Trezor Safe 5: what it is, how it works and who makes it

Who makes the Trezor Safe 5

The Trezor Safe 5 is made by Trezor Company s.r.o., a Czech company with its registered office at Kundratka 2359/17a, Prague 8, and company ID 02440032, according to Trezor's terms of use page. Trezor's company page dates Trezor to 2013, credits its founders by their nicknames, Stick and Slush, and lists the Trezor Model One of 2014 as the first hardware wallet. Trezor's own guides also refer to the company as SatoshiLabs, the group name linked from the company page. Trezor says its Prague team has more than 110 people.

The Safe 5 was released on 14 June 2024 and introduced at BTC Prague, according to Trezor's Safe 5 FAQ. It sits in a current lineup that also includes the two-button Trezor Safe 3 and the newer Trezor Safe 7, each with a Bitcoin-only edition.

What the Trezor Safe 5 is

The Safe 5 is a USB-C hardware wallet with a color touchscreen. It generates and keeps private keys on the device and signs transactions that you confirm on its own screen, while a companion app on your computer or phone builds and broadcasts them. The specifications Trezor lists on its product page:

How it works with Trezor Suite

Trezor Suite is Trezor's own app for desktop and mobile; the Safe 5 also works with third-party wallet apps. A typical flow looks like this:

1. Set up. The device generates a new wallet and shows the backup words, which you write on the supplied cards. You set a PIN, entered on the device's touchscreen, and can add a passphrase.
2. Receive. Suite shows an address, and you confirm the same address on the Safe 5 screen before sharing it.
3. Send. Suite prepares the transaction and you approve the recipient and amount on the device, which signs it. Suite then broadcasts it.

On iOS, Trezor's product page notes that swap, send, setup and device management are not available, so iPhone users need a desktop or Android setup for those tasks.

With the universal firmware, Trezor says the Safe 5 supports thousands of coins and tokens, including Bitcoin, Ethereum and Solana. A Bitcoin-only firmware can be loaded on a standard Safe 5, and the universal firmware can be loaded on the Bitcoin-only model.

Costs beyond the device

Sending and receiving through Suite carries only the network fee. Trezor's guide to transaction fees says those fees fund the network and are not charged by SatoshiLabs, and Suite offers Low, Normal, High and custom fee levels.

Buying, selling and swapping inside Suite are handled by outside providers. Trezor's trading guide lists them:

• Buy: Anycoin, Banxa, BTC Direct, Mercuryo, MoonPay, Paybis, Revolut, Topper.
• Sell: Banxa, BTC Direct, MoonPay.
• Swap: ChangeHero, Changelly, ChangeNOW, Godex and SideShift.ai, plus 1inch and LI.FI as decentralized options.

Trezor says fees on these trades change in real time with network congestion, provider pricing, liquidity and payment method, and cannot be shown in advance; the way to see the full cost is to compare what you send with what you receive. Identity checks are run by the provider, mostly for buying and selling, and which providers you see depends on your country, payment method and asset. Several of these swap services have their own profiles, for example Changelly.

Security design

Trezor explains its use of the secure element in an article on secure elements in Trezor Safe devices. The OPTIGA Trust M does not hold the recovery seed. During PIN setup the device creates a secret inside the chip; that secret, together with your PIN, encrypts the keys stored on the main chip, and the secure element releases it only after the correct PIN. After 16 wrong PIN attempts on the Safe 5, the chip erases the secret and the device resets, leaving the backup as the only way back in. The chip also holds a Trezor certificate used to check that the device is genuine.

Trezor says it chose this chip because it does not require a non-disclosure agreement, so outside researchers can examine it, and it describes the Safe 5's design as open source. The Safe 7 differs here: it adds a second secure element, TROPIC01 from Tropic Square, and lowers the PIN attempt limit to 10. For what secure elements and PINs do and do not protect against, see our guide to hardware wallet security.

Risks and practical limits

• The backup is the wallet. Anyone with the 12, 20 or 24 words can rebuild the wallet without the device, and losing them with a broken or reset device means losing the funds. A passphrase creates a separate wallet and cannot be recovered if forgotten. Our guide to backing up a seed phrase covers storage.
• Connected signing. Unlike air-gapped devices such as the Keystone 3 Pro, the Safe 5 signs over a USB cable. The screen check is what keeps a compromised computer from changing the address or amount without your knowledge.
• Third-party trades. Buy, sell and swap orders are contracts with the provider, not with Trezor, and are subject to that provider's fees, checks and support.

The Trezor Safe 5 is scored separately in our Trezor Safe 5 review; this profile describes the device and its maker and does not grade it.