All terms
Holding your own keys, with everything that follows from that.
Self custody means you control the private key and nobody can freeze, seize or lose your funds on your behalf. It is the point of the whole technology.
It also means you carry the entire responsibility. No password reset, no support line, no reversal. The tradeoff is real and worth making deliberately.
A sensible path is to keep trading funds on an exchange and long term holdings in a hardware wallet you control.
That self custody is an advanced setting. It is the default state of crypto, and custody by somebody else is the exception. What is genuinely advanced is the responsibility, because with self custody every mistake is final and there is nobody to appeal to.
Common questions
What are the real risks of self custody?
How much should I hold in self custody?
Where this comes up on the site
The guides that actually use this word, rather than a list of everything we have written.
Where to go next
More security terms
Want this explained out loud?
Some of these land faster in conversation than in writing. Sessions are one to one and you can ask anything, including the things that feel too obvious to ask.