Counterwallet: old 12-word passphrases, XCP, rare tokens

Counterwallet’s 12-word passphrase is not standard BIP39 — it uses its own wordlist and a different derivation. Pasting it into MetaMask or Electrum will not restore your funds and may make you think it’s gone. It isn’t.

What you actually have

A Counterwallet 12-word phrase derives a specific Bitcoin address that holds your BTC and any Counterparty assets ever sent to it. The XCP-side balance is computed by Counterparty nodes from the on-chain BTC history of that address.

The clean case: 12 words intact

We use the original Counterwallet derivation (or a Counterparty-compatible tool like Freewallet) to regenerate the address from your 12 words, then verify balances on a Counterparty explorer. Sweeping requires a small BTC fee at the address; we walk you through it.

The hard cases

• 11 of 12 words, one unsure — bounded word search on the Counterwallet wordlist.
• Words from memory, order partly mixed up.
• You remember the email you used but not the phrase — Counterwallet was non-custodial; the email alone won’t recover anything, but it helps narrow the era and version.
• Phrase typed into a BIP39 tool years ago and ‘shown empty’ — almost always still recoverable using the correct derivation.

About the assets themselves

Most Counterparty assets (XCP, rare token issuances, early Pepe series) are still tradeable today. We don’t appraise or sell them — we recover access. What you do with the wallet afterward is yours.