Saylor voices Bitcoin self-custody support amid backlash

Bitcoin maximalist Michael Saylor believes Bitcoin’s ecosystem should welcome everyone and every type of custodial option available.

Cryptocurrency community leaders and members criticized MicroStrategy executive chairman Michael Saylor for comments that seemingly criticized users who self-custody Bitcoin (BTC). Saylor suggested that so-called “crypto-anarchists” solely advocating against institutional safekeeping of digital assets were counterintuitive to Bitcoin’s regulatory security and mass adoption.

The comments attracted scrutiny from Bitcoin proponents like ShapeShift founder Erik Voorhees and crypto developers like Ethereum’s Vitalik Buterin. Buterin, in particular, found Saylor’s comments on custody to be “bat shit insane.”

Without publicly addressing any individual backlash, Saylor’s Oct. 23 post expressed support for the right to choose how assets like Bitcoin should be kept. The post advocated for considering and accepting all available options for BTC custody based on personal preference.

Self-custody has long been a prevailing concept in crypto circles since blockchain’s inception. The entire industry was built on declining trust in legacy institutions and a shift towards separating money from the state.

Fifteen years after Bitcoin’s launch, developments like spot BTC ETFs have ushered in a new era of holding Bitcoin. While many agree that ETFs have encouraged global adoption, calls for self-custody of Bitcoin have never faded away. 

If anything, the conversation around individual custody of assets like BTC has only increased in 2024. Maxis, a term describing believers of a single blockchain asset, relentlessly argue that decentralized crypto storage remains users’ best defense against censorship and centralized failure points.