COMMENT "FROZE"
The watchtower: save your crypto from an exchange freeze
A monitoring bot pulled $107,000 off an exchange seconds before it froze every withdrawal. You don't need the bot to be safe, you need self-custody and alerts. Here's the exact setup, free.
01Quick steps
- 1Get a self-custody wallet where you alone hold the keys (Phantom), and write the recovery phrase on paper.
- 2Move most of your money there. Leave only what you're actively trading on the exchange.
- 3Set free price and withdrawal alerts, plus a wallet-activity alert, so you're pinged the instant anything moves.
- 4Turn on the withdrawal address whitelist and two-factor on the exchange.
- 5Optional: run an auto-move bot in watch-only mode first, and read its alerts for a week before letting it move anything.
02Your ready to use prompt
Prompt for Claude: 'Help me set up a watch-only crypto safety net. I will tell you my exchange and my public wallet address only. Walk me step by step through: 1) turning on free price and withdrawal alerts, 2) a wallet-activity alert, 3) the withdrawal address whitelist, and 4) app-based two-factor. Never ask me for my private key or recovery phrase, and warn me if any step would expose them.'
03Full tutorial
An exchange holds your coins for you, which means it can freeze, get hacked, or lock withdrawals, and you can do nothing. The person in the story was safe because a bot moved their funds to a wallet only they controlled before the freeze. The real protection is not the bot, it is where your money sits.
Install a wallet where you alone hold the keys, like Phantom (https://phantom.app). On setup it shows a recovery phrase. Write it on paper, keep it offline, and never type it into any website or send it to anyone. Anyone with that phrase owns your money.
Send the bulk of your crypto from the exchange to your new wallet. Do a tiny test send first (a few dollars), confirm it arrives, then send the rest. This one step is what actually protects you.
Leave on the exchange only what you plan to trade in the next week or two. Everything else lives in your wallet. If the exchange freezes, you lose access only to the small float, not your stack.
In the exchange app turn on login and withdrawal alerts, and set a free price alert (most apps and CoinGecko do this). You want to hear immediately if a withdrawal happens or if the market moves hard, both can be early signs of trouble.
Use a free wallet-activity alert so you get a notification any time your wallet sends or receives. It is your tripwire, if you ever see activity you did not start, you move funds and rotate to a fresh wallet.
On the exchange, enable the withdrawal address whitelist, which blocks sending funds to any address you did not pre-approve, and turn on app-based two-factor. Together these stop a thief from draining the account even if they get your password.
If you want the auto-move part, start it in watch-only mode: it only sends you alerts, it does not move money. Read its alerts for at least a week and confirm they are accurate. Only then, if ever, let it move funds to your whitelisted wallet, and keep the amount it can touch small.
Check once a month that your float is small, your whitelist is on, and your recovery phrase is still safe on paper. Not your keys, not your coins. This is about protecting money you already have, it is not a trade.
This is about protecting your money, not making a trade. Never type your recovery phrase into a website.