If you hadn’t heard already, you should hear about mainstream stock exchanges (most notably American) adopting Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies within the next few months. They will adopt, and then you will be able purchase from them, and store it with them. This will make things very simple for the average buyer to adopt cryptocurrency.
But who is really benefiting from this? Are you the own who actually owns these assets or are they just paying returns on ETFs and other types of funds? These are questions you need to ask. Many people who already own BTC hold it in cold storage, tucked away for when the prices increases to a point that they’ve made significant return. Letting 3rd parties hold onto your digital assets is not recommended by many experts in the field. In fact, it is even warned against in Satoshi Nakomoto’s whitepaper for Bitcoin. When you let major institutions hold onto your assets, you are subject to the same flaws of keeping your money with traditional banks such as; inability to send or receive across borders, charged high fees and interest, left vulnerable to hacks, and vulnerability to policy changes made by unpredictable governments. Large, centralized locations that hold high volumes of digital assets, will always be the largest target for hackers to take the most they can with one simple hack.
Learn how to manage and secure your own assets and control of your own fate. With proper storage, you can become an international citizen in the way Bitcoin is the first border-less currency. Stay away from centralized platforms to protect yourself. You already see in the news that major centralized exchanges (ex. Coinbase) is handing over your personal information to governments and tax collection agencies. Cryptocurrency is all about taking control away from the governments and banks, and putting it back into the rightful hands, the people.