The role of self-custody in cryptocurrency and the challenges of mass adoption were at the center of a conversation between Roundtable anchor Rob Nelson, Kelly Kellam, Director of BitLab Academy, and Brian Dixon, CEO of Off The Chain Capital.

The discussion explored whether individuals will choose to self-custody their digital assets or rely on institutions and platforms like Coinbase and ETFs for convenience.

"I don't think most people will self-custody," Rob Nelson stated. "The majority of people in the world aren't going to sell custody to their coins." He expressed doubt that the average person would move away from platforms like Coinbase or Gemini in favor of managing their own assets.

Kelly Kellam agreed, saying, "I think people still feel like they need a customer service representative to call." He noted that while bitcoin offers more freedom, many users might choose the security and simplicity of letting institutions handle custody instead of taking on that responsibility themselves.

Brian Dixon added to the conversation by highlighting the importance of reducing friction for the average investor. "Convenience and removal of friction is what's going to attract the fastest adoption," he explained, pointing to Coinbase’s role in simplifying access to bitcoin and the success of ETFs in doing the same for hesitant investors.

Looking ahead, Dixon stressed that widespread adoption of bitcoin as a network will depend on user-friendly applications. "No network is valuable unless it has a tremendous amount of users on that network," he said, suggesting that expanding the user base will help prevent institutions from monopolizing bitcoin.