---
title: "Private Key Export: MetaMask, Trust Wallet, Ledger, Electrum"
url: "https://bip39-phrase.com/convert-seed-phrase-to-private-key-guide/"
language: "en"
published: "2024-06-29T00:00:00+00:00"
updated: "2026-10-16T00:00:00+00:00"
---

[ Keys & Addresses ](/topics/keys-and-addresses/) Published June 29, 2024 Updated October 16, 2026 

# Private Key Export: MetaMask, Trust Wallet, Ledger, Electrum

![Private Key Export: MetaMask, Trust Wallet, Ledger, Electrum](/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/convert-seed-phrase-to-private-key-guide-hero.webp) 

Exporting a private key copies the secret behind an account out of your wallet, and whoever holds that secret can move the funds. That is why wallets put the option behind passwords and warnings, why Trust Wallet hides it in a developer setting, and why a Ledger never hands its keys out at all. This guide gives the steps each vendor documents for MetaMask, Trust Wallet and Electrum, explains what Ledger offers instead, and shows how keys are derived from a seed phrase when a wallet has no export option. The steps were checked against each vendor’s own documentation in October 2026; menus can change between app versions.

## At a Glance

| Wallet                               | Exports private keys?               | Where                                             | What you get                                        |
| ------------------------------------ | ----------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------- |
| MetaMask (extension and mobile)      | Yes                                 | Three-dot menu next to the account                | The key of one account                              |
| Trust Wallet (iOS and Android app)   | Yes, once Developer Mode is on      | Developer Mode settings > **Export Private Keys** | The key for the network you pick                    |
| Ledger                               | No, the keys never leave the device | Not available                                     | Only the 24-word recovery phrase recreates the keys |
| Electrum (desktop, software wallets) | Yes                                 | **Wallet** \> **Private keys** \> **Export**      | The keys of every address in the wallet             |

## What a Private Key Controls

A private key is a secret number that allows cryptocurrency to be spent. Each address has its own private key, and the public key and address are calculated from it. In an HD wallet, all of these private keys are derived from a single master key, which in turn comes from the seed phrase.

The seed phrase is the 12- to 24-word backup that recreates every key in the wallet; the guide to the [recovery seed phrase](/recovery-seed-phrase-guide/) explains what it is and how to store it. The difference matters for exports: [a private key exposes one account](/seed-phrase-vs-private-key/) (on Bitcoin, one address), while the phrase exposes all of them.

Keys come in two common formats. Bitcoin wallets show them in WIF, a Base58 string that starts with K, L or 5 on mainnet ([WIF and Base58 explained](/private-key-btc/)); Ethereum and other EVM wallets use the raw key, 64 hexadecimal characters.

## Do You Need to Export a Key at All?

Usually not. To move funds to another wallet, send them from the old wallet to an address in the new one: an ordinary transaction moves the coins, and no secret ever leaves the old wallet. Ledger’s academy gives this advice for moving from a hot wallet to a Ledger: open fresh accounts on the device and send each asset over, paying the network fees, instead of importing the hot wallet’s seed phrase ([Can I recover my hot wallet on a Ledger?](https://www.ledger.com/academy/can-i-recover-my-hot-wallet-on-a-ledger)). Trust Wallet makes a similar point: its default backup is a 12-word recovery phrase, so that private keys don’t have to be exposed.

Exporting makes sense when a service or wallet accepts only a private key, or when you want to move one account rather than a whole wallet. MetaMask, for example, imports a single account from a private key, while a Secret Recovery Phrase imports the whole wallet with its accounts.

## MetaMask: Export an Account’s Private Key

Steps from MetaMask’s help article [How to export a private key](https://support.metamask.io/configure/accounts/how-to-export-an-accounts-private-key/).

**Extension**

1. Click the account selector at the top of the screen.
2. Click the three dots next to the account and select **Account details**.
3. Click **Private key** and confirm with your MetaMask password.
4. Click and hold **Hold to reveal Private Key**. The key appears and can be copied.
5. Click **Done** to close the screen.

**Mobile**

1. Open the account selector at the top of the wallet view and tap the three dots next to the account.
2. Tap **Private keys** and enter your MetaMask password.
3. Tap the icon next to the network you need to copy that key.

MetaMask shows the key in clear text, so make sure nobody can see your screen or capture a screenshot, and remember that MetaMask support never asks for a private key. The key covers that one account only. If you import it into another MetaMask wallet, it becomes an imported account: MetaMask notes that imported accounts are not derived from that wallet’s Secret Recovery Phrase and do not come back when you restore from it, so the key needs its own backup ([importing an existing wallet](https://support.metamask.io/start/use-an-existing-wallet/)).

## Trust Wallet: Export the Key for One Network

Trust Wallet puts key export behind Developer Mode, which exists only in the iOS and Android apps, not in the browser extension. Steps from its help article [How to Export your Private Keys](https://support.trustwallet.com/en/articles/717168-how-to-export-your-private-keys):

1. Make sure the wallet is set up in the Trust Wallet app on your phone.
2. Open `link.trustwallet.com/developer` in the phone’s web browser.  
  - On iOS the app opens on the Home page: tap the wallet name, then the settings icon, then **Developer**.
  - On Android the app opens the Developer Mode settings page directly.
3. Authenticate with your PIN or biometrics.
4. Tap **Export Private Keys**, authenticate again and acknowledge the warning.
5. Tap the network you need the key for. On iOS the key is shown as a QR code; on Android it is copied to the clipboard.

The export works network by network: you pick a network and get that network’s key. Developer Mode switches itself off after a sensitive action like this one, so turn it on again before the next export. Trust Wallet also warns that a private key cannot be changed or revoked: once it leaks, the wallet stays compromised. A key shown as a QR code is just as sensitive as the text ([QR code private key risks](/qr-code-private-key-security-risks/)). In the other direction, Trust Wallet’s [private key import](https://support.trustwallet.com/en/articles/717152-how-to-import-a-wallet-via-private-key-on-trust-wallet) works in the mobile app only and creates a single-network wallet.

## Ledger: The Keys Never Leave the Device

A Ledger has nothing to export. Ledger says its devices are built so that private keys never leave the device and stay isolated from internet-connected threats ([Why your Ledger device is secure](https://support.ledger.com/article/Why-Your-Ledger-Device-Is-Secure)); the device signs transactions itself after you confirm them on its screen (see [how hardware wallets work](/hardware-wallets-explained/)). Ledger’s own help for moving accounts to another wallet, [Export your accounts](https://support.ledger.com/article/4404388633489-zd), therefore works through the 24-word recovery phrase:

- **Restore the phrase in another wallet.** Accounts created on a Ledger can be recovered in any hardware or software wallet that supports the same standards: BIP32, BIP39 and BIP44.
- **Generate the private keys (advanced).** Ledger describes deriving the keys from the phrase with a BIP39 tool downloaded for offline use, adding the passphrase if you set one on the device. Ledger does not endorse any particular tool.

Both routes come with Ledger’s warning: once the 24 words are typed on any device other than your Ledger, the phrase is exposed and should be considered compromised, and the device’s protection no longer applies. Ledger also says software wallets should only be used for recovery as a last resort, and it tells you never to enter the phrase into the Ledger Wallet app, any other software, a website or a computer. To move funds off a Ledger, send them with an ordinary transaction that you check and confirm on the device’s screen.

## Electrum: Export Keys from a Software Wallet

Electrum’s website says you can export your private keys and use them in other Bitcoin clients ([more about Electrum](/electrum-a-secure-and-lightweight-bitcoin-wallet/)). In the desktop app (version 4.8):

1. Open the wallet and choose **Wallet** \> **Private keys** \> **Export**.
2. Enter the wallet password if asked. Electrum lists every address in the wallet with its key and warns that exposing even one key can compromise the whole wallet.
3. To save the list, choose CSV or JSON and a file name, then click **Export**.

For a single address, show the Addresses tab with **View** \> **Addresses**, right-click the address and choose **Private key**. From the command line, with the wallet loaded in the Electrum daemon, the documentation gives this command for the keys of every address that holds coins ([Command Line](https://electrum.readthedocs.io/en/latest/cmdline.html#export-private-keys-and-sweep-coins)):

```bash
electrum listaddresses --funded | electrum getprivatekeys -
```

Electrum writes the script type in front of each key, for example `p2wpkh:` followed by the WIF string.

The wallet type matters:

- **Hardware wallets.** If the Electrum wallet uses a Ledger, Trezor or another signing device, the Export item is disabled: the keys are on the device.
- **Watching-only wallets.** A wallet created from a master public key or a list of addresses holds no private keys, so Export is disabled as well.
- **Multisig wallets.** Electrum exports this wallet’s keys but warns that they do not back up a multisig wallet.

Electrum’s own seed phrases are not BIP39: Electrum generates its seeds with its own [seed version system](https://electrum.readthedocs.io/en/latest/seedphrase.html), so a BIP39 tool cannot recreate the keys of an Electrum-generated phrase. When keys travel the other way, into Electrum, the [FAQ](https://electrum.readthedocs.io/en/latest/faq.html) explains that a wallet with a seed cannot import private keys; you sweep them instead with **Wallet** \> **Private keys** \> **Sweep**, which sends the coins they control to an address of your wallet. Sweeping is the safer habit in any wallet that offers it, because the coins end up under the receiving wallet’s own backup.

## From a Seed Phrase: Derive the Keys Offline

When a wallet has no export option, or all you have is the recovery phrase, the keys can be recreated from the phrase itself. BIP39 turns the words and the optional passphrase into a 512-bit seed, [BIP32](/bip-32/) derives a master key from that seed, and the derivation path selects the key for each address. Our [seed phrase to private key converter](/seed-phrase-to-private-key-converter/) runs these steps in your browser and shows each key in WIF or hex; with the public BIP39 test phrase (`abandon abandon … about`), its BIP84 results match the test vectors published in [BIP84](https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/blob/master/bip-0084.mediawiki).

To use it offline, load the page, disconnect from the network, enter the phrase and close the tab before you reconnect.

![Diagram of one seed phrase producing many private keys: 12 words, PBKDF2 to a 512-bit seed, HMAC-SHA512 to the master key, then BIP32 child keys and addresses for Bitcoin and Ethereum.](/images/diagrams/seed-phrase-to-private-keys.webp) 

A seed phrase backs up every key in the wallet; each private key controls one address (one account on EVM chains), and no key can be turned back into the phrase (values for the test phrase “abandon ×11 about”).

### Derivation Paths: Which Key Belongs to Which Address

A key only helps if it matches the address that holds the funds, and the derivation path decides that. A path follows the pattern m / purpose’ / coin type’ / account’ / change / index. `m/44'/0'/0'/0/0` is the first receiving address of the first account and `m/44'/0'/0'/0/1` is the second; the change field is 0 for receiving addresses and 1 for change addresses. For Bitcoin, the purpose follows the address type:

- `44'`: legacy addresses (1…), [BIP44](/bip-44-multi-account-hierarchy-for-deterministic-wallets/)
- `49'`: nested SegWit addresses (3…), BIP49
- `84'`: native SegWit addresses (bc1q…), BIP84
- `86'`: Taproot addresses (bc1p…), BIP86

The coin type selects the network, so one phrase gives Bitcoin keys under `0'` and Ethereum keys under `60'`. For Ethereum accounts, MetaMask’s help pages say it supports only the default BIP-44 path `m/44'/60'/0'/0` when you import a Secret Recovery Phrase; the first key under that path is `m/44'/60'/0'/0/0`. A BIP39 passphrase, if you set one, changes every key. How the three standards fit together is covered in [BIP39 vs BIP32 vs BIP44](/crypto-seed-standards-bip39-vs-bip32-vs-bip44/).

## Safety Rules for Exported Keys

- **An exported key is full control.** Anyone who has it can sign transactions and move the funds it controls. A key cannot be changed or revoked, so if it may have been seen, move the funds to a new wallet.
- **Never paste a key or a phrase into a website, chat, email or “support” form.** MetaMask says its support never asks for a private key, Trust Wallet tells you not to share one even with its support, and Ledger says it will never ask for your 24 words. Electrum’s export screen specifically warns against third-party “redeem private key” services. More in [how to protect a wallet from phishing](/protect-crypto-wallet-from-phishing/).
- **Prefer a normal transaction.** To move funds, send them to an address in the new wallet instead of exporting keys. If a key has to come along, sweep it rather than import it.
- **Mind the screen and the clipboard.** MetaMask warns about screenshots and clipboard hacks, and Trust Wallet’s Android export copies the key to the clipboard. Paste it straight where it is needed and don’t leave it in clipboard history, notes or cloud storage.
- **Keep any copy offline.** If you have to keep an exported key, write it down on paper and store it securely; never keep it in screenshots, cloud notes, email or chat apps.

[ Back to Blog ](/blog/)