Happy 4th 🇺🇸

Liquidity is often a big door on the way in and a small door on the way out. For an asset like where systemic risk events are part of the investment thesis, what does that mean for bitcoin held in an ETF? Making good on that thesis will be difficult. Because U.S. spot ETFs deal in cash, you’re boxed out of transacting directly with bitcoin through ETFs. There is no exiting with your bitcoin. When you sell your shares, that transaction will be settled in cash. Selling for cash has its restrictions as well. ETFs primarily trade during market hours (ex. 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. EST in the U.S.). Meanwhile, bitcoin trades 24/7 globally. Traditional stock markets are open 20% of that time when you factor in holidays and weekends. Imagine this scenario. Major news breaks after the market close on a Friday. The BTC price reacts sharply. You watch the candle move Saturday and Sunday. Monday is a holiday and markets are closed. By the time Tuesday opens, you’ve waited 89.5 hours. Even when the market is open, significant volatility can trip circuit breakers and halt trading on securities exchanges. They can be triggered by declines of as little as 7%. That volatility melts brains in TradFi but doesn’t faze most long-time HODLers. A 20% move could trigger a Level 3 breach on the NYSE, which halts trading for the rest of the day. All the while, the bitcoin market continues to trade undeterred worldwide. Granted, crypto exchanges have been known to go down too in times of high traffic, but going offline should be considered a bug vs. a feature in the old system. A primary narrative around bitcoin is its optionality and the ability to exit the legacy financial system. During a recent market rally, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink described investors acquiring crypto as a “flight to quality” amid geopolitical risk. With an ETF, you should expect that flight to be in a holding pattern when markets are closed or disrupted. Furthermore, this dynamic begs the question: do you really own your asset if you can’t use it anytime you need it? Your BTC ETF "ownership" comes with an asterisk (*). Exceptions apply, read the fine print for details. Unfortunately, lots of typical retail investors may not think this far. They just see number go up, and they buy into bitcoin via the ETF. Sharing the benefits of truly owning your BTC is critical as ownership grows and bitcoin becomes money. ETFs help provide liquidity to the overall BTC market, but they lack bitcoin's depth of utility. Self-custody remains the best way to keep bitcoin in your control 24/7. By holding your keys, you realize the full benefits of BTC and aren’t hamstrung in tail-risk events. The door remains wide open. This is why we're focused on building the safest, simplest self-custody possible at Casa. We have to make it easy for as many people as possible to hold their own keys and realize the full value of bitcoin. @Jameson Lopp

One of the most important features of Casa is Sovereign Recovery - the ability to access your #bitcoin even if Casa disappears overnight. We just added wallet descriptors to Casa to make Sovereign Recovery even easier. Huge improvement in simplicity. Wallet descriptors let you copy/paste one string into Sparrow and load up your wallet. Compare this to connecting each key, typing in derivation paths, etc. Casa is all about removing single points of failure in your security - including Casa. This is why individuals and institutions across a huge range of assets protected trust Casa to help them secure their bitcoin. Because otherwise your assets could be stuck in bankruptcy proceedings for a decade.

The most under-appreciated part of Casa's offering by non-customers is our Advisor team. And this is pretty hard to convey in traditional "marketing"; you have to experience it to understand it. Casa was the first self-custody company to offer hands on, high touch advisory. Competitors have tried to copy this over the years, but the level of quality just doesn't come close. We've had many clients who have used both Casa and our competitors tell us that Casa's Advisors are by far the most helpful, knowledgable, and trustworthy. Casa Advisors are the ones you want in your court when you're trying to figure out something weird with your keys or your vault, which can be an incredibly high stakes interaction. They do everything from answering basic bitcoin questions, to helping recover assets from old paper wallets, to just being your bitcoin therapist when you don't have anyone else in your life to talk to about it. Don't settle for the cargo-cult when it comes to security advice; Casa Advisors are second to none, and you want them on your team.

DON'T LET YOUR BITCOIN DIE WITH YOU 💀 ⚰️ Yea look, nobody likes to admit it but we all have to die one day. As I've been talking to people about their self custody lately - both Casa members and not - I hear the same thing over and over. "What happens if I die?" Many people feel pretty good about their bitcoin security for themselves. But their family members often have no idea how to use this stuff. Hardware wallet? Seed phrase stamped on metal? Shamir's secret sharing backups using SD cards, a passphrase, and a treasure hunt through the backyard with a shovel? 😵 We're solving that problem for all Casa members, starting today with Casa Inheritance. A key design principle we kept while building this was to make it as simple as possible for Recipients (your family members that will receive your bitcoin if you pass), while maintaining Casa-level security. An estate transfer is already a stressful time for family, and it can become even more stressful if you add in a crazy treasure hunt to access a fortune in bitcoin. For our basic 3 key vaults, we wanted it to be as easy as using the app. No metal plates, no need to use a hardware wallet, no magic passwords you have to keep track of or else risk messing up the asset transfer. Simplicity is security. So how does it work, in detail? A Vault Owner (Casa member) designates a Recipient (their family or friend) in the Casa app. The Recipient receives an invite to create a free Casa account. The Recipient scans a QR code provided by the Vault Owner, which contains an encrypted version of the owner's mobile key. This encrypted key is only able to be imported by the Recipient's Casa account, and the Recipient can't initially use it or see the vault balance. If the Vault Owner passes away, the Recipient can request access to the vault in their Casa app. This starts a 6 month timer, and sends a ton of notifications every month to the owner. If the owner is still alive, they can reject the request in app. If they are not, the timer will run out. When it does, the Recipient will be able to use the shared mobile key and the request a signature from the Casa Recovery Key for the shared vault. This gives them 2 out of 3 signatures, enough to access the assets. For 5 key vault users, one hardware key is shared with the Recipient. This small increase in friction for Recipients is often worth it for the increased security and resilience of a 5 key vault for larger holdings. To summarize now that you have the details: 1. Share keys and vault access during setup 2. 6 month timelock to ensure no malicious theft 3. Use shared keys and Casa key to access assets Full setup takes less than 5 minutes. Inheritance is one of the biggest problems in self custody today. If you've hodled through years of painful bear markets, you owe it to yourself and your family to not let the reward for that patience go to zero because you didn't have a plan - and we're here to make that easy. Like I said earlier this week - Casa is going after major problems in self-custody this year. Check this one off the list ✅. Next one coming sooner than you think 🔥. Learn more: casa.io/inheritance