BIP-44 — Bitcoin Improvement Proposal 44 — extends BIP-32 with a standardized path structure that lets a single seed produce wallets for multiple coins, multiple accounts per coin, and separated receive / change address chains. It is the reason your one twelve-word mnemonic can hold BTC, ETH, LTC, and dozens of other coins under the same backup.

The five-level path

BIP-44 specifies the path as m / purpose' / coin_type' / account' / change / address_index:

  • purpose — always 44' for BIP-44 (newer BIPs use 49', 84', 86' for SegWit and Taproot variants)
  • coin_type — 0' for Bitcoin, 60' for Ethereum, 145' for Bitcoin Cash, registered in SLIP-44
  • account — 0' for the first account, 1' for the second, etc.
  • change — 0 for receive addresses, 1 for change addresses
  • address_index — 0, 1, 2, ... for each successive address in the account

So a typical first Bitcoin receive address sits at m/44'/0'/0'/0/0. The first Ethereum receive address sits at m/44'/60'/0'/0/0.

Why the structure matters in practice

Three real-world implications for a US holder:

First, wallets do not all count up at the same level. MetaMask's default Ethereum path is m/44'/60'/0'/0/x, stepping through the address index; another wallet may step through a different level, so the same mnemonic can surface different addresses there. When you migrate, check the derivation path before assuming the funds are gone.

Second, Bitcoin SegWit (BIP-49, P2SH-wrapped SegWit) and native SegWit (BIP-84, bech32) use different purpose values. A wallet restored as "BIP-44 Bitcoin" will not show the same balances as one restored as "BIP-84 Bitcoin," even from the same mnemonic.

Third, the coin_type registry (SLIP-44) is not exhaustive. Some chains reuse another chain's coin_type: Polygon PoS addresses are the same as Ethereum addresses and use coin_type 60', which means a Polygon wallet and an Ethereum wallet derived from the same seed will literally share private keys. This is a feature, not a bug, but it surprises holders.

When you'll see the path

Some wallet apps ask you to choose an account type (address format) when you restore a Bitcoin wallet, and each type maps to a different path standard: BIP-44 for legacy addresses, BIP-84 for native SegWit, BIP-86 for Taproot. Pick the same one the original wallet used, and the addresses come back. Pick the wrong one and the addresses are technically valid — just different — with zero balance.

Further reading: BIP-32, BIP-39, Derivation path.