Paper wallets were the cold storage of Bitcoin's early years. From about 2011 to 2017, sites like BitAddress let you generate a key on your own computer and print it out, with an address to receive coins on one side and a private key to spend them on the other.
If you've found one in a drawer, the coins are probably still there. Bitcoin keys don't expire, and the paper doesn't need the site that made it. What you need is a safe way to move the coins into a wallet you use today. This guide shows you how, and what to do if the key is encrypted, damaged or only half there.
First, work out what's printed on it
Most paper wallets show two strings, often with a QR code for each. The first character tells you what you're looking at:
- Starts with 1 or 3: the Bitcoin address, where coins were sent. It's public and safe to share.
- Starts with 5 (51 characters) or K or L (52 characters): the private key, which spends the coins. Never share it or type it into a website.
- Starts with 6P (58 characters): a BIP38 encrypted private key. It spends the coins too, but only with its password.
If your paper shows 12 or 24 words instead, it's a recovery phrase, not a paper wallet. Our guide to 24-word recovery phrases covers those. If you have a string that doesn't fit the table, our guide to identifying a long crypto string helps you tell what it is.
Step 1: Check the balance
Type or scan the address (not the private key) into a block explorer such as mempool.space. You'll see the current balance and every transaction the address has made. That's completely safe, because an address can only receive coins.
Do this before anything else. It tells you whether there's anything to recover, and it gives you a number to check against once you've swept the wallet.
Step 2: Sweep the coins into a wallet you control
To get the coins off a paper wallet, you sweep it. Sweeping sends the whole balance from the paper wallet's key to a new address in a wallet you already use, in one transaction. Afterwards, the paper wallet is empty and the coins are protected by your new wallet's backup.
Avoid importing the key instead. Importing adds the old key to your wallet without moving the coins, so the paper keeps working as a spending key. Anyone who has seen the paper, or a photo of it, can still take the coins.
Before you sweep, set up the wallet you're sweeping into and write down its recovery phrase. Then use one of these:
Electrum (desktop)
- Open your Electrum wallet and go to Wallet > Private keys > Sweep.
- Type in or paste the private key (starting with 5, K or L).
- Check the destination address is one of your own, choose a fee and send.
Electrum doesn't accept BIP38 keys (starting with 6P). Use Sparrow for those, or decrypt the key first (Step 3).
Sparrow (desktop)
- Open the wallet you want to sweep into and go to Tools > Sweep Private Key.
- Enter the private key. Sparrow accepts plain keys and BIP38 keys, and asks for the password if the key starts with 6P.
- Choose a fee and send.
BlueWallet (phone)
BlueWallet can scan a paper wallet's QR code from its Import wallet screen, and it asks for the password if the key is BIP38 encrypted. It imports the key as its own wallet rather than sweeping it, so finish the job by sending the whole balance on to your main wallet.
Once the transaction confirms, check the explorer again: the paper wallet's address should show a zero balance. Keep the paper anyway. It's a record of where the coins came from, and you'll need the key again if you have Bitcoin Cash to claim (Step 4).
Step 3: If the key is BIP38 encrypted (starts with 6P)
From 2013, many paper wallet generators offered BIP38 encryption: the private key is locked with a password, so the paper alone can't spend the coins.
If you know the password, sweep the key with Sparrow or BlueWallet as above, and enter the password when you're asked. You can also decrypt it with BitAddress's Wallet Details tab, which turns the 6P key back into a plain key starting with 5, K or L. Only do that with a copy of BitAddress downloaded from its official GitHub page and opened on a computer that's offline, never on the live website.
If you've forgotten the password, the encrypted key is still worth keeping. BIP38 has no reset and no backup phrase, so the only way in is to find the password. BIP38 was designed to make each password guess slow to test, which makes random guessing hopeless. What does work is starting from what you remember: the passwords you used at the time, how you built them, and the variations you might have made. That's the kind of recovery we do (see below).
Step 4: Claim any Bitcoin Cash
If the coins were on the paper wallet before 1 August 2017, the same key also controls an equal amount of Bitcoin Cash (BCH), created when the Bitcoin network split that day. Coins held through later splits can have more, such as Bitcoin SV from November 2018.
Sweep your Bitcoin first. Then sweep the same key in a wallet that supports the other coin, such as Electron Cash for Bitcoin Cash. Doing it in that order means the Bitcoin is already safe if anything goes wrong.
If the balance is lower than you expected
There are three usual reasons:
- The coins were spent and the change went elsewhere. If you ever imported the key into a wallet like Blockchain.info and spent part of the balance, the rest often went to a new change address in that wallet, not back to the paper. Look at the explorer: if there's an outgoing transaction you made, find the wallet you used then. Our guide to finding an old Bitcoin wallet can help.
- You're looking at the wrong address. Some generators printed more than one address, or you may have several paper wallets. Check each address you have.
- The generator was compromised. Researchers found that some paper wallets made on WalletGenerator.net from 2018 used weak keys, and research reported by CoinDesk tied BitcoinPaperWallet.com to coins going missing from its wallets. If yours came from either site and still has a balance, sweep it now.
If the key is damaged, faded or incomplete
Ink fades, paper gets wet, and handwritten copies pick up mistakes. A key with a few unreadable or missing characters can often still be rebuilt.
Private keys use an alphabet called Base58: the digits 1 to 9 and the upper and lowercase letters, minus uppercase O, uppercase I and lowercase l. So if a character looks like a zero or a capital O, it's most likely a lowercase o, and if it looks like a capital I or a lowercase l, it's most likely a 1, an i or a capital L.
Plain keys (starting with 5, K or L) also carry a built-in checksum. That means software can try the possible characters in the unreadable positions and know when it's rebuilt the right key, without checking the blockchain each time. A few unknown characters, or one missing character in an unknown position, is a practical search. Half a key isn't: if you split your key into two halves and lost one, there are far too many possibilities to search today. Keep the half you have somewhere safe.
If you've only lost track of which characters are which, try the obvious alternatives first. Sweep the key as you read it, and if the wallet says it's invalid, try the next most likely reading. If that doesn't work, a search can test them all.
Get help recovering your paper wallet
Crypto Asset Recovery recovers forgotten BIP38 passwords and rebuilds damaged paper wallet keys, working on offline, air-gapped machines. You only pay if we succeed.
- Forgotten BIP38 password. You send the 6P key and what you remember about the password. We turn your guesses into the variations you might have used and test them offline. An encrypted key can't move coins without its password, but once we find the password, it can. So only send it to a service you've verified, never to anyone who contacts you first.
- Damaged or incomplete key. You send the characters you can read and mark the ones you can't. A partial plain key is sensitive: if the search succeeds, whoever ran it has the key. That's why it matters who you work with.
Why Choose Crypto Asset Recovery?
- Secure, offline recovery. Your encrypted key or partial key comes to us over the internet, but the search runs on offline, air-gapped machines.
- Thousands of wallets recovered, from paper wallets and Bitcoin Core files to Blockchain.com, MetaMask and Trust Wallet.
- Success-based pricing. You only pay if we get you back in.
- Talk to a real person. We're a registered New Hampshire company, and you can get on a Zoom with our founders, the father-and-son team Chris and Charles.
- Featured in BBC, Forbes, Vice, The Block, and Business Insider.
Frequently asked questions
How do I get Bitcoin off a paper wallet? Sweep the private key into a wallet you control. In Electrum, go to Wallet > Private keys > Sweep; in Sparrow, Tools > Sweep Private Key. Sweeping moves the whole balance to your new wallet in one transaction.
What's the difference between sweeping and importing a paper wallet? Sweeping moves the coins to a new address in your wallet, so the paper key is empty afterwards. Importing adds the old key to your wallet and leaves the coins where they are, so anyone who has seen the paper can still spend them. Sweep unless you have a specific reason not to.
Does an old paper wallet still work? Yes. A paper wallet is just a private key, and Bitcoin keys don't expire. You don't need the site that made it. Any wallet that can sweep a private key will work.
How do I know if my paper wallet is encrypted? An encrypted BIP38 key starts with 6P and is 58 characters long. Plain keys start with 5, K or L. If yours starts with 6P, you need its password to spend the coins.
What if I forgot my BIP38 password? There's no reset, so the only way in is to find the password. Write down every password and pattern you used around the time you made the wallet, then try the likeliest ones in Sparrow. If none work, a professional search can test thousands of variations of your guesses.
Is it safe to type my private key into a website? No. Anything you type into a website could be captured. Sweep the key in a wallet app on your own device, and only use a tool like BitAddress as a downloaded copy on an offline computer.
Do paper wallets have a recovery phrase? No. A classic paper wallet holds a single private key with no 12- or 24-word phrase behind it. The paper (or a copy of it) is the only backup.
