Safely Importing Private Key from Old Paper Wallet in 2025

[djmcg]

Hi everyone 👋

I hope you're all doing well. I’m looking for some guidance on securely importing a private key from an old paper wallet - legacy address.

How to transfer BTC to a modern wallet — ideally one that uses a seed phrase, like a Ledger device.

My main concern is minimizing the risk of key exposure during the import process. I’ve read mixed opinions about using Android apps (like Trust Wallet or Electrum Mobile) versus hardware wallets connected to a PC.

Here are my questions:

What’s the safest way to import a private key from a paper wallet ?

Is it better to use a mobile app Android , or should I go straight to PC ?

Are there any best practices I should follow to avoid leaking the private key during the process of transfer?

Any advice, tips, or links to trusted guides would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance for your help!

[OmegaStarScream]

Connect your Ledger with Electrum wallet (on desktop) and then follow this guide to sweep the funds (this would basically send the funds from the old paper wallet, to your ledger wallet) as opposed to "importing" which is not possible to do on hardware wallets (for obvious security reasons).

I would just make sure the machine you're using is clean, in case you have a malware that would capture the private keys and spend them before you send them to your ledger device.

[1] https://bitcoinelectrum.com/sweeping-your-private-keys-into-electrum/

[_act_]

Make your laptop airgapped and install Electrum on it. After you have done that, you can read this to be able to sign transactions on offline.

You can not make Android devices to become airgapped, using a PC that you have removed the Bluetooth and WiFi is the best and most secure but if you have no option than to use Android, format the device, install Electrum and put of your data network, WiFi and also put your phone on airplane mode. Also make sure that Bluetooth and other connections are all off.

Before you turn your device online back or before you on everything that you off, make sure that you have imported the private key and have sent the bitcoin to your hardware wallet.