In a press release, NYDIG announced that Drew Brees will start using its Bitcoin Savings Plan to convert a portion of his compensation to bitcoin. We’ve seen several headlines like this in the past few months and, while this announcement is more hype than news, there is one important thing to be learned here: the crypto will be stored in NYDIG’s “cold storage system.” That means Drew isn’t really getting paid in crypto; he’s getting paid in a percentage ownership of someone else’s crypto. This is a non-trivial point. In HODLer-speak: “Not your keys, not your coins.” Said differently, if you don’t have custody of your coins, you don’t actually own them.
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