Not Your Keys, Not Your Coins: What True Self-Custody Actually Requires

New research examines how investor behavior, wallet architectures, and operational security practices determine what genuine self-custody requires in 2026.

The foundational promise of cryptocurrency is decentralized, sovereign ownership. But this promise has run into a far more sobering reality, as a lot of funds held on centralized exchanges have been lost over the years. Users have learned the same lesson in different forms: Not your keys, not your coins.

Cointelegraph Research’s latest report, produced in collaboration with Trezor, the original hardware wallet, and titled “The Future of Self-Custody: Turning Ownership Into Security,” examines how this realization has reshaped investor behavior. Drawing on survey responses, post-mortem analyses of exchange failures, and a breakdown of modern wallet architectures, the report explains why self-custody should be a defining topic for crypto security in 2026.

Read the full research report to see how Cointelegraph Research translates what genuine self-custody security requires in 2026

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