Hot Wallet

A hot wallet is any wallet whose private keys are held on a device that is connected to the internet, such as a browser extension, a mobile app or an exchange's operational balance. The connection is the whole point, because signing a transaction takes seconds and no separate device is needed, and it is also the whole risk, since malware, a malicious page or a stolen phone can reach the keys. The usual discipline is to treat a hot wallet as a spending account: keep only what you would accept losing, review token approvals periodically, and move long-term holdings to keys that were generated and stay offline. Exchanges apply the same split, holding most customer assets in cold storage.