After FTX Fiasco, Crypto Players Want Market To Be Decentralized

As questions swirl about how much cryptocurrencies will be worth in the wake of the spectacular collapse of the crypto exchange FTX and other major platforms, a key question has emerged: Who will keep your crypto safe?

Photo Insert: Prior to its collapse, FTX was the world's fifth-largest cryptocurrency exchange.

In response, some in the crypto community are calling for a return to its decentralized roots, Rob Wile wrote for NBC News. Among the rallying cries of this latent movement: “Not your keys, not your coins.” In other words: Trust only yourself.

But doing so requires individuals to maintain their own cryptocurrency wallets through a more complicated — if safer — process that involves generating complex passwords and sometimes buying physical hardware to keep track of crypto, as opposed to entrusting it to an exchange.

"A company like FTX was supposed to hold your assets, but they ended up lending them out," Tracy Wang, deputy managing editor at the crypto news site CoinDesk, told NBC News. That concept is what undergirds the traditional monetary system and seems to go against the fundamental philosophy of cryptocurrency.

"This is like taking power back and being in charge of your own money," Wang said of decentralization.

Prior to its collapse, FTX was the world's fifth-largest cryptocurrency exchange, according to data from the crypto group CoinGecko cited by Reuters, processing $627 billion in trading volume year-to-date.

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