What if my hardware wallet breaks or the company shuts down?
Neither loses your coins. The device is a lock, the phrase is the key, and the key works in other locks.
A hardware wallet holds a key and refuses to reveal it. If the device is lost, broken or stolen, the recovery phrase you wrote down when you set it up restores the same wallet — on a replacement device, or in ordinary wallet software.
The same is true if the manufacturer disappears. Recovery phrases follow a common standard, so a phrase from one brand generally restores in another, and in several open-source wallets that no company controls.
Two things to be careful about. Restoring into software on an infected computer defeats the point of having had a device at all. And a "recovery service" advertising itself to people with broken devices is the standard shape of a phrase-theft scam.
What actually matters is that the phrase was written down at setup and has been tested once. The device is replaceable; that piece of paper is not.
Choosing a device covers what differs between them.
Last checked 19 Oct 2026.