What is self-custody?
Holding your own crypto directly, controlling the private keys yourself, rather than leaving it with an exchange or custodian.
When you hold crypto on an exchange, the exchange controls the keys and you hold a claim against the company. Self-custody removes that intermediary: the funds are yours in the strict sense, and no company failure or account freeze can reach them.
Why it matters: “not your keys, not your coins” exists because several large custodians have collapsed and taken customer balances with them. But self-custody moves the entire risk onto you — losing a seed phrase or falling for a phishing site has no recovery path. Neither choice is safe; they fail differently.
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