Tuesday was the 5th annual 'take your Bitcoin off exchanges' day (seriously, it's a thing).

Right, let's start this one out with some cold hard context:

The very first Bitcoin was mined on January 3rd, 2009 - which people refer to as the 'Genesis Block.'

And since 2019, Bitcoin supporters far and wide have celebrated that day with a unique tradition called: "Proof of Keys."

What's the big idea?

Every year on January 3rd, the BTC community encourages fellow Bitcoiners to pull their BTC off exchanges, and into their own self managed wallets.

Which is kind of like pulling your money out of the bank and storing it in your own safe, as a middle finger to the banking system.

Does the practice of self-custody make sense? Yes, it does - especially after the whole FTX collapse.

Do we need to make a whole day out of it? No, not really. But hey, crypto is a weird space, so we're just rolling with it.

...and turns out - so is everyone else.

The tradition is gaining more and more traction each year.

How do you get involved?

By storing your coins on something like TrustWallet (a self-custody software wallet) or a Ledger hardware wallet.

(That's it, that's all there is to it).