Bitcoin’s original philosophy was “Be your own bank” (“Not your keys, not your coins”), but BlackRock is turning this on its head, using the fear of individuals managing their own keys as a sales pitch. 1. Practical Limits of Security and Inheritance The burden of security responsibilities—such as losing private keys, falling victim to phishing or hacking, inheritance disruptions upon death, or physical coercion—is simply too great for individuals to bear alone. 2. Institutional and Fiduciary Regulation “Real money”—such as pension funds or family offices—cannot legally store cold wallets in corporate vaults due to internal audit and compliance requirements. A regulated, insured custodial network subject to SEC oversight is mandatory. Ultimately, in the very asset born to eliminate financial intermediaries, BlackRock is engaging in a quintessentially BlackRock-style maneuver: asserting, “You lack the capacity to manage this yourself—entrust it to us and pay our fees,” thereby pulling it back into the fold of the institutional financial cartel.