Bitcoin advocate and CEO of Jan3 Samson Mow has warned that keeping Bitcoin on centralized exchanges like Coinbase and Binance comes with serious risks, noting that users don’t have the same protections as they do with traditional bank accounts.

“Technically, they’re not really custodians,” Mow said in an interview with TheStreet Roundtable Rob Nelson. “If you read the terms of services for some of these exchanges, you don’t have the same protections as with fiat in a bank account. It’s actually safer to keep it yourself because there’s a lot of instances where exchanges can just take your funds or freeze your funds for various reasons. And there’s very little recourse, especially if they’re not in your jurisdiction.”

Mow compared holding Bitcoin on exchanges to depositing money in a bank but highlighted a key difference — banks are at least regulated under government protections like FDIC insurance.

“You’re saying you don’t have an FDIC protecting X amount of your invest dollars,” Nelson asked. Mow confirmed, “Yeah, but that is changing because banks are now allowed to custody Bitcoin. So if you don’t want to keep your own keys and you want to keep it at a bank, it’s looking like you can very soon keep your money at the bank and even borrow against it.”

However, Mow remains a strong advocate for self-custody. “Aqua and a lot of non-custodial wallets mean that you have your own keys, you’re responsible for your funds 100%,” he explained. “If you lose your backup, it’s gone. And that can be scary for some people.”

He pointed to the growing adoption of non-custodial wallets, particularly in Latin America, where millions are transacting with Tether. “There’s some 400 million people around the world transacting with Tether, and I would estimate a good portion of those are using non-custodial solutions where they have their own keys, and they seem to be okay with it,” he said.

Mow believes self-custody is a return to financial independence. “It’s like going back to a gold standard where you have to have a vault and keep your gold yourself, not just give it to the bank,” he said. While it may seem daunting to some, Mow argued, “If you can drive a car, you can write down 12 words.”