Cryptoverse: Bitcoin investors take control

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Paranoid? The domino downfall of FTX and other crypto custodians is enough to make the most trusting investor grab their bitcoin and shove it under the mattress.

Indeed, holders big and small are taking "self-custody" of their funds, moving them from crypto exchanges and trading platforms to personal digital wallets.

In a sign of this shift among retail investors, the number of bitcoin held in smaller wallets - those with under 10 bitcoin - rose to 3.35 million as of Jan. 11, up 23 per cent from the 2.72 million held a year ago, according to data from CoinMetrics.

As a percentage of total bitcoin supply, wallet addresses holding under 10 bitcoin now own 17.4 per cent, up from 14.4 per cent a year ago.

"A lot of this really depends on how frequently you're trading," said Joshua Peck, founder of hedge fund TrueCode Capital. "If you're just going buy and hold for the next 10 years, then it's probably worth making the investment and learning how to custody your assets really, really well."