What people are really asking

Headlines about stolen coins and collapsed exchanges make Bitcoin sound unsafe. Leaders want to know whether their money could be taken.

What is true in the myth

Money has been stolen. Exchanges have been hacked and some have failed, taking customer funds with them. Mt. Gox in 2014 and FTX in 2022 are the best known. Individuals have lost coins to phishing, malware and fake apps. These are real losses and any serious plan assumes they can happen.

Where the myth breaks down

Separate the layers. The network, meaning the protocol and its ledger, has run continuously for years without anyone rewriting its history or creating coins outside its rules. Almost every loss happened one layer above, in a company that held other people’s coins, or in a person who lost control of their keys. Think of the difference between a bank vault and a bank’s website.

As a software developer, I look at it this way: the weak point is nearly always the human and the process. A single person holding a single key on a single laptop is a single point of failure. So is trusting a platform whose books you cannot see.

How the risk is reduced

Do not leave funds on a trading platform. Hold them in custody built for the purpose.
Use more than one key. A multi-signature setup requires several approvals to move funds, so one stolen or lost key is not enough.
Split roles. The person who proposes a payment should not be the one who approves it.
Test recovery. A backup you have never restored is a hope, not a plan.
Keep records. Know who can do what, and write down what happens when someone leaves.

What we do with your team

We design the custody setup with you, choose between self-custody and a regulated custodian, and run a recovery drill before significant funds move. Our custody guide explains the options.