Phantom organizes your assets into three levels: a wallet contains accounts, and each account contains addresses across supported networks.
- A wallet is the top-level container, backed by your recovery credentials.
- An account is a set of addresses across all supported networks.
- An address is a unique public identifier on a blockchain network, such as Solana or Ethereum.
Wallet
A wallet is the top-level container for your assets. It's backed up by a Secret Recovery Phrase, even when you create a wallet with a Google or Apple account. If you import other recovery phrases or private keys into Phantom, all of them collectively form your wallet.
Account
An account is a set of addresses on each supported blockchain. Every wallet starts with one account, but you can create more for different purposes: long-term holdings, daily activity, collectibles, or airdrops.
Because Phantom is a multi-chain wallet, each account automatically includes addresses on all supported networks. You don't need to create separate accounts for each network.
Not all accounts come from the same place. Some are derived from your wallet's recovery phrase, while others are added separately and have their own credentials:
- Accounts created from your wallet's Secret Recovery Phrase, whether your wallet was created with a Google or Apple account or with a recovery phrase directly
- Accounts from an imported recovery phrase from another wallet
- Accounts from an imported private key (a single address on one network)
- Accounts from a connected Ledger hardware wallet
- Watch-only accounts (view balances and activity, but can't sign transactions)
Each source has its own backup. If you reset Phantom and restore using only your main recovery phrase or Google or Apple account, accounts from other sources don't come back automatically. Keep a record of every recovery phrase, private key, or hardware wallet you add.
Address
An address is a unique public string of characters that identifies where assets can be sent or received on a blockchain, similar to a bank account number. Different networks use different address formats:
- Solana addresses look different from Ethereum addresses.
- EVM networks (Ethereum, Base, Polygon, Monad, HyperEVM) share the same address format, but the network still matters: ETH on Ethereum isn't the same as ETH on Base.
Importing other wallets
You can import wallets from other apps such as Solflare, MetaMask, or Backpack using a Secret Recovery Phrase. This restores the full wallet with all associated accounts across supported networks. You can also import a single address on one network using a private key.