Deleted wallets

[normanhot]

hello guys

what happened if someone deletes his wallet or closes his account while he has Bitcoin?

where are all these coins go?

i has few ETHs and some BSC and bitcoin and closed my accounts ( no worries all less than 2$ )

what is gonna happen to them ?

[Hazink]

What wallet are you talking about, and what account are you also referring to? Both phrases are supposed to be used differently.
 
If it’s for a wallet, which you are supposed to have a private key or phrase to, as long as you have them, you can still access the wallet by reinstalling it and importing it back. If no way those coins will just remain in the wallet untouched unless someone else gain access to it if not they will forever remain unspent.
 
But if it’s for an exchange account that you request for account deletion, it’s only between you and the customer care to determine the safety of your coins. Unless what you did was just to uninstall the exchange app, which you can still install back using your login details and gain back access to the account.

[normanhot]

What wallet are you talking about, and what account are you also referring to? Both phrases are supposed to be used differently.
 
If it’s for a wallet, which you are supposed to have a private key or phrase to, as long as you have them, you can still access the wallet by reinstalling it and importing it back.
 
But if it’s for an exchange account that you request for account deletion, it’s only between you and the customer care to determine the safety of your coins. Unless what you did was just to uninstall the exchange app, which you can still install back using your login details and gain back access to the account.

Trust wallet and exodus wallet

[OmegaStarScream]

Trust wallet and exodus wallet

You didn't close the accounts, you just uninstalled those wallets from your device.

The funds are still there. If you recover your wallet a few years from now, using the seedphrase you were given when you first setup the wallet, you would see those 2$.

[hosemary]

Trust wallet and exodus wallet

Trustwallet and exodus are both non-custodial and that means that they give you access to your private keys and you have full control over your fund.
If you deleted your wallet from your device and don't have access to your private keys (or your seed phrase), your fund will remain untouched and will never be moved. If you have access to your private keys (or your seed phrase), you can import them and get access to your fund again and spend it.

Take note that your bitcoin is in the blockchain and not in your wallet.

[Hazink]

Trust wallet and exodus wallet

If you have created a wallet with them already, it's impossible to delete it. You can only delete the app; your phrase that was given to you is the wallet, and you can import it back anytime and get your coins back... and until you spend them, those coins will just be in that place; nothing will happen to it unless, like I said above, someone else helps you to spend them.

[OcTradism]

what happened if someone deletes his wallet or closes his account while he has Bitcoin?

where are all these coins go?

i has few ETHs and some BSC and bitcoin and closed my accounts ( no worries all less than 2$ )

what is gonna happen to them ?

Wallets and accounts are different.

You can have an account on an centralized exchange but if they're scammers, they don't credit any bitcoin to your account. Closing your account can be supported by exchange or can not be supported if they change their ToS for example to fulfill with KYC/ AML.

Wallets can be deleted but you can recover your wallets if you have private keys or mnemonic seeds of your wallets. If you did not make any backup, but delete your wallets, you lose your bitcoin forever.

How to back up a seed phrase?

[promise444c5]

Trust wallet and exodus wallet

You can't close your account if you're using a non custodial wallet, both Trust wallet and Exodus wallet are non-custodial wallet.. you will get a seed phrase from  opening a non-custodial wallet so there's nothing like closing such account. If you don't have anything on those wallet and you feel like "closing" then you can just delete or discard any form of seed phrase or any item you safe the seed phrase(which is not advisable as you might need it) and delete their app too.. but if you eventually find it again in the future you can still make use of it and still access your wallet.
It's worth knowing that Trust wallet and Exodus wallet are closed source i.e their code is  not available to the public

[Jewan420]

Trust wallet and exodus wallet

You should have the passphrase for the trust wallet using which you will be able to get your old wallet back. Or if you opened the wallet using passkey then you will have private key with which you can recover your wallet. Once you lose both the private key and the passphrase, it will be difficult for you to recover the wallet.

[Ojima-ojo]

You can't close a wallet that have seed phrase, as long and as far as it created on the Blockchain, there is no way to close such a wallet unless if you are talking about centralized exchange wallet, this one's you may have the option to close your account with the exchange and at that level you have to agree to they term's and conditions before closing account.


In some cases such exchange centralized accounts closer have no reversal features, once closed you have to forfeit all the fund's in that wallet.


But as for decentralized Bitcoin wallet like hot wallet and other custodial wallets, the wallet owner have access and control over the wallet, and as long as the wallet seed phrase is available such a wallet can be recovered at anytime.

[Zaguru12]

You should have the passphrase for the trust wallet using which you will be able to get your old wallet back. Or if you opened the wallet using passkey then you will have private key with which you can recover your wallet. Once you lose both the private key and the passphrase, it will be difficult for you to recover the wallet.

For clarity sake to other newbies what you’re referring to is a seed phrase and not a passphrase, a passphrase is actually additional word or words added to the seed phrase without it also you will be actually recovering the wrong wallet. Passphrase are optional to add to your seed phrase because they act like a second layer of security to your wallet.

The passkey too is not what Create the wallet it just add a security layer to the app and nothing more, someone with the private or seed phrase will easily access that wallet from another app that supports such wallet seed phrase without needing the passkey.

In some cases such exchange centralized accounts closer have no reversal features, once closed you have to forfeit all the fund's in that wallet.

It is worth mentioning that even on the centralized exchanges the exchanges are those that have access to the funds on that deleted account addresses. Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies are store permanently on the blockchain and can never be deleted

[Mia Chloe]

Depends to what type of wallet you are referring to. First and foremost to be clear you can't close a bitcoin wallet. It's not like some bank account or an exchange account that you can toggle over to settings and hit delete account NO it doesn't work like that in the case of bitcoin. Once you create a wallet it can't be undone the worst you could do is lose the wallet by getting rid of the seed phrase and private keys. If there are funds in it you have actually burned them though in practical the funds need to be large to be able to actually burn some coins effectively.

Now if you are talking about your custodial wallets, it depends on their terms and conditions. Some will compel you to spend the funds before you can attempt closing while others won't. But if you use a regular open source wallet like ELECTRUM, all you can do is get rid of the keys like I said earlier.

[FatFork]

Depends to what type of wallet you are referring to.
<cut>

OP has already mentioned what kind of wallets we are talking about here.

Trust wallet and exodus wallet

It is common practice to read at least a few of the replies in a thread before replying. 

[PX-Z]

what is gonna happen to them ?

Nothing, you just lost them regardless how much the amount of that wallet, especially if you don't have backup the seed phrase of that wallet (exodus and trustwallet). If you have backup you can then import it on the same wallet on the other device you have.

[Findingnemo]

what is gonna happen to them ?

If you delete them nothing is lost as long as you have seeds or priv keys, you can import it on any device.

If you don't have the recovery seeds then the funds will be there forever, no one can asses them because the only way to access the funds that is stored in the block is via the private keys.

[ovcijisir]

OP it is important that you know that the funds are not stored on your device but on decentralised database. It also important that you know a little bit of theory behind Bitcoin it will make your life easier.

When creating new Trust wallet account it instructs you to make backup copy of your seed phrase. If you don't make a copy and delete the app you will lose access to your coins.

So to access your funds you will need seed phrase or private key. They are connected to your public address, and they allow you to send funds that are stored on your public address.

I hope it was clear, if need further explanation feel free to ask.

[hd49728]

When creating new Trust wallet account it instructs you to make backup copy of your seed phrase. If you don't make a copy and delete the app you will lose access to your coins.

Trust wallet is non custodial but it is closed source. A good wallet needs to be non-custodial and open-source, Trust wallet does not have both of these.

Best wallets
Choose your wallet with different filters for Beginners to Experienced Users.

So to access your funds you will need seed phrase or private key. They are connected to your public address, and they allow you to send funds that are stored on your public address.

You spend your bitcoin through private key that is required to sign your transaction. Public key and public address can not help you signing a transaction and spending your bitcoin. Private keys are mandatory to unlock your outputs and spend them.

Transactions (Learn me a Bitcoin).
Transactions (Mastering Bitcoin book).

[Samlucky O]

hello guys

what happened if someone deletes his wallet or closes his account while he has Bitcoin?

where are all these coins go?

i has few ETHs and some BSC and bitcoin and closed my accounts ( no worries all less than 2$ )

what is gonna happen to them ?

You don't delete wallet but can delete the wallet app, meanwhile everything is intact in that wallet. All you need to do is to import your seed phrase to be able to access your wallet once again. You can only be more confused if you deleted the wallet app without keeping your seed phrase safe. non custodial wallet e.g trust wallet, metamask and electrum wallet can only be recovered by keeping the seed phrase in a safe place to be able to used them to import your wallet again.

[tbct_mt2]

You don't delete wallet but can delete the wallet app, meanwhile everything is intact in that wallet. All you need to do is to import your seed phrase to be able to access your wallet once again. You can only be more confused if you deleted the wallet app without keeping your seed phrase safe. non custodial wallet e.g trust wallet, metamask and electrum wallet can only be recovered by keeping the seed phrase in a safe place to be able to used them to import your wallet again.

Before deleting/ uninstalling a wallet on a device, you must be very sure that you already make wallet backups, not only one but several back ups. It is not enough if you stop there, because you have to test that you can recover your wallet with backups you have. Make sure through testing, your recovery result shows that you succeed to recover a same wallet on your device.

If backups done, wallet recovery test result is good, you can delete that wallet in your device.

Lastly make sure you store your multiple wallet backups safely so that you can have good ones for wallet recovery later.

Deleting your wallet or not, if you lose your private key or mnemonic seed, and don't have backups, you will lose your bitcoin.

Not Your Keys, Not Your Coins.
Bitcoin Q&A: Not your Keys, Not your Coins.

[hosemary]

Deleting your wallet or not, if you lose your private key or mnemonic seed, and don't have backups, you will lose your bitcoin.

This is not accurate.
If you still have your wallet on your device, you can have access to your bitcoin and spend it without any need to your backup. You will need your backup when you want to recover your wallet.