It’s everyone’s worst nightmare, you go to check your balance or make a transaction and realise that your hardware wallet is missing! You know that there is no authority or bank that can block your funds and prevent access to unwanted visitors, or provide backup access to your funds. You’re solely responsible for managing your assets and keeping them safe. So what do you do if you lose your hardware wallet?
It’s natural to start panicking with fear that the funds you have stacked up could potentially be gone forever. But fear not, all is not lost yet!
Here are a few steps you can take if you have lost your hardware wallet:
LOCATE YOUR RECOVERY PHRASE
If your hardware wallet breaks, is stolen or misplaced, your 12/24-word recovery phrase can be used to restore your assets. But if your recovery phrase is stolen or misplaced, there is no bank or institution to back you up or give you a replacement. And because of the secure nature and random mathematical sequences used to generate the private key, there’s no way you or anyone else can recover it, so you will lose access to your cryptocurrency. In other words, make sure you keep your recovery phrase safe and secure at all times! We recommend using the Billfodl.
If you have lost your hardware wallet but have access to your recovery phrase still, you can still access your assets following the below step.
GET YOURSELF A SECOND DEVICE & RESTORE YOUR ASSETS ON IT
To restore your assets, you’ll first need to get yourself a new device.
When setting up the new device, you’ll need to select the option to “restore from recovery phrase”. You’ll then be prompted to choose your pin code and enter your recovery phrase. Once you’ve done this, your assets from your old device will be restored onto your new device.
For a step-by-step guide on restoring a Ledger device from a recovery phrase, you can visit here. For Trezor, please visit here.
RECOVERY PHRASE MISSING TOO?
If you’ve lost both your device and recovery phrase, unfortunately, there is no way to gain access to your funds again. This is why it’s very important to keep your recovery phrase safe over anything else. We explain this in further detail in our blog post “Why Your Recovery Phrase Is The Most Important Thing To Keep Safe”.
BOOK A ONE-ON-ONE CONSULTATION WITH COINSTOP
If you’re struggling to gain access to your funds after losing your hardware wallet and would like further one-on-one support, Coinstop offers in-depth remote consultations. While we can’t guarantee that we can restore your funds (without knowing your exact situation), we can walk you through all the necessary steps in order to try. You can book a consultation with us here.
We pray to the crypto gods that you are never in the position where you lose your hardware wallet! But if you do happen to, the above guide is a good place to start when trying to recover your funds. And if you need any further assistance, please reach out to us!