FTX Crash Lessons: Secure Your Crypto with Hardware Wallets

Hamed Daram

Unless you’ve been under a rock or you’ve successfully tuned out Cryptocurrency news - you would have seen the news about Sam Bankman-Fried and his FTX crisis.

I made a ton of short-form videos about this (linked down below), but I want to reiterate the number one lesson from this whole debacle: hardware wallets.

FTX, a cryptocurrency exchange, swindled billions of dollars from its customers. Picture this, you deposit money into FTX thinking it’s going to be safe but really FTX has a backdoor setup for your money to be used for irresponsible (and largely unknown) purposes.

Ownership is among the top reasons for pioneering decentralization. Whether you’re a crypto skeptic or have fully embraced it - understanding why your crypto should be yours is critical. Hardware wallets (cold) are superior to hot wallets because cold storage keeps your data offline.

Among the mistakes to avoid with hardware wallets:

• Buy directly from the brand’s website (not Amazon or other resellers)

• Store your keys in a certain & safe place (don’t tell anyone)

There are plenty of other tips for cold storage, but these are the fundamentals.

Additional FTX context

If you’d like to know more about the FTX crash and backstory, check out my TikTok videos on it:

FTX Drama part I: FTX + SBF

FTX Drama part II: FTX + SBF + Alameda Research

FTX Drama part III: FTX + SBF Hack(?)

At this time, FTX has filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy. There is still a lot of mystery regarding where the FTX customer funds went, and it’s unclear where crypto is headed - but taking certain precautions can go a long way.

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