Is Coinbase a hot or cold wallet?

The simplest description of a cold wallet is a wallet that is not connected to the internet and therefore stands a far lesser risk of being compromised. These wallets can also be referred to as offline wallets or hardware wallets.

Coinbase wallet is a digital wallet, which uses hot storage for cryptocurrencies. This means the Coinbase wallet is a hot crypto wallet . Based on the features of hot wallets in the crypto space, Coinbase wallet stores the majority of the crypto coins online.

A hot wallet is connected to the internet and could be vulnerable to online attacks — which could lead to stolen funds — but it’s faster and makes it easier to trade or spend crypto. A cold wallet is typically not connected to the internet, so while it may be more secure, it’s less convenient.

The bitcoins you move to cold storage are not transferred anywhere , they are still only used as transactions on the blockchain when they are moved there. Cold wallets, or hot wallets, contain only the keys that allow you to “spend” coins on the blockchain.