Self-Custody
Holding your own private keys rather than letting a bank or exchange hold them for you.
Self-custody means you alone control a wallet’s private keys — and therefore its funds. The alternative is custodial: an exchange or platform controls the keys and promises to pay you back on demand. “Not your keys, not your coins.”
The responsibility flip
With self-custody there’s no customer support hotline and no insurance: lose the keys and the funds are unrecoverable. That trade-off — full control versus full responsibility — is the fundamental choice in crypto ownership.
Why it’s a decentralization instinct
Self-custody reduces reliance on intermediaries and shifts trust from companies to cryptography. Its adoption rate is one quiet indicator of how genuinely decentralized a crypto ecosystem has become.
Related terms
Wallet, Private Key, Seed Phrase, Exchange, Custody