{"id":8875,"date":"2026-06-16T19:10:24","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T17:10:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/paucitas.com\/?page_id=8875"},"modified":"2026-09-16T05:29:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T03:29:15","slug":"wallet","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/paucitas.com\/en\/glossary\/tracing-transactions\/wallet\/","title":{"rendered":"Wallet"},"content":{"rendered":"<style>.pterm{max-width:880px;margin:0 auto;font-family:inherit;padding-top:30px;}.pterm-hero{background:linear-gradient(135deg,#1a1a2e,#2d2d4a);border-radius:18px;padding:30px 34px;margin-bottom:28px;display:flex;align-items:center;gap:18px;flex-wrap:wrap;}.pterm-hero .ph-ico{width:56px;height:56px;border-radius:13px;background:rgba(245,135,31,.16);display:flex;align-items:center;justify-content:center;flex-shrink:0;}.pterm-hero h1{color:#fff;font-size:1.9em;margin:0;line-height:1.2;}.pterm-block{margin-bottom:24px;}.pterm-block h2{color:#1a1a2e;font-size:1.25em;margin:0 0 10px;}.pterm-def{background:#fff;border-left:4px solid #f5871f;border-radius:0 12px 12px 0;padding:18px 22px;color:#444;line-height:1.7;box-shadow:0 2px 10px rgba(0,0,0,.04);}.pterm-p{color:#444;line-height:1.7;margin:0 0 14px;}.pterm-ex{background:#fff7ef;border-radius:12px;padding:18px 22px;color:#5a4630;line-height:1.7;}.pterm-ex .lbl{display:inline-block;font-size:.72em;font-weight:700;letter-spacing:.08em;text-transform:uppercase;color:#f5871f;margin-bottom:6px;}.pterm-see{background:#f7f7fb;border-radius:12px;padding:16px 22px;color:#444;line-height:1.7;}.pterm-see .lbl{display:inline-block;font-size:.72em;font-weight:700;letter-spacing:.08em;text-transform:uppercase;color:#9a9aae;margin-bottom:6px;}.pterm-see a{color:#f5871f;font-weight:600;text-decoration:none;}.pterm a{color:#f5871f;font-weight:600;text-decoration:none;}<\/style>\n<p><a class=\"pterm-back\" style=\"display: inline-flex; align-items: center; gap: 8px; margin: 0 0 18px; padding: 9px 16px; background: #fff7ee; border: 1px solid #f3d9b8; border-radius: 999px; color: #e08a1e; font-weight: 600; text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/paucitas.com\/en\/glossary\/tracing-transactions\/\"><span style=\"font-size: 18px; line-height: 1;\">\u2190<\/span>Back to Tracing transactions<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"pterm\">\n<div class=\"pterm-hero\">\n<div class=\"ph-ico\"><\/div>\n<h1>Wallet<\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"pterm-block\">\n<div class=\"pterm-def\">\n<p class=\"pterm-p\">A wallet is the digital environment someone uses to store, receive and send crypto. A wallet has a public address that is visible on the blockchain; access runs through keys that the owner controls. On its own, a wallet says nothing about who is behind it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"pterm-block\">\n<h2>What it may indicate<\/h2>\n<p class=\"pterm-p\">An address that keeps coming back in an investigation can be a lead, but it need not mean anything. Sometimes a wallet belongs to a service, sometimes to a person. What an address really represents only emerges from following the transactions around it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"pterm-block\">\n<div class=\"pterm-ex\">To map a flow of funds, the wallet from which an amount departed is examined. By following the incoming and outgoing transactions, a picture of the route forms. That picture can give direction, but interpretation only follows after investigation.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"pterm-block\">\n<h2>What is a crypto wallet?<\/h2>\n<p class=\"pterm-p\">A wallet is the digital environment used to store and send crypto. It comes with a public address that is visible on the blockchain.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"pterm-block\">\n<h2>Does a wallet reveal who owns it?<\/h2>\n<p class=\"pterm-p\">Not by itself. An address is visible, but who is behind it only emerges from following the surrounding transactions in context.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"pterm-block\">\n<h2>Can someone see who you are from your wallet?<\/h2>\n<p class=\"pterm-p\">Not from the address itself. A combination of data, for instance a payment to or from a registered platform, can create a link to a person. Only the platform or an authorised body can take that step.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"pterm-block\">\n<h2>How many addresses belong to one wallet?<\/h2>\n<p class=\"pterm-p\">That differs per application. Some wallets work with a single address, others create a new address for every receipt. For an investigation that matters, because several addresses can belong to the same user.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"pterm-block\">\n<h2>What do you record about a wallet in a report?<\/h2>\n<p class=\"pterm-p\">The addresses attributed to the wallet, the grounds for that attribution, the transactions involved with their hash, and the moments where the behaviour changes. Assumptions are listed separately.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"pterm-block\">\n<h2>What a wallet does and does not prove<\/h2>\n<p class=\"pterm-p\">In a file the practical question is who could sign, not who is named somewhere. With a hosted account the keys sit with a provider, so the customer record, the login history and the withdrawal instructions live in that provider&#8217;s administration and can only be obtained through a formal route. With self-custody the holder keeps the keys, so control has to be shown in another way, for example through a signed message, a matching device or a consistent pattern of use over time. Those two situations lead to completely different requests for information.<\/p>\n<p class=\"pterm-p\">A second point is that one holder usually controls many addresses at once. Change addresses, separate addresses per asset and old backups all belong to the same person, which is why we describe a set of addresses and the reason they belong together rather than pointing at a single line. We never ask anyone for a seed phrase or private key in order to establish this, because control can be demonstrated without handing over the means to spend the balance. What goes into the report is the address set, the period and the evidence for the link.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"pterm-block\">\n<div class=\"pterm-src\" style=\"background: #f4f6fb; border-radius: 12px; padding: 18px 22px; color: #3a4152; line-height: 1.7;\"><span class=\"lbl\" style=\"display: inline-block; font-size: .72em; font-weight: bold; letter-spacing: .08em; text-transform: uppercase; color: #5a6b8c;\">External source<\/span><span style=\"display: block; margin-top: 8px;\">The FCA warns UK consumers that crypto is largely unregulated, that the value can fall sharply and that people who lose money are unlikely to be protected by the compensation schemes that cover regulated products. That is worth reading before you rely on a provider to hold a balance for you, because the choice between hosted and self-custody is also a choice about who carries the risk. See <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fca.org.uk\/investsmart\/crypto-basics\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">FCA: crypto basics<\/a>.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"pterm-see\">\n<p><span class=\"lbl\">See also<\/span><\/p>\n<div><a href=\"https:\/\/paucitas.com\/en\/glossary\/tracing-transactions\/seed-phrase\/\">Seed phrase<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/paucitas.com\/en\/glossary\/tracing-transactions\/tracing-crypto\/\">Tracing crypto<\/a>. A wallet is the starting point for following transactions.<\/div>\n<div style=\"margin-top:8px;\"><span class=\"lbl\">Frequently asked question<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/paucitas.com\/en\/questions\/partial-access-to-my-wallet-who-can-help\/\">I still have partial access to my wallet, who can look at it with me?<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><script type=\"application\/ld+json\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"DefinedTerm\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/paucitas.com\/en\/glossary\/tracing-transactions\/wallet\/#term\",\"name\":\"Wallet\",\"alternateName\":[\"crypto wallet\",\"blockchain wallet\",\"wallet address\"],\"description\":\"A wallet is the digital environment someone uses to store, receive and send crypto. A wallet has a public address that is visible on the blockchain; access runs through keys that the owner controls. 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An address is visible, but who is behind it only emerges from following the surrounding transactions in context.\"}}]},{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/paucitas.com\/en\/glossary\/tracing-transactions\/wallet\/#article\",\"headline\":\"Wallet\",\"description\":\"A wallet is the digital environment someone uses to store, receive and send crypto. A wallet has a public address that is visible on the blockchain; access runs through keys that the owner controls. On its own, a wallet says nothing about who is behind it.\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-16T19:10:24+02:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-09-16T05:29:15+02:00\",\"author\":{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/paucitas.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Paucitas B.V.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/paucitas.com\"},\"publisher\":{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/paucitas.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Paucitas B.V.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/paucitas.com\"},\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/paucitas.com\/en\/glossary\/tracing-transactions\/wallet\/\"},\"about\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/paucitas.com\/en\/glossary\/tracing-transactions\/wallet\/#term\"}}]}<\/script><\/p>\n<div class=\"pcb-related\" style=\"background: #FBF4EC; border-left: 4px solid #F59024; border-radius: 10px; padding: 16px 20px; margin: 28px 0;\"><strong style=\"color: #243029;\">Related topic<\/strong><br \/>\nRead how Paucitas applies this in practice on the page <a style=\"color: #f59024; font-weight: 600;\" href=\"https:\/\/paucitas.com\/en\/topics\/proving-the-origin-of-assets\/\">Mapping crypto assets<\/a>.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u2190Back to Tracing transactions Wallet A wallet is the digital environment someone uses to store, receive and send crypto. A wallet has a public address [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"parent":8859,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"disabled","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"default","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-8875","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paucitas.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8875","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/paucitas.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/paucitas.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paucitas.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paucitas.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8875"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/paucitas.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8875\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14340,"href":"https:\/\/paucitas.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8875\/revisions\/14340"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paucitas.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paucitas.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}