How Privy works

Knowing where funds sit at each step makes the API data much easier to interpret.

Main wallet and trading wallets

• Main wallet: the wallet you sign in with, such as Phantom or Solflare. Privy never holds its keys.
• Trading wallets: managed wallets Privy uses to execute swaps and hold tokens you bought. Your holdings in the API are the tokens held for you in these wallets, not the contents of your main wallet.
• Disposable, payment and proxy wallets: per-user wallets you manage in Profile. They are separate from trading wallets and never used by Swap. See Profile & Activity.

Buy lifecycle

1. 1

   Intent

   You choose a token and SOL amount in the app. Privy creates an intent that expires after 10 minutes if no deposit arrives.

2. 2

   Deposit

   You sign a SOL transfer from your main wallet. Privy verifies it on-chain before doing anything else.

3. 3

   Swap

   Privy takes a fresh quote, locks the minimum output using your slippage setting, and swaps from a trading wallet.

4. 4

   Position

   The tokens are recorded as an open position you can later sell.

Sell lifecycle

A sell swaps a position back to SOL and pays the proceeds out to your main wallet. If anything fails after a deposit, Privy refunds the SOL; refunds appear in activity with their own signature.

Points

Every confirmed swap earns 50 points per USD of executed volume. Points are recorded once per swap and never recalculated.