Not your keys, not your coins

In plain words

When a company holds your bitcoin, you own the company's promise — nothing more. Its worth is their honesty, their security, their solvency. History grades the promise hard: exchanges have been hacked, frozen, and bankrupted with customer money inside, from Mt. Gox to FTX. Hold your own keys and that entire species of risk dies. The slogan is not anti-exchange. It is an accounting of what you have — until you withdraw.

Why it matters

• Customers of failed exchanges wait years for partial refunds.
• Withdrawal is the only proof a balance was ever real.
• Self-custody has its own risks. The slogan opens the question; it does not close it.

Go deeper

• Custodial vs self-custody
• Seed phrase
• Mt. Gox