Trezor executive: Handing over all Bitcoin to ETFs would be the worst outcome for the industry, undermining the core principle of self-custody
According to The Block, executives from hardware wallet manufacturer Trezor stated that the market's trend of fully pushing Bitcoin towards ETFization may pose a long-term risk to the core principles of the crypto industry. According to the company's Chief Business Officer Danny Sanders during the BTC Prague event, the current global crypto user base is approximately 600 million, but only about 10% of users choose to self-custody their assets, with only about 12 to 13 million users using hardware wallets.Since the launch of the U.S. spot Bitcoin ETF in 2024, which has attracted over $53 billion in inflows, institutional allocation of Bitcoin has significantly increased. However, Sanders pointed out that this trend may also weaken users' behavior of directly holding private keys. He believes that self-custody is one of the core attributes of the Bitcoin system, but there are still significant challenges in terms of user experience and security thresholds, leading more users to prefer participating in the market through custodial tools like exchanges or ETFs.Sanders emphasized that the industry should focus on improving the usability and security of self-custody, rather than simply accepting the path of "putting Bitcoin into ETFs." He stated that if the long-term evolution leads to an ETF-dominated holding structure, it would undermine the foundational logic of Bitcoin as a decentralized asset, which could be the "least ideal outcome" for the industry.