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Phrase · Derivation

The phrase works but I can’t see my funds: derivation, made easy

Your phrase is valid, the app accepts it, and the balance is zero. You have lost nothing: you are looking in the wrong room of a very large house. That is, literally, the explanation.

October 14, 2026 · 5-minute read

The wardrobe analogy

Imagine your phrase isn’t a key but the deed to an entire building. With it you can open every door in the building: thousands of flats, each with its own number. Your money is in one specific flat.

When you restore the phrase, the app takes you to the flat it considers the first. But every app has its own idea of which one is first, and of how the flats are numbered. If you used MetaMask and restore in a different app, it is perfectly possible you land in an empty flat of the same building.

Why Bitcoin complicates it further

With Bitcoin there are also different address types. Some start with 1, some with 3 and some with bc1. They are different formats of the same idea and they coexist: the same phrase generates all three, but each app shows you one by default. If you bought in 2015, yours probably starts with 1; if it is recent, with bc1.

What to try, in order

  1. Add accounts. In the accounts menu, create the second, the third, the fourth. That solves most cases and carries no risk.
  2. Restore in the original app. If you created the wallet in MetaMask, restore it in MetaMask. Each app finds its own without you touching anything.
  3. Change the address type if it is Bitcoin. Many apps offer this in the wallet’s advanced settings.
  4. Find your old address in an email or in the history of the exchange you sent from. With that address in front of you, finding the right account is instant.
The fourth point is what makes these cases trivial. One of your addresses is not a secret: it is public information that compromises nothing and points to exactly which flat in the building to look in. Look for it before anything else.
If at any point a website or app offers to «find your funds» by asking for your phrase, close it. Searching accounts is done inside your own wallet, with your phrase already in it; there is never a need to hand it to a third party.

If after all this it is still zero, go through the other possible causes in I have the phrase but the wallet shows empty. The most common of all, and the worst, is a forgotten extra password.

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