Is it safe to screen share your crypto wallet on a call?

A friend wants you to show them how your wallet works on FaceTime, or someone from "support" asks you to share your screen. What the other side can read, what remote control adds, the scam built on screen sharing, a checklist for the calls you do make, and a way to walk someone through wallet screens without opening yours.

Published: 14 October 2026

Two calls that look alike

The first call is friendly. Your mother bought a little bitcoin and cannot find it, or a friend wants to see what a swap screen looks like before trying one. The easiest way to show them is to start a FaceTime or Zoom call, tap Share Screen and open your own wallet.

The second call starts the same way and ends differently. Someone says they are from your exchange, your wallet's security team or a crypto podcast. There is a problem with your account, or an interview to record, and it would be quicker if you shared your screen. In both calls you are doing the same thing: putting your wallet in front of another person, live, at full resolution.

What the other side sees when you share

Screen sharing does not hand over control, but it hands over everything you display. Kraken's support center puts it plainly: whoever is watching "can read everything you display", including passwords as you type them, one-time codes as they arrive, and a seed phrase if you open your wallet backup. They can also record the call, or film it with another phone, without you knowing: the same exposure as a wallet shown on a live stream, with a smaller audience.

What phones hide for you, and what they do not

Phones now protect part of a shared screen. Apple's safety guide says the person watching a FaceTime screen share cannot see your notifications or the keypad when you type your passcode. Google says Android 15 hides private notification content and one-time passwords during screen sharing, hides the screen while you enter passwords, and lets you share one app instead of the whole screen.

None of these protections is described as hiding what an app itself shows. A wallet's balance, address and recovery phrase screen are ordinary app content, and they go out like everything else.

From watching to controlling

Many calls now let the other person do more than watch. Since iOS 18, during a one-to-one FaceTime call, someone saved in your contacts can request remote control of your iPhone. Apple warns that the person controlling the screen can open and close apps, change settings, delete items or send messages, and tells you to approve requests only from people you trust. Its safety guide adds that they cannot use Apple Pay but "may be able to make payments with third-party apps." A wallet app is a third-party app.

Desktop video apps have the same feature, and it has been used against crypto users. In 2025 the security firm Trail of Bits described a campaign it named ELUSIVE COMET: crypto professionals were invited to what looked like a media interview, and during the video call the attacker requested remote control of their computer. The request was dressed to look like a routine app prompt, and Trail of Bits links the group to millions in stolen crypto. What gave the invitation away was not technical: the "journalists" refused email and booked the call through pages that did not belong to the outlet they claimed.

Real support never asks to see your screen

The second call in the opening is a known scam. The FBI warned in 2024 that criminals pose as cryptocurrency exchange employees, invent an urgent account problem and talk victims into handing over access. Its advice: hang up and call the exchange's official number, never one the caller gives you.

Wallet and exchange companies say the same thing in their own words. Kraken says its support will never ask you to install remote access or screen sharing software. MetaMask says it has no support phone number, will never ask you to get on a call and will never DM you, and that anyone who asks for your Secret Recovery Phrase is trying to scam you. Investment scams use the screen too: a 2023 FinCEN alert describes scammers who request remote access to victims' devices, or have victims send screenshots, so they can walk them through buying crypto step by step.

Kraken describes the usual shape of these calls: an urgent reason, a guided install, the theft, then a cover-up that keeps you on the line while funds move. Coaching you to make the transfer yourself is common, because it gets past the security checks you would otherwise face. The losses are large. In the FBI's 2025 report, people over 60 alone reported more than $1 billion lost to tech and customer support scams.

If you do share: a checklist for helping someone

Helping a friend or a parent on a call is a good thing to do. These steps keep the call about the screens and not about your money.

1. You start the call. With someone you know, on a channel you chose. Never on a call that someone else set up about your account.
2. Share a window, not your desktop. Google Meet lets you present "A tab, A window, or Your entire screen." Pick the narrowest one. On Android 15, share one app.
3. Close what is not needed. Exchange tabs, banking, email, password managers and wallet backups, before you press Share.
4. Never open the backup screen. No recovery phrase, private key or password on screen, even for a second, even to "show where it is."
5. Decline remote control. On iPhone, Don't Allow keeps screen sharing going, and Apple says the other person is not notified that you declined.
6. Do not sign anything while sharing. Kraken's advice is never to sign in, approve a withdrawal or open a wallet backup while a session is active.
7. Mirroring to a TV is sharing too. Everyone in the room can read it, and anyone can film it.
8. Stop sharing before you switch apps. Ending the call ends sharing, but a stray tap before that can still put the wrong screen on air.

Walking someone through wallet screens without your wallet

Even a careful share has a cost the checklist cannot remove. If you open your real wallet, the person watching sees your real address, your real balance and your real history, and the recording, if there is one, keeps them. Most of the time they do not need any of it. They need to know where the receive button is, what a token list means, what a swap screen asks before you confirm.

That is a job for a different kind of app. A larp wallet, also called a crypto wallet app simulator, is an app that shows a believable crypto wallet screen built from the balances you type in, for videos, skits, pitch decks and demos. It holds no funds and touches no blockchain.

On a call, you share that instead: a wallet screen with the balances you chose, prices that move like the real thing, and no address behind it to look up, no backup screen to open by mistake and nothing a remote control session could move. My Larp Wallet is one such app, a paid one that we make; it runs in a browser window or full screen on a phone (how a larp wallet works). For the explanation itself, see how to explain a crypto wallet to someone, and for a room rather than a call, running a wallet demo live.

When the other person is ready for their own wallet, the roles swap. They set it up on their own device, write down their recovery phrase themselves, and you talk while they tap. You never need to see their phrase, and they never need to see yours.

Where the line is

• Say what it is. Tell the person at the start that the wallet on screen is a practice mockup with made-up balances.
• Never use it as evidence. Not to show a payment you "sent," not to prove holdings, not to back up a trading claim. Passing a mockup off as a real balance is deception, and our terms of use forbid it.
• The reverse holds too. If someone on a call shows you a wallet or a dashboard as proof of anything, it proves nothing. A screen can show any number; the only check is your own wallet (what a wallet screenshot can and cannot show).

Sources

• Kraken Support, Risks of remote access software, 2026
• Apple Personal Safety User Guide, Manage Screen Sharing and Screen Control in FaceTime, 2025
• Apple iPhone User Guide, Request or give remote control in a FaceTime call, 2026
• Google Security Blog, I/O 2024: What's new in Android security and privacy, 2024
• Google Meet Help, Present during a video meeting, 2026
• Trail of Bits, Mitigating ELUSIVE COMET Zoom remote control attacks, 2025
• FBI IC3, FBI Warns of Scammers Impersonating Cryptocurrency Exchanges, 2024
• MetaMask Support, MetaMask's official support channels, 2026
• FinCEN, Alert on Prevalent Virtual Currency Investment Scam Commonly Known as "Pig Butchering", 2023
• FBI IC3, 2025 Internet Crime Report, 2026

Questions

Is it safe to screen share a crypto wallet?

Only on a call you started, with someone you trust, and only the screens you need. The other person can read and record everything you display, including your address, balance and history, and a recovery phrase if you open the backup screen. Never share your screen with someone who contacted you about your account.

Is it safe to screen share a crypto wallet on iPhone?

FaceTime hides your notifications and your passcode keypad from the person watching, but not what an app shows. A wallet's balance, address and recovery phrase screen are visible like any other content. Since iOS 18 the other person can also request remote control, which you can decline with Don't Allow.

Will crypto support ever ask me to share my screen?

No. Kraken says its support will never ask you to install remote access or screen sharing software, MetaMask says it has no support phone number and never asks you to get on a call, and the FBI advises hanging up and calling the official number when someone contacts you about an account problem.

What can someone do with remote control of my phone or computer?

Apple's safety guide says a person controlling your screen in FaceTime can open apps, change settings, delete items and send messages, and may be able to make payments with third-party apps. On a computer, remote control hands over your mouse and keyboard and any account you are signed in to.

What should I do if I shared my screen with a scammer?

End the call and remove any app they had you install. If a recovery phrase or private key was visible, treat the wallet as compromised and move what remains to a new wallet created off the call. Change passwords that appeared on screen, and report it at ic3.gov in the United States.