Why CZ Says Self-Custody Is Riskier Than Centralized Exchanges?
Binance founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ) said exchanges are statistically safer than self-custody, citing new Bitcoin (BTC) loss data from analyst Willy Woo.
Woo shared figures from River's 2025 industry report on Monday, showing 1.57 million BTC lost through self-custody compared with 1.51 million BTC lost on exchanges. The gap sits below 60,000 BTC.
Why CZ Says Exchange Hacks Look Worse Than They Are
Zhao argued the comparison misses how each side reports losses. Exchange hacks generate major headlines. Hence, reporters and researchers track them closely. Self-custody losses, however, rarely reach the same visibility.
Lost private keys, forgotten passwords, and destroyed hardware wallets often go unreported. As a result, Zhao suggested the self-custody figure likely understates the true scale of losses.
He also noted that some exchange-side losses come from platforms that no longer operate. BitMEX, for instance, announced its shutdown in July, closing an 11-year run. Meanwhile, industry hack tracking shows incidents climbed roughly 50% in the first half of 2026, even as total stolen sums fell.
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