Self-custody
Holding your own bitcoin directly, controlling the private keys yourself, rather than leaving it with an exchange, ETF, or other third party. The phrase 'not your keys, not your coins' captures the trade-off: self-custody removes counterparty risk but puts the responsibility for key security entirely on you. It is the opposite end of the spectrum from holding a spot ETF.
How to read it
Self-custody means the keys, and therefore the coins, are yours alone. No exchange failure, no fund gate, no custodian freeze can touch them. The cost is that every safeguard is now your job: seed backup, inheritance planning, physical security. Read the decision as a spectrum, not a purity test, from custodial app to ETF to hardware wallet to multisig, each step trading convenience for sovereignty.
On Galaxy Mind
The /fit engine respects the spectrum: account type is one of its three inputs, and portfolios differ between taxable brokerage, IRA wrappers, and direct holdings. The vendor directory is the other half of the story, self-custodied sats are most alive when there are real merchants to spend them with.
Context
Every cycle re-teaches the lesson: Mt. Gox, Celsius, FTX. 'Not your keys, not your coins' survives because it keeps being right. The counterweight is the quiet epidemic of lost coins, several million BTC by most estimates, gone to forgotten seeds and dead drives, which is why the honest advice is custody matched to competence, not maximalism.