Self-Custody Crypto Wallet: You Hold the Keys

What self-custody actually means here

In self-custody mode, HyperPay generates and stores your private keys locally on your device. No copy is held on HyperPay's servers, which means no employee, support agent or court order can move your funds — and equally, that nobody can restore them for you if you lose your recovery phrase. That trade is the entire substance of self-custody.

The implementation follows the standards the rest of the industry uses: BIP32 for hierarchical deterministic key derivation, BIP39 for the human-readable recovery phrase, and BIP44/BIP45 for account and multi-signature derivation paths. Standards compliance matters because it means your recovery phrase is portable — if you ever stop using HyperPay, the same phrase restores your accounts in any other standards-compliant wallet.

Two custody modes in one account

Most wallets force a single answer. Pure self-custody products treat any custodial option as a compromise; exchange-style products never let you hold keys at all. HyperPay runs both modes inside one account, so the decision can be made per balance rather than once for everything you own.

A common pattern looks like this: long-term holdings sit in self-custody, ideally behind a hardware wallet; the spending balance that funds the HyperCard crypto card sits custodially, because losing a phone should not mean losing grocery money; and savings earmarked for staking sit wherever the product terms require. None of that involves a second application or a migration.

Backing up your recovery phrase

The single largest cause of permanent crypto loss is not hacking — it is people losing access to their own backup. If you use self-custody mode, treat the recovery phrase as the asset itself, because functionally it is.

• Write the phrase on paper or metal; do not photograph it or store it in a notes app or cloud drive.
• Keep at least two copies in physically separate locations you control.
• Never type the phrase into a website, support chat, or any app other than a wallet you are actively restoring.

Hardware wallet support

For balances where device compromise is the concern, self-custody mode pairs with HyperPay's hardware wallets. HyperMate is a Bluetooth-connected device that signs transactions offline so keys never touch an internet-connected machine. Sealer2100, the limited-edition flagship, uses iris recognition and fully offline QR-based signing, and is the one part of the HyperPay stack whose full codebase is open source under Apache 2.0 and independently audited by CertiK and Kudelski Labs.

Using hardware does not change the custody model — you still hold the keys — but it moves signing off a general-purpose device that also runs a browser and email. Details are on the HyperMate page.

Where this fits

Custody is the first decision; the HyperPay crypto wallet overview covers what the rest of the app does once that choice is made.

Both modes live in the same app, so download HyperPay and choose your mode during setup. Self-custody does not cost you spending: the same account can fund a card balance on demand, and our guide to living on crypto shows how people split savings, buffer and spending across the two modes. New to the idea? Start with our guide to what a self-custody crypto wallet is, or see how the dual model differs from a keys-only app in HyperPay vs. Trust Wallet.