Cold storage
cold wallet
Cryptographic key storage with no live network connection — the gold standard for long-term reserve safekeeping.
Hardware security modules (HSMs), air-gapped signing devices, and geographic-distributed multisig signer setups are all cold-storage variants. Stablecoin issuers and large custodians keep the majority of reserves in cold storage with smaller hot-wallet floats for daily operations.
Related terms
- Hot walletAn online, network-connected wallet — used for liquid operations but with elevated theft risk vs. cold storage.
- MPC (multi-party computation)A cryptographic scheme letting multiple parties compute a signature without any one of them holding the full private key.
- Custody riskThe risk a custodian (bank, exchange, qualified custodian) loses, mismanages, or is denied access to reserves it holds.