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Personal wallet or exchange platform

Custody by a provider or holding your own keys: two ways to hold crypto-assets.

Crypto on a platform

On an exchange or with a broker, the provider holds the crypto-assets for you (custodial holding): you have an account, not the keys. The security and availability of your holdings then depend on that provider.

Attention

Check that the platform is authorised to offer its services in France and that it is not on the AMF blacklists cited at the bottom of this guide.

Crypto in a personal wallet

With a personal wallet (software or hardware), you hold the keys yourself (self-custody). No intermediary can block your funds, but losing the recovery phrase generally means losing the holdings for good.

Key takeaway

A wallet brand is not a financial institution: it is a tool, and the funds stay on the blockchain.

Moving between the two

Sending crypto-assets from a platform to your wallet (or the reverse) creates neither a gain nor a loss: it is a move from one container to another, like an internal transfer. Only any network fees reduce the quantity held.

In PortefeuilleZen

A "crypto" account at a platform or broker is added as an account at that institution. A personal wallet is added as a wallet, tracked read-only through its public addresses. Both are added up in your wealth, without double counting.