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Crypto ETF
A crypto ETF is an exchange-traded fund or similar product that tracks the price of a cryptocurrency and trades on a regular stock exchange like a share. You own shares of the fund, not the coins themselves.
What it means for you. You hold shares through a brokerage account, so you have no private keys and cannot send the coins to a wallet. The fund charges yearly fees that reduce what you get back over time. The SEC said approving spot bitcoin ETP shares in January 2024 was not an approval or endorsement of bitcoin itself.
Sources: SEC: Statement on the Approval of Spot Bitcoin Exchange-Traded Products, FINRA: Exchange-Traded Funds and Products · checked 4 October 2026
Self-custody
Self-custody means holding the private keys to your crypto yourself, in a wallet you control, instead of leaving them with a company. Nobody else can freeze, move or lend your coins, and nobody else can restore them if the keys are lost.
What it means for you. You carry the whole job of backup: if the seed phrase is lost or stolen, there is no password reset and no one to call. Anyone offering to recover a self-custody wallet for a fee is very likely a scam. Test restoring from your backup before relying on it.
Sources: ethereum.org: Ethereum wallets, bitcoin.org: Secure your wallet, SEC Office of Investor Education: Crypto asset custody basics for retail investors, BIP-39: Mnemonic code for generating deterministic keys · checked 4 October 2026