How to connect a Solana wallet

Choosing a wallet

Phantom is the most widely used and works as a browser extension and mobile app. Solflare is similarly capable with stronger staking features. Backpack is popular with more active traders.

All three are non-custodial: they generate and store keys on your device. Any of them is a reasonable choice.

Install only from the official site or the official extension store, and navigate there by typing the address or using a bookmark. Fake wallet extensions and sponsored search results are a persistent problem.

Setting it up

Create a new wallet and you will be shown a seed phrase. Write it down offline before continuing. The wallet will ask you to confirm it, which is the last easy chance to notice a mistake.

Then fund it with a small amount of SOL. You cannot transact at all without SOL for fees.

What connecting grants

Connecting shares your public address and lets the site read your balances and propose transactions. That is the whole list.

It does not grant access to your private key or seed phrase, and it does not allow the site to move funds. Every transfer requires a separate signature that you approve explicitly.

The risk is not in connecting. It is in what you sign afterwards.

Disconnecting and revoking

Disconnecting is done in the wallet's connected-sites list, or from the site itself. It stops the site reading your balances.

Disconnecting does not revoke token approvals you granted earlier. If you have approved a contract to spend a token, that approval persists until you revoke it. Wallets and revocation tools can list and cancel outstanding approvals — worth reviewing occasionally, especially after using unfamiliar sites.