Redacting crypto and trading screenshots before you share them
Short answer: a seed phrase or private key on screen is game over, so never screenshot one at all, not even to redact it later. For everything else, scrub the wallet addresses, balances, position sizes, exchange account details and any API keys before the image leaves your Mac, and do it in a way that cannot be undone. Crypto screenshots leak harder than most, because the chain is public and a single address tied to your handle exposes the rest. This guide sorts the risks by severity and shows you how to share the win without doxxing yourself.
The seed phrase rule comes first
Before anything else: a seed phrase or a private key is not sensitive data you redact, it is the wallet. Whoever can read those words owns the funds, full stop. There is no clever redaction that makes a screenshotted seed phrase safe, because the screenshot should not exist in the first place. If a recovery phrase is on screen, dismiss it before you capture, and keep the only copy on paper somewhere offline.
I am being blunt about this because the rest of the article is about reducing risk, and this one part is not a matter of degree. Everything below assumes you have already made sure no seed phrase or key is anywhere in the frame.
Why an address is more revealing than it looks
A wallet address feels anonymous because it is a string of characters with no name attached. The problem is the ledger behind it. The chain is public, so the moment that address is connected to your handle, in a screenshot, a reply, a tip jar, anyone can look up its entire balance and transaction history, and from there cluster it with your other addresses. One address next to your username can unravel a whole pattern of on-chain activity you thought was private.
Balances and position sizes are a different flavor of the same problem. They turn you into a target. A visible six-figure balance is an invitation for social engineering, phishing attempts and worse, because now someone knows the prize is worth the effort. So when I share a screenshot from a wallet or an exchange, the address and the numbers come out, even if the screenshot looks harmless on its own.
For the method itself, the same trade-offs that apply to any redaction apply here, and I lay them out tool by tool in the guide to redacting screenshots on a Mac.
What is actually on the screenshot
Exchange and wallet interfaces are busy, and the dangerous fields hide in plain sight: an email in the account corner, an API key from a trading bot setup, a referral ID in a footer. Here is how I sort what is on a typical screen.
| What is on screen | The actual risk | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Seed phrase / private key | Total loss; whoever reads it owns the wallet | Never screenshot it at all, not even redacted |
| Wallet address | Ties your public on-chain history to your handle | Scrub it into the image so it cannot be lifted back |
| Balance / position size | Makes you a target for phishing and social engineering | Scrub the number; keep the percentage if you want to share |
| API key | Can let someone trade or move funds through your account | Scrub it, or Crop the settings panel out entirely |
| Email in the UI corner | Links the image to your exchange login and inbox | Scrub it, or Crop the header if nothing else there matters |
Sharing the win without doxxing yourself
The screenshot culture is real. People post PnL, portfolio flexes and trade confirmations constantly, and there is nothing wrong with that as long as you separate the story from the things that identify you. The story is the percentage, the chart shape and where you got in and out. Those are fine to show. What does not need to be in the frame is the dollar balance, the position size, the wallet or account ID and any email tucked into the interface.
So my version of a PnL screenshot keeps the gain and the chart and scrubs the absolute numbers and the identifiers. People still see the trade played out; they just do not learn how much you are holding or which account it came from. The mechanics of pixelating versus blurring those numbers, and why one is safer, are covered in blurring versus pixelating screenshots.
The workflow with ScrubShot
The point of a dedicated tool is to make the safe option the quick one, so the whole thing with ScrubShot is a single loop:
- Confirm no seed phrase or key is on screen, then open the wallet, exchange or trade confirmation and press the shortcut. ScrubShot captures the screen and the editor opens.
- Drag the Scrub tool over the balance, the position size, the wallet address and account ID, then any API key and the email in the corner.
- Do one slow pass over the whole image before you share, checking corners and footers for a referral ID or an address you missed. Undo and re-scrub anything you are unsure about.
- If an identifier sits at the edge, Crop the frame to drop it entirely rather than scrubbing it.
- Copy the cleaned image to the clipboard or let it save to the ScrubShot folder in your Pictures, then post it.
When you scrub a number into the image, it is replaced with coarse blocks written into the file itself, and those blocks are sampled at random rather than computed from the digits underneath, so there is nothing for depixelation software to work back from. The original balance is not hiding under a layer; it is simply gone. And all of this runs on your Mac, so the unredacted screenshot of your portfolio never sits on someone else's server. You can read what the app does and does not send on the privacy page.
The same destructive approach is what I rely on for fiat statements and account pages too, which I cover in redacting bank details and personal data in screenshots.
FAQ
- Is it ever safe to screenshot a seed phrase?
- No. A seed phrase or private key is the wallet itself, so anyone who reads it can drain the funds. Redaction is not the answer here, because the only safe screenshot of a seed phrase is the one you never take. If a phrase is on screen, close it before you capture anything, and write it down on paper instead.
- Can someone identify me from a wallet address in a screenshot?
- Yes, more easily than people expect. The chain is public, so once an address is tied to your handle, anyone can pull up its full balance and transaction history and connect it to your other addresses. A single address shared next to your username can deanonymize a whole pattern of activity, which is why I scrub addresses out even on a casual screenshot.
- How do I share a PnL screenshot safely?
- Keep the part that tells the story and scrub the part that identifies you. The percentage, the chart shape and the entry and exit points are fine to show. Scrub the dollar balance, the position size, the wallet or account ID and any email in the corner of the interface, so people see the trade without learning how much you hold or which account it is.
- Can a pixelated balance be recovered from the image?
- Not the way ScrubShot does it. The Scrub tool rewrites the area as coarse blocks straight into the file, and the block colors are sampled at random from the region rather than averaged from the digits underneath. So there is no overlay to lift off and no block averages for depixelation software to match against, which means a scrubbed balance cannot be brute-forced back out.
Try it
ScrubShot is a Mac app. Press the shortcut, scrub out the balances, addresses and keys, then copy or save; the cleaned screenshot is the only version that ever leaves your Mac. There is a free 7-day trial with no card required. After that it is $30 once, with lifetime updates and no subscription.