Which coins can be held without a company?
Whether the coins are yours alone, or whether somebody else can freeze them or holds what backs them.
Bitcoin sits at an address controlled by a key. Whoever holds the key holds the coins, and no company can freeze or move them. If the key is lost, nobody can restore it. What a wallet actually is →
Source: Bitcoin.org FAQ · checked 2 October 2026
Ether sits at an address controlled by a key. In a wallet you run yourself, the wallet's maker never has custody of the funds, and the recovery phrase is the only way back in. What a wallet actually is →
Source: Ethereum.org: wallets · checked 2 October 2026
XRP sits at an address controlled by a key, and its ledger has no way to freeze it. But an account of your own can never be emptied: it must always keep 1 XRP in reserve. Held at an exchange, your XRP sits in the exchange's account instead, so the rule does not reach you, and you depend on the exchange. What a wallet actually is →
Sources: XRP Ledger docs: freezes, XRP Ledger docs: reserves, XRP Ledger docs: hosted accounts · checked 2 October 2026
Ada sits in a wallet whose keys you hold, and staking it never moves it out of that wallet. What a wallet actually is →
Source: Cardano: what Cardano is · checked 2 October 2026
DOT sits at an address controlled by a key. An account has to keep a small minimum, currently 0.01 DOT: if its balance falls below that, the account is wiped from the chain along with whatever was left in it. Fees alone cannot take it below the line. What a wallet actually is →
Sources: Polkadot wiki: accounts, Polkadot wiki: chain state values · checked 2 October 2026
GRAM sits in a wallet that is a small program on the chain, and it obeys only messages signed with your private key. Every account pays a storage fee over time for staying on the chain: once the unpaid fee passes 0.1 GRAM the account is frozen, and the docs call getting it back complex. What a wallet actually is →
Sources: TON docs: how wallets work, TON docs: account status · checked 2 October 2026
TAO is controlled by a key the docs call the coldkey, and whoever holds its recovery phrase owns the funds. An account whose balance falls below a tiny minimum, 500 rao (a rao is a billionth of a TAO), is deactivated and what was left in it is destroyed. What a wallet actually is →
Sources: Bittensor docs: wallets and keys, Bittensor docs: money · checked 2 October 2026
Algo sits in an account controlled by a private key. Every account has to keep a minimum of 100,000 microAlgos, which is 0.1 Algo: a transaction that would take the balance below that fails. What a wallet actually is →
Source: Algorand docs: accounts · checked 2 October 2026
USDS has no freeze function today. Its contract is built so that it can be upgraded, and the project's white paper says a freeze function may be added later if Sky's governance votes for one. What a wallet actually is →
Source: The Maker Protocol white paper · checked 2 October 2026
You can keep USDC in your own wallet, but Circle can block an address and freeze the USDC in it, for a time or for good. What a wallet actually is →
Source: Circle: USDC Terms · checked 2 October 2026
You can keep USDT in your own wallet, but Tether can freeze tokens and blacklist the address that holds them. What a wallet actually is →
Source: Tether: terms of service · checked 2 October 2026
The other questions
- Which coins can be sold for dollars?
- Which coins can send a payment?
- Which coins can earn a return by themselves?
- Which coins can run applications?
- Which coins limit their own supply?
- Which coins hold a steady dollar value?
- Which coins can be redeemed for what backs them?
- Which coins can be used on other chains?
What a coin can do is not a reason to buy it or to sell it, and nothing here is advice. Each answer names where it comes from and the day we read it. A coin we have not written up is left out, not marked down. How these answers are written.