Custodial wallets
A custodial wallet or exchange holds your private keys for you. You sign in with an email and password, and the provider controls the underlying assets. This can feel familiar, but it means you rely on that company to stay solvent, secure, and available whenever you want to move funds.
Non-custodial (self-custody) wallets
A non-custodial wallet like 6uo Wallet stores your keys on your own device. Only you can authorize transactions, and no one can freeze or move your assets without your recovery phrase. The trade-off is responsibility: if you lose your recovery phrase and device access, no support team can restore it.
Which model fits you
Many people use both: an exchange for buying and a self-custody wallet for holding and using assets onchain. Self-custody gives you direct control, access to dapps, and independence from any single company, which is why 6uo Wallet is built as a non-custodial wallet.