and what to consider when choosing one.

Custodial vs. non-custodial

The most important distinction when choosing how to hold XRP is who controls the private keys:

• Custodial — an exchange or other third party holds your XRP on your behalf, and you access it through a login/password with that provider. This is convenient and requires no technical setup, but it means you are trusting that provider's security and solvency; if they are hacked, freeze withdrawals, or become insolvent, your access to the underlying XRP is at their mercy. "Not your keys, not your coins" is the common shorthand for this tradeoff.
• Non-custodial — you hold the private keys yourself, typically through a dedicated wallet app or hardware device, and interact with the XRP Ledger directly. This gives you full control, but also full responsibility: if you lose your key or recovery phrase, no one can restore access on your behalf.

Hot vs. cold storage

Within non-custodial wallets, there's a further distinction:

• Hot wallets (software wallets, whether desktop, mobile, or browser-based) keep keys on an internet-connected device, trading some security for convenience — well suited to funds you plan to actively use.
• Cold wallets (hardware devices, or offline "paper" key storage) keep keys isolated from any internet-connected device, meaningfully reducing exposure to remote hacking or malware, at the cost of convenience — better suited to larger, longer-term holdings.

The XRP Ledger's reserve requirement matters for wallet setup

Any XRPL account — including one controlled by a non-custodial wallet — must maintain the ledger's reserve requirement, a minimum XRP balance that cannot be spent below. New users are sometimes surprised that a freshly created wallet needs to receive at least the reserve amount before it becomes an active account at all.

Choosing a wallet

Relevant considerations include:

• Whether you need active trading convenience (favoring an exchange or hot wallet) versus long-term secure storage (favoring a hardware wallet).
• Whether the wallet natively supports XRPL-specific features you care about, such as trust lines, the DEX, or NFTs — not every general multi-chain wallet supports the full range of XRPL-native functionality equally well.
• Whether the wallet is open source and independently audited, versus closed-source.

See Popular Wallets for specific examples across these categories.