How to Set Up a Ledger Wallet: Complete Beginner Guide

A hardware wallet keeps your private keys on a device that never connects to the internet. Transactions are signed on the device and only the signature reaches your computer, so malware on the computer cannot reach the keys.

That is the whole benefit, and it holds only if the setup is done correctly. This guide covers initialisation, the recovery phrase, apps and accounts, and the risks that apply specifically to a device arriving in the post.

Before you open the box

Buy direct

Order from ledger.com or an authorised reseller. Never from a marketplace listing, never second-hand, never from an auction site — regardless of how good the price is or how convincing the seller's history looks.

The attack is simple and it works: someone initialises a device, records the recovery phrase, repackages it, and sells it. The buyer sets it up, funds it, and the seller empties it whenever they choose. A device that appears sealed proves nothing, because seals are reproducible.

A genuine device is never pre-configured

A new Ledger has no recovery phrase until you generate one during setup. If the box contains a card with words already written on it, or the device asks you to enter a phrase someone supplied, it is compromised. Stop and contact Ledger.

This is worth internalising because the fake version is designed to look helpful: a printed card with "your recovery phrase" and instructions to keep it safe. Real setup never works that way.

Initialising the device

Install Ledger Live from ledger.com only. Then:

• Connect the device and select Set up as new device
• Choose a PIN of four to eight digits — longer is meaningfully better, and it is entered on the device rather than the computer
• The device generates and displays a 24-word recovery phrase
• Write the words down, in order, on the card supplied
• Confirm the phrase on the device when asked

Ledger Live then runs a genuine-device check that verifies the hardware is authentic. It is quick and worth doing, though it does not detect a device that was initialised before it reached you — which is why buying direct matters more than any check afterwards.

The PIN

Three wrong attempts wipes the device. That is a feature: a stolen Ledger is useless without the PIN, and the wipe stops someone working through guesses.

A wiped device is recoverable with the recovery phrase, so the PIN protects against physical theft while the phrase protects against everything else. Do not use a birthday or a repeated digit.

The recovery phrase

Twenty-four words, displayed on the device screen and never on your computer. That separation is deliberate — the phrase should never touch an internet-connected machine at any point in its life.

• Write it on the supplied cards. Two copies, two separate locations.
• Never photograph or type it. Not into a password manager, not into a file, not into Ledger Live.
• Ledger Live never asks for it. Any software prompt requesting those words is an attack, without exception.
• Consider a metal backup for a balance you intend to hold for years. Paper does not survive water or fire.

Why the phrase matters more than the device

The Ledger is replaceable. Lose it, break it, drop it in water — buy another, enter the phrase, and every account returns. The phrase is the wallet; the device is just a safe way to use it.

Ledger and the 2020 breach

In 2020 Ledger's customer database was breached, exposing names, email addresses, phone numbers and in many cases postal addresses. The keys were never at risk — that data lived on a marketing system, not on any device.

The consequence is ongoing and worth knowing about. Ledger owners are a known list, and they receive convincing phishing: emails about a security incident, SMS about a delivery, and occasionally physical letters with a QR code. All of it leads to a page requesting the recovery phrase.

The rule that defeats every version of it: the phrase is entered on the device, never anywhere else. No update, no verification, no migration, no support process ever requires typing it.

Apps and accounts

Ledger devices have limited storage and hold a handful of apps at a time. Each blockchain needs its own app — Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana — installed through Ledger Live.

Removing an app does not affect your coins. The accounts live on the blockchain and the keys derive from your recovery phrase; the app is only the software needed to interact with that chain. Install and remove freely as your holdings change.

Adding accounts

Open the relevant app on the device, then add the account in Ledger Live. It scans the blockchain for addresses derived from your phrase and imports the balances. Nothing is stored in Ledger Live that could not be rebuilt from the device.

Using Ledger with MetaMask

You can keep the interface you already know and move the keys onto hardware. In MetaMask, choose to connect a hardware wallet, select Ledger, and pick an account.

From then on every transaction requires physical confirmation on the device. Malware can propose a transaction; it cannot approve one. This is the practical combination most people end up with — MetaMask for the applications, Ledger for the keys.

Read the device screen

The device shows the transaction details on its own display, and that display is the one to trust. A compromised computer can show you one destination address while sending another to the device. Checking the address on the small screen is the entire point of owning the hardware.

When hardware is worth it

A hardware wallet costs money and adds friction. The threshold most people settle on is straightforward: once your balance is more than you would be relaxed about losing to a single bad approval or a compromised machine, the device costs less than the risk.

Ledger Live rates 9.2/10 in our wallet rankings, the highest score in the list, with the trade-off being cost and the extra step in every transaction.

Next steps

Many people run both: a software wallet for day-to-day activity and a Ledger for long-term holdings. Our MetaMask guide covers the software side, and risk management covers how to think about splitting funds between them.