Most enveloped viruses aquire a single envelope from the host cell by budding into intracellular membrane compartments, or by budding from the plasma membrane. Budding is generally driven by the accumulation of envelope proteins in specific membrane compartments followed by the recruitment of matrix  proteins and genomes from the cytosol.

A second pathway of envelopment termed wrapping, has been described recently for the large enveloped DNA viruses such as pox viruses, herpes viruses and African Swine Fever virus. These viruses are wrapped by membrane cisternae of the secretory pathway and gain two envelopes in one step. Importantly, wrapped virions are not transfered across a lipid bilayer into a cellular membrane compartment, but remain in the cytosol. Virions enveloped by wrapping are released during cell lysis, or by budding from the plasma membrane.