Setup A Hardware Wallet & Transfer Crypto/NFTs Using Trezor (One)


NFTexplained.info is a team of long term crypto investors who are well versed in this space. In this article we will provide a step by step guide to setting up a Trezor (one) hardware wallet and how to transfer NFTs and cryptocurrencies to your newly set up wallet. 

The process of sending NFTs in and out of is the same for all hardware wallets and can be found in the last two sections of our article.

Our team has set up the Trezor Model T before which requires a very similar process. We have also set up multiple Ledger products and are familiar with the way other vendor’s setup processes work. Before we begin, if you are looking to purchase a Trezor wallet, we will link their official site here

Let’s get into it. This is a relatively straightforward process however our team will explain every step to ensure it goes smoothly for you. 

1.Before opening your Trezor, make sure you have purchased it from a reliable website. When opening your new wallet, ensure the packaging of your Trezor has not been tampered with. There should be two anti tamper (silver/holographic) stickers on both sides of the box.  

2.Plug in your Trezor to your computer and head to trezor.io/start (double check the browser URL to ensure you are going to the correct website). This is where you will download their application to your computer. Hit ‘Install firmware’, once the firmware is downloaded and then unplug and replug your Trezor device. 

It is very important to confirm that you are using the correct site – trezor.io/start – as phishing attacks are possible on sites that are replicas of the Trezor site (who are attempting to steal your seed phrase).

3. Select ‘Create a new wallet’ if this is the first Trezor you are setting up or select ‘Recover wallet’ if you are backing up an existing wallet. Confirm your selection on your computer and physically on the Trezor. Then hit ‘Create backup’ on your computer.

It is important to note that if you were to lose your Trezor, your cryptocurrency and digital assets would still be safe provided that you retained your seed phrase. 

4. You will then be prompted to agree that (i) you will not show anyone your backup, (ii) take a photo or make a digital copy of your backup, and (iii) check your backup in device settings before sending money to the wallet. 

Trezor and other hardware wallets really reinforce this as the whole purpose of getting a hardware wallet is to ensure that you are keeping your private keys offline. Uploading your seed phrase to the cloud would defeat the purpose of investing in a hardware wallet.

Step (iii) “check your backup in device settings” refers to the fact that you need to correctly write down your seed phrase and store it safely.  

5.Select ‘begin backup’ and either write down your seed phrase on the two pieces of paper (we recommend using pencil as ink may fade) which are given to you. An even better option – that incurs an additional cost – would be recording the seed phrase on the indestructible titanium ‘Cryptotag Zeus’.

The ‘Cryptotag Zeus’ is another product from Trezor that ensures your seed phrase will never fade as titanium holes are punched. We will link that product here.

6. Select ‘Continue to PIN’ and then ‘Set PIN’, which you will confirm on both the physical device as well as your computer. Finally, select which blockchain networks you would like to store and then hit ‘Complete setup’. 

After this initial setup process is complete, we will walk you through how to send cryptocurrency from an existing crypto exchange to your new hardware wallet. We will also explain how to send NFTs to your hardware wallet. 

How To Send Crypto To A Hardware Wallet (Trezor) From A Crypto Exchange

NFTexplained.info will now walk you through the process of sending crypto from an exchange (such as Coinbase) to your new hardware wallet. We recommend you follow along, step-by-step. 

Once you have completed the steps above, and are fully set up, here is how to receive crypto. 

  1. Hit ‘Receive’ – you would be selecting Receive $ETH to get an Ethereum address or Receive $BTC to get a Bitcoin address. Each crypto has a specific address which will be needed in order for crypto to be sent. 
  2. Once you have selected the desired cryptocurrency you would like to receive, click ‘Show full address’ and ensure the address is the same on both your computer and hardware wallet. 
  3. Once the hardware wallet address is copied to your clipboard, go to the crypto exchange of your choice and send the currency to that specific currency address (i.e. send $ETH to your $ETH hardware address). 

How To Send NFTs To Your Hardware Wallet (Trezor)

In this section, we will be covering how to send an NFT from OpenSea to your hardware wallet

Login on OpenSea, go to your profile, click on the NFT you would like to transfer, hit ‘transfer’ (a paper plane looking icon underneath the blue, sell button), and then ‘send’. Ensure you are pasting your Ethereum-based hardware address for Ethereum-based NFTs. 

This will incur a gas fee if this is done on the Ethereum blockchain (as does any Ethereum based transaction). Unfortunately, there is no way to see the NFT on the Trezor Suite (Trezor’s user interface) as only cryptocurrencies can be viewed. 

To ensure this transaction has gone through and that your hardware wallet stores the NFT, you will need to verify this information using a blockchain-based explorer like Etherscan. 

To do this, enter your hardware wallet address that is native to where the NFT lives (i.e. Ethereum hardware address for Ethereum NFTs) on Etherscan. Then select ERC-721 token txn which will allow you to see if the transaction has gone through and verify that the hardware wallet has received the NFT. 

How To View NFTs In Your Trezor Wallet

Unfortunately, there is no way to view your NFTs via the Trezor Suite user interface; however, you can confirm your wallet has the NFT by using blockchain explorers like Etherscan. That being said, it is possible to view your NFT via connecting your wallet to MetaMask and then OpenSea.

If you would like to see the NFT token, our team will explain how to connect MetaMask to your hardware wallet so you can see the NFT token.  

How To View An NFT In Your Hardware Wallet On MetaMask

Our team recommends opening another tab and following along in this step by step process. 

Open MetaMask and click on your circular profile icon. Click ‘Connect Hardware Wallet’, ‘Trezor’ (ensure its plugged in), ‘continue’, click your ‘Trezor’, ‘allow once for this session’, ‘Export’, ‘Enter’, select your hardware wallet and ‘unlock’, then ‘import tokens’, ‘Custom Token’, and the remaining information

By remaining information, our team is referring to the ‘Token Contract Address’ which can be found by viewing the transaction that sent the NFT from OpenSea to your hardware wallet. After the Token Contract Address is added, the token symbol should automatically pop up, and if the token standard is ERC-721, the Token Decimals will be 0.

If someone was to hack into your MetaMask, they would still need access to your hardware wallet to confirm any transaction. In this way, the Trezor (or any other hardware wallet) still acts as gated security. 

How To Transfer An NFT Out Of Your Hardware Wallet

In order to transfer an NFT out of your hardware wallet, connect your hardware wallet to MetaMask, then connect your MetaMask account to OpenSea. MetaMask via a hardware wallet won’t allow you to transfer an NFT. This must be done through OpenSea.

Open MetaMask with your hardware wallet connected and then click on the NFT you would like to transfer (a paper plane looking icon underneath the blue, sell button).  Then hit ‘send’, which will call up a field into which you paste the new address to which you would like to send the NFT. 

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The NFT space is always changing and the technology is quite new. Our team is incredibly excited to see what will happen as time goes on. To get the latest news in this rapidly evolving space, follow our team on Instagram & Twitter!

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