Non-Custodial vs Custodial Trading: Why FTX Users Lost Everything and Self-Custody Users Didn't
FTX users lost billions trusting a custodian. Non-custodial trading means you hold your keys — the bot trades but can never move your funds. How it works.
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TL;DR
Non-custodial means you hold your private keys — the platform can execute trades but cannot withdraw your funds. Custodial means the platform holds your keys and has full control. FTX users lost billions because it was custodial. Stratium is non-custodial: it can mirror trades but cannot move your SOL to an external address.
Florian
Founder & Head of Quant — Stratium
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Written by
Florian
Founder & Head of Quant — Stratium
Florian is the founder and Head of Quant at Stratium. With 5+ years of experience in quantitative finance and algorithmic trading, he built the copy trading engine from the ground up on Solana — designing the strategy curation framework, FIFO PnL engine, position sizing models, and on-chain execution infrastructure. He writes about quantitative trading, Solana DeFi, and the data behind copy trading performance.