Cryptosteel Capsule
Review and Comments 2025

Cryptosteel Capsule Review 2025

Cryptosteel Capsule is the second backup tool from Cryptosteel. As with its predecessor, the solution combines the ancient idea of engraving with material that is rust-free, shock-resistant, acid-resistant and refractory up to 1400 degrees Celsius. Only this time the signs are stored within a capsule like a pearl chain. You can find out more about this in the following review.

The first impression of Cryptosteel Capsule

Cryptosteel Capsule Packaging with Cards

Repackaging of the plastic holder

Bracket for plates and capsules

Cryptosteel Capsule comes in a well thought out and sorted pack. Inside is a large transparent holder made of recycled plastic that separates all different parts. It makes it easy to find the individual plates. If you choose the solo version, you will receive over 800 different plates and a capsule.

The capsule

The Cryptosteel Capsule is made of 100 stainless steel

The caspel is 102mm long and has a diameter of 16mm. Despite its small dimensions, it offers more capacity than its predecessors and similar competing products – 123 instead of 96 characters.

It is made of 100 high-quality German stainless steel, more precisely the steel grade 303. The capsule looks absolutely robust and resistant. It consists of the shell and the core, which are screwed together via a deep thread. This thread hermetically seals the tiles against external influences.

The plates

The different plates: Character, separation and closure plates

The plates are mainly character plates. These consist of all printable ASCII characters (96 different characters), i.e. including special characters and numbers. This achieves 100% coverage for all hardware wallet recovery seeds and 99% coverage for hexadecimal strings up to 123 characters and random ASCII strings up to 55 characters. All characters are deeply imprinted in the tiles to ensure maximum durability. For better usability, the fonts are large and readable, and the lowercase letters are graphically different.

In addition to the character plates, there are also separating plates, which differ in the form from the character plates and are not engraved. With these you can separate individual words. Last but not least, there are some closure plates – the fastener. These serve at the end of the fixation of the plates, so that they do not slip off the core.

Because the number of plates is random, there is no need to throw away the remaining plates. This allows you to store and reuse the packaging with the plates if you want to change or expand your capsule.

How Cryptosteel Capsule works

The desired information can be stored in the Kaspel in a few steps. First, you open the capsule by turning out the core. At the end of the core, a small cloth is inserted the first time, which you have to remove first. This contains the reminder not to forget the closure plate at the end. Otherwise, when taken out, the plates may fall from the core later.

Remove desired characters

Putting signs on the core

At the end, clamp the closure plate

Then it is recommended to put the character on a flat surface first. This could be, for example, a random password, an unabridged 12-word recovery key from a hardware wallet or the first four letters of a recovery key consisting of 24 words. In this case, the words cannot be saved completely, but the first 4 letters are enough to identify a word without any doubt.

Now you can thread the tiles one after the other onto the core and, if desired, separate the individual words with separating tiles. Finally, a closure plate is threaded and the small handle is bent through the eyelet at the end of the core. As a result, no plate can slide down from the core.

If you want to read the stored information again at a later time, it is recommended not to remove the fastener. The free space on the core should be enough to shift the plates bit by bit and write out the information. In this way, one does not run the risk that the plates will fall from the core and that the information will probably be lost as possible.

Security

Cryptosteel Capsule consists of 100 stainless steel – the shell of AISI 303 and core and plates of AISI 304. Grade 304 stainless steel offers the ideal combination of strength, heat tolerance and resistance to wear and corrosion. In addition, the capsule is refractory up to 1400 degrees Celsius. The deep thread hermetically seals the capsule and thus keeps the information safe even under water.

The capsule withstands extreme conditions

Small and inconspicuous

The capsule can withstand the impact of a 9 mm projectile. If the device is crushed, the tiles are connected by a common core, greatly improving data integrity. Bitcoin enthusiast Jameson Lopp tests various backup products on his website. With the help of a 20 tons press, he was able to bend the capsule easily. Nevertheless, no information was lost as a result. The full article can be found here: Cryptosteel Capsule Review.

Another advantage of the capsule is the small form factor, which makes it inconspicuous and easy to hide. In addition, the codes stored in the capsule are not immediately visible at first glance. This is beneficial for many situations where someone could take a quick look at the data (cameras, airport security, demonstration of the device with family and friends, etc.).

Who wants can still seal the closure to determine if someone has read the information inside.