Just this morning, crypto futures exchange @OKEx announced that all withdrawals are suspended until further notice.
This is the 11th largest exchange in the world doing over $3b in volume per day freezing all customer funds without wanring. Typically this means the exchange was hacked, the people running the exchange are "exit scamming" their customers (disappearing with their crypto) or in this case apparently someone hodling the exchange's private key is under arrest.
In any case, it always ends badly for customers who keep their crypto on an exchange. If you haven't heard this before, read it 10 times:
NOT YOUR KEYS. NOT YOUR CRYPTO.
This is the rallying cry of crypto OG's who've seen this happen too many times to count. If you're not in possession of the private keys to your crypto, then someone else is.
Exchanges are a necessary part of the crypto ecosystem. We need exchanges to exit the legacy financial system, but that doesn't mean you should let them hodl your crypto.
Hodling your crypto yourself and taking full responsibility for it (aka self custody) is an immensely empowering experience. It's also "the right way" to use crypto and the best way to avoid your crypto being hacked, stolen or frozen. But with great power comes great responsiblilty.
The first step is to learn how to use Bitcoin. Then get yourself a hardware wallet. Our favorite is the Trezor One or Trezor Model T.
Once you have a hardware wallet, take it slow. Send small amounts of crypto back and forth with it. Write down your seed phrase, reset your device with a small amount of crypto on it and then import your key to familiarize yourself with how it works. And if you have any questions or need a hand, hit reply - I'm happy to help.
To the moon 🚀 — @GΞR฿Z Founder & Creator @ BitLift
Tweet of the Week
Incase you've been living under a rock, you should know that public companies are buying millions Billions of dollars worth of bitcoin. Here's a list of every public company currently hodling bitcoin on their balance sheet. You know there will only ever be 21 million bitcoins right?