When you sign up for a cryptocurrency exchange and purchase coins, they are stored in a wallet that is generated by the exchange. This wallet is a custodial wallet - the exchange has complete control over it.

In other words, you’re trusting the exchange, a third party, to secure your funds and grant you access whenever you want to trade coins or send them somewhere else. Like the funds in your bank account, the coins in your crypto exchange account aren't held by you -- they're held by the exchange. The exchange can invest them, they can move and transfer these funds, and if the exchange runs into financial problems, they can use your funds to pay off their debts in the event they go bankrupt.

Although it’s rare, centralized exchanges have even been known to freeze users’ crypto, to prevent users from accessing or withdrawing their crypto, or even to block users entirely for a variety of reasons.

On the other hand, non-custodial wallets like Zelus give you complete control of the crypto you own. Only you have access to your wallet’s keys - this means that you are the only one with access to your funds.

So what does all of this mean? What it boils down to is that keeping your crypto in a non-custodial wallet like Zelus is a much safer and more reliable way to store your crypto. You don’t have to trust an exchange or any third party to keep your funds safe. As long as you keep your wallet and your recovery phrase safe, only you can access your coins. Nobody can freeze your funds, move them without your permission, or prevent you from accessing them.

Now that we’ve discussed the benefits of keeping your crypto in a non-custodial wallet like Zelus, in this section, we’re going to walk you through sending your crypto from a cryptocurrency exchange to your Zelus wallet.

In the screenshots below, we’ve used the Coinbase app as an example - but the overall process is very similar for almost any major cryptocurrency exchange. If you’re a Coinbase user, note that the process will look a little different between the mobile app and Coinbase website.

The first step of this process is to open your Coinbase account. Tap "Assets" on the bottom toolbar, and click the arrows facing opposite directions in the top right. This will prompt you with options to either send or receive crypto - for this example, we will be sending crypto from your exchange to our wallet.

After clicking “Send”, you will enter the amount of crypto you wish to transfer to your wallet:

You can now select the amount of crypto you wish to send, you will then enter the wallet address you wish to send it to. Zelus wallet conveniently has a “Copy address” button available through the toolbar at the bottom of the NFTs page.

Finally, after entering your wallet information, you will click “Send Now” to transfer the crypto.

Once the transfer completes you will be able to view your balance in your Zelus wallet. You can also select a cryptocurrency to view more information about that specific coin.

Once you have crypto in your Zelus wallet, it’s yours and yours alone. Nobody else can move your funds, freeze them, or prevent you from accessing them.

Once you’ve done this, we recommend that you take the next steps to keep your crypto extra-safe: