Glossary · compliance and risk
What is self-custody?
Self-custody means holding your own private keys, so no company can move your assets and no company can lose them. It is the strongest form of control available and it transfers every remaining risk to you.
The trade, stated honestly in both directions
Self-custody removes counterparty risk. No firm can freeze your funds, no insolvency can trap them, and no policy change can restrict what you do with them. For anyone who has watched a platform fail, that is not an abstract benefit.
It also removes everything a custodian was doing. Conversion, fiat settlement, screening, reconciliation, a single balance to reason about, and someone to contact when something is wrong. Those all become yours.
And it introduces a risk with no equivalent in the custodial model. A lost key or a compromised seed phrase is final. There is no recovery, no reset, and no support team that can help.
For a payments business the practical position is usually a mix. Operating balances sit with a provider because conversion and settlement need them to. Reserves you do not need this week can sit in self-custody. Withdrawing to your own wallet is how you move between the two.
How to think about the split
Three questions rather than an ideological answer.
How soon do you need to spend it
Working capital wants convenience. Reserves can afford friction.
Frequently asked questions
Can I self-custody and still use CoinGate?
Yes. Withdraw to your own wallet as often as you like. Funds only sit with us while you leave them there.
Is self-custody safer?
It removes counterparty risk and adds key-loss risk. Which is safer depends entirely on how well you can operate keys.
Why does CoinGate not offer non-custodial processing?
Because conversion, fiat settlement and screening all require holding the funds. If self-custody is a requirement for you, a non-custodial gateway is the honest recommendation.
What happens if I lose my key?
The funds are unrecoverable. That is the defining property of self-custody and it is not softened by anything.