About on-curve and off-curve addresses on Solana

  • Updated

You might come across an address on a block explorer like Solscan that says isOnCurve: FALSE. This usually happens when you’re looking at a token mint, staking account, or program address. It’s normal and not an error.

Solana uses two types of addresses: on-curve and off-curve. On-curve addresses belong to people or wallets like Phantom. Off-curve addresses belong to programs that manage tokens or actions onchain, such as staking, minting, or distributing rewards.

What on-curve means

An on-curve address is a standard wallet address. It belongs to a person or entity that controls a private key, which allows them to send or sign transactions.

Every Phantom wallet and account is on-curve. You can send and receive assets, connect to apps, and approve transactions from it.

on-curve.png
A regular Solana address viewed on Solscan

What off-curve means

An off-curve address does not have a private key. It’s controlled by a Solana program rather than a person.
You can think of it as a program account that performs specific onchain actions automatically, such as:

  • Managing staked tokens
  • Holding escrowed funds in a smart contract
  • Collecting fees or rewards for a protocol

Off-curve addresses can hold tokens, but only the program that created them can move those tokens.

off-curve.png
A token update authority address viewed on Solscan

You may see isOnCurve: FALSE when viewing certain app or protocol addresses. This is expected. It simply means the address belongs to a program account, not a user wallet.

You don’t need to do anything. These addresses are part of how Solana apps manage assets safely.

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