BitMEX and BitMart shutting down in the same week is the healthiest thing to happen to crypto this month

Centralized exchanges BitMEX and BitMart both announced they're shutting down. The announcements came 4 days apart. This is a good thing.

While this is healthy and a shakeout is the market doing its job, this is also a flashing sign about where your money should actually live. Get your money off exchanges and start actually holding your assets.

BitMart has literally said that requests to withdraw your assets, after they announced a shutdown, may get extra compliance and identity checks. Read that again. Your funds are now on their timeline, not yours. That is the entire risk of a custodial exchange in one sentence. Your assets aren't actually yours because you need their permission to move it.

"But Timmy, those are sktechy and shady exchanges. I'll just keep my money on Coinbase or Binance because self-custody is too risky and they are big exchanges" Yeah, so was FTX. BitMEX just shut down still carrying an old US case and a $100M settlement. Binance settled with US regulators and its founder pleaded guilty. Coinbase spent years fighting the SEC in court. Some of these survive, sure, and Coinbase & Binance probably are among those, but they can still freeze funds and restrict your account and seize your assets.

NYKNYC gang will stay undefeated. Dex volume and depth is closing the gap on centralized exchanges. Wallet UI/UX is getting super slick. If you aren't self-custodying, this is your sign.

Get a wallet, preferably a hardware wallet. I personally like Trezor & Tangem for hardware and Rabby for software, but really any option (besides like, Atomic Wallet) is better than keeping everything on an exchange.

I'm not sad about BitMEX or BitMart. The centralized model asked you to trust a company with your money, and a decade of blowups (Mt. Gox, FTX, Celsius, and now a wave of wind-downs) is the receipt. Self-custody & decentralized exchanges aren't the degen corner of crypto anymore. It's the safe version. Self-custody is true ownership.