# Crypto Self-Custody

By [The Explorer](https://paragraph.com/@the-explorer) · 2025-05-06

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“**_Not your keys, not your coins._**”

A common phrase in the cryptocurrency world that explains that if we don’t hold the private keys/seed phrases, then the coins in the wallet are not ours.

The crypto world gives us the option to be able to store our own crypto assets without the need for a third party to store the private key/seed phrase, this usually happens when we use the Centralized Exchange (CEX), when we use CEX services to buy and sell, then wallet control is also on the CEX side.

Crypto self-custody itself is the activity of storing Crypto assets under our supervision/authority.

There are 4 ways for us to do self-custody of crypto assets, namely:

1.  **HOT WALLET** (Metamask, Phantom, etc) HOT WALLET is a self-custody wallet that is still connected to the internet, Usually, this wallet is relatively easy to use to make transactions, but the risk of exposure to digital crime is also very high.
    
2.  **COLD WALLET** (Trezor, Ledger, etc) COLD WALLET is a self-custody wallet that is not connected to the internet and requires a special device. We only need to save/memorize the seed phrase from this Cold Wallet, if the Device is lost, as long as we still save the seed phrase, then our wallet can be recovered. Usually, this cold wallet is used for self-custody that has a large amount of assets and for the long term.
    
3.  **Multisig Wallet** (Gnosis Safe, etc.) Multisig wallets are self-custody wallets that have multiple signatures when making transactions, so they directly add a stronger security factor because transaction validation must be done by more than 1 or multi wallet.
    
4.  **SmartContract Wallet** (Argent X, etc) Smartcontract wallets are wallets that run completely end-to-end using smart contracts on the blockchain network, These wallets are more expensive because they have more advanced security features, and there is also asset management. Here you can also use the “Guardian” feature, which is the same as the multisig feature, to increase transaction security.
    

Conclusion: If you have a large enough asset that will be stored for a long time, it is recommended to use a cold wallet. But for daily transactions, you can use Hot Wallet, where the nominal amount of assets is limited to only a certain number of transactions.

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#Blockchain #Web3 #Cryptocurrency #Crypto #SelfCustody #HotWallet #ColdWallet

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*Originally published on [The Explorer](https://paragraph.com/@the-explorer/crypto-self-custody)*