Bybit was recently hacked, with over $1 billion worth of Ethereum stolen. It became the dominant topic in my group chats and social feeds.
I don’t know much about Bybit and this post isn’t about them. But if you’ve followed my writing, you know I’ve always been bullish on self-custody. If you’re going to hold crypto, you should physically control the majority of it—on a cold wallet, USB drive, or another secure format.
Time and time again, we see massive amounts of crypto stolen from centralized exchanges. This, of course, seems to defeat the purpose of crypto in my eyes, which is supposed to be entirely decentralized. For me, the core value of crypto is in two things:
- Self-custody and totally decentralized
- The ability to conduct fast, automated transactions at scale—without a middleman.
Milei Coin? Trump Coin? Kanye Coin? Unless these projects develop real utility—where holders are compensated or receive tangible benefits—there’s little to no value in them. They’re just temporary hype cycles. There’s no other way to spin it.
This brings me back to the Bybit hack, with over $1 billion being stolen and the inherent risks of keeping all crypto on exchanges. One hack can wipe out everything. Some might even say that over a long enough timeline, everything in crypto will get hacked at least once. The only way to protect against these hacks is to focus some of one’s holdings on cold storage, totally disconnected from the web.
If the initial reports are correct, North Korean hackers pulled off the Bybit breach. Think about the risk-reward here: If you spend a decade trying to hack an exchange and eventually score $1 billion—especially in a country like North Korea—the payoff is extraordinary. You have just outperformed 99% of startups reaching unicorn status.
The Bybit hack is yet another reminder that self-custody is the foundation of crypto. If you don’t store your crypto in cold storage, what’s the point? A brokerage is centralized. But crypto was founded to be decentralized! I can’t be the only one who sees this irony.