Thanks for this. Damnit, it seems that every time I think I've found a reputable and 'safe' exchange to use this happens. le sigh

I was trying to warn people months ago but nobody in the industry wanted to talk about it ..... It shows just how compromised sponsored people are. https://noagendatube.com/w/qfgNJkcJUfVdJwzY9G5USt

Prime Trust is a trust company, so if they fail to hold Swan's clients' BTC in customer name (which would allow customers to withdraw to their wallets/move to new custodian) then they're all going jail (and PT is going into receivership).

Prime Trust has been on a decline for a while now. They no longer operate in South Dakota (North?). The ripple effect is companies like Strike can no longer operate there.

Prime Trust is used by so many platforms. They offer a lot of services related to market making, KYC, ant-fraud and also data custody.

I expect things to continue to be problematic. Prime Trust works with companies that dabble in crypto and I believe also offers crypto based custody services directly.

Coinbase even uses Prime Trust for some of its services. Would not be surprised if Binance does too.

Considering all current news related to Bitcoin and crypto as well as all current economic conditions with interests rates going up, it is not out of the realm to think that VC capital is evaporating. That plus the potential for the SEC to kill crypto I believe will be very disruptive short term, but in the long term all companies will refocus their efforts back into Bitcoin, or collapse entirely.

The problem is that you don't need nearly as big of a company or complex of a product offering if you plan to scale down. So my hope here is that these companies who offer crypto and Bitcoin products will spin down the right products.

The lessons for these exchange platforms and especially the ones that chest beat about being "Bitcoiners" so loudly should be that if you don't want to take on the responsibility outsourced to companies like Prime Trust, you should distribute the responsibility among multiple companies.

Maybe Prime Trust is the only company that does what they do.

In any case the Lightning Network is hungry for some new human capital to join and start building. We should welcome in any refugees from the minefields they are currently in with open arms and a strong cup of coffee.

I love River Financial. They also do you the favor of being tax focused so their dashboard is built to show you all that information. I don't think River uses Prime Trust.

Swan is a "media" company first, which I'm pretty leery about. Doesn't help that I find their content to be really basic, either. Funny how nowadays Microstrategy is doing more for the space than Swan, which only seems to be drumming up hype to prop influencers. I don't mind Cory too much, though. At the end of the day I tell people to use Bisq and Robosats instead, far less risky

Bitcoin magazine CEO

There's no need to keep your Bitcoin in any exchange.

Bitcoin doesn't need any company.

Kill your heroes!

Oh, also, don't forgot the repeated customer data leaks they had because they were so focused on marketing they just "had to" be using a bunch of 3rd party services to do email funnels. They were part of two or three big ones.

River strike cashapp for me

Oh, I just remembered this morning... I recall hearing a year or two ago about Swan being Prime Trust's biggest customer by a long shot, like >50% (don't quote me on it though, could be wrong), and even though Prime lists big customers, they offer broad services so Binance US etc likely just getting something a la carte. Swan realizing they need to move and then pulling the plug in this environment makes it seem likely they won't survive.

A tweet I saw showed Fortress CEO is original Prime CEO so that doesn't seem promising.

Just got setup with River Financial and so far I'm liking it. Recurring buy is free, and auto-withdraw to your wallet of choice is less than 3% (depending on network). Their custody is in-house; at least better than Swan in that regard.

It's still astonishing that there's no multisig Bitcoin exchange.

There are a lot of people who call themselves Bitcoiners who are nothing more than affinity scammers. Please don't conflate them with the rest of us who genuinely want sound money.

But to your broader point, most Bitcoin companies are just as doomed as all shitcoin companies. They are houses built on sand -- ever-shifting state policies. Congress could pass a law banning cryptocurrencies tomorrow, and there's nothing any cryptocurrency company could do. Bitcoin would do fine, while Bitcoin companies crash and burn.

According to https://help.swanbitcoin.com/hc/en-us/articles/360045938594 manual withdrawals are currently working.

Bitcoin on exchanges should be just enough to do some betting if you're into that. Besides that, there is no reason not to self custody it IMO.

Assume that you're going to lose whatever sats you have on services that have the private key for your UTXO.

If you’re in Europe, use something like https://relai.app/

Kraken has also been very good for a long time.