If you're hodling crypto on an exchange, here's the hard truth: you don't actually own it. Not really.

Yeah, the balance shows in your account, but the keys? The actual private keys that control those coins? They're sitting on the exchange's servers, not yours. Which means the exchange controls them—not you.

So what happens when an exchange goes down? Gets hacked? Faces regulatory issues? Your funds could be frozen, seized, or just... gone. You've got no direct access, no way to move them, nothing.

That's why the OGs keep repeating it: "Not your keys, not your coins."

Self-custody via your own wallet? It's a different ballgame. Sure, there's more responsibility—you can't lose your seed phrase or forget your password. But at least the coins are actually *yours*. No middleman, no counterparty risk, just you and the blockchain.

Trade on exchanges, sure. But for serious holdings? Get those coins off the platform and into a wallet where only you control the keys. That's real ownership.