# how to deposit on photon: funding the trading wallet

Photon generates its own trading wallet and you fund it with a Deposit from your existing wallet; it is not a front end on the wallet you already have. That is why your Phantom balance can look full while Photon shows nothing.

You have two wallets now. The funding wallet you already had, and the Photon trading wallet Photon made for you. Deposit moves SOL from the first to the second.

## the sequence

1. Generate the Photon trading wallet. The docs are explicit that this creates a new wallet.
2. Save the private key. Photon shows it once, at this step. If you click past that screen without writing it down, you have a wallet you can only reach through Photon.
3. Deposit from your funding wallet into the trading wallet. You pick the SOL amount and confirm the transaction in the funding wallet.
4. Trade from the balance that now sits in the trading wallet.

![Photon's Deposit tab: Split, Specific Amt or Deposit with MoonPay, a total amount field, and a priority fee of 0.0001.](https://apebrief.com/assets/media/photon-deposit.png)

## if the balance reads zero

- Check which of your two wallets you are looking at. This is almost always it.
- If the SOL is still on an exchange, it is still on an exchange. Withdraw it to the funding wallet first, wait for the transaction, then deposit.
- You can hold up to 5 active trading wallets. If you generated a second one at some point, the balance may be in a wallet you have not opened today. Archiving one removes it from the active list and it takes 30 seconds to bring back.

If you're setting up a new Photon account, the link below is our referral link.

> **code apebrief.** Open Photon through https://go.apebrief.com/photon/deposit-inline?src=md&asset=photon%2Fdeposit&cta=after-resolution and paste the code where the signup shows a code field. Photon documents no discount for signing up through a link, so it costs you the same either way. It may earn us Photon points, which helps support our work, at no extra cost to you.

## how we know: every number on this page

- Photon generates a trading wallet for you rather than trading directly from your existing wallet **generate** (https://pies-organization.gitbook.io/photon-trading/photon-on-sol), checked 2026-08-28
- the private key for the generated wallet is displayed once and only once **once** (https://pies-organization.gitbook.io/photon-trading/photon-on-sol), checked 2026-08-28
- the documented deposit flow, funding wallet to Photon trading wallet **deposit** (https://pies-organization.gitbook.io/photon-trading/photon-on-sol), checked 2026-08-28
- maximum number of Photon trading wallets active at once **5** (https://pies-organization.gitbook.io/photon-trading/photon-on-sol/multi-wallet), checked 2026-08-28
- archived wallets can be restored after a wait **30** (https://pies-organization.gitbook.io/photon-trading/photon-on-sol/multi-wallet), checked 2026-08-28

## next

- [How do I withdraw on Photon?](https://apebrief.com/photon/withdraw/): Photon's Withdraw tab sends SOL from a Photon trading wallet to a wallet you choose, and Photon says to leave 0.0025 SOL plus the priority fee in the trading wallet for the withdrawal to succeed.
- [Why did Photon eat the fill?](https://apebrief.com/photon/fees/): Photon takes 1% of the initial token used on every buy and every sell, collected in SOL.
- [is photon better than axiom, on fees and the wallet path](https://apebrief.com/vs/axiom-photon/): Axiom if the fee decides it: signing up through a referral link takes 10% off trading fees, and cashback in SOL takes the net fee to 0.75% at the top tier.

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HTML version: https://apebrief.com/photon/deposit/ · figures checked 2026-08-28