During a clear-out in 2013, a man in Newport binned an old hard drive with the keys to around 8, 000 BTC. At its October 2025 all-time high, the hard drive would amount to somewhere around 100, 800, 000 GBP. Until now, he has been fighting to dig up the landfill and find his hard drive.
The BTC was not lost. What he lost access to was the one proof that the coins were his.
Custody is really that simple, and that unforgiving: not the coins themselves, but who holds the proof of them, and what happens if it is lost, stolen, or locked away. In this article are the main ways to hold crypto, with the upside and the catch of each.
What custody actually means
Here is the fact that catches people out: your coins do not sit inside your wallet. They live on the blockchain, a shared public record, and what your wallet holds is a private key, the secret that lets you move those coins.
Whoever has the key controls the money; whoever loses it loses experience.
Managed custody: a provider looks after the keys
With managed custody, a provider holds the keys and can restore access if you get locked out, much like online banking. A managed crypto brokerage offering institutional-grade custody and OTC trading runs that safekeeping, and you can weigh up
<p><em>Disclaimer: MoneyMagpie is not a licensed
