Custody Blueprint

How to choose a cold wallet, how to arrange it, how to keep it running, and how to end it properly. These four figures are the thinking we actually use when we help someone set one up.

None of this ranks products. The same device can be safe or fragile depending on how it is set up and run — that gap is what these are about.

Custody Blueprint 01 Ten steps

Set up

  1. Choose Match the use and the holdings
  2. Buy Through an authorised channel
  3. Initialise Generate the key yourself

Operate This part repeats

  1. Use Verify before every signature
  2. Back up Test that it actually restores
  3. Update Check the official source first

Retire

  1. Replace Have the next device ready
  2. Migrate Move every asset out
  3. Wipe Erase the device itself
  4. Dispose Keep the record of it

Commonly covered Where design makes the difference

Custody Blueprint 02 Five layers
  1. DeFi Weekly

    Where approvals are signed. Contain the damage here

    5%
  2. Everyday Weekly to monthly

    Small transfers and test sends

    10%
  3. Secondary Every few months

    What you expect to move within the year

    25%
  4. Long-term A few times a year

    The bulk of the holdings. Left alone

    60%
  5. Escape Never, until it matters

    Kept empty. You cannot move to a wallet you have not made

    Empty

The bar is roughly how much sits in each layer. Reading down, you touch it less and hold more — that is the whole point. A layer you open every week should never be the one holding the balance.

Custody Blueprint 03 Which setup fits
  1. Single device Small holdings Rarely moved Individual

    One device ＋ one metal backup

    Move on when: the balance grows, or you start approving contracts

  2. Two layers Medium holdings Moved monthly Individual

    Long-term device ＋ everyday device

    Move on when: you use DeFi routinely, or someone else must be able to take over

  3. Three layers Any size DeFi routinely Individual

    Long-term ＋ everyday ＋ a device only for approvals

    Move on when: more than one person needs to sign

  4. Company, small team Medium holdings A few times a month 2–3 people

    2-of-3 multisig, or two devices with a written approval record

    Move on when: signing becomes weekly, or an auditor asks for the trail

  5. Company, treasury scale Large holdings Signs often Company

    MPC, or multisig with internal controls around it

    Before you move on: price the setup fee, the monthly cost and the admin load. They are the real decision

The axes are deliberately only three — size, how often it moves, and whether one person or several. In practice those decide it. Nothing here is a ranking: a larger setup run badly is worse than a small one run well.

Custody Blueprint 04 What each approach costs
Hardware only One device does the whole job
Up frontOne device
MonthlyNone
To signOne person
To recoverThe seed phrase
Admin loadLight
FitsIndividuals to small companies
What stays riskyOne person and one seed. Loss or inheritance stops it
Multisig Several keys, some of them required
Up frontTwo or three devices
MonthlyNone to small
To signn of m
To recoverEach seed ＋ the wallet configuration
Admin loadModerate
FitsSmall to mid-sized companies
What stays riskyLose the configuration and the seeds alone will not restore it. Chain support varies
MPC The signature itself is split
Up frontA setup fee, quoted
MonthlyYes
To signWhatever the policy says
To recoverThe vendor's own procedure
Admin loadModerate to heavy
FitsMid-sized and up, signing often
What stays riskyYou depend on the vendor and their service. If it stops, you cannot sign

MPC is a sound design, and for a treasury that signs daily it earns its cost. It is not automatically the better answer: below a certain size, hardware devices combined well are easier to actually run. Price the monthly cost and the admin load before the technology.

Not sure which of these fits you? Tell us the size, how often it moves and who has to sign. We will suggest a setup — devices, backup and the rules around them.

Ask about your own setup