digital asset custody services
This will continue to lead to a mass adoption very quickly.
Can this even be referred to as
bitcoin adoption? I don't think so because when you buy bitcoin yourself and own your keys, you are adopting bitcoin. But when you pay some company or a corrupt bankster that tells you they buy bitcoin in your stead, then you are not adopting bitcoin. You are instead adopting that centralized and corrupt system that
may not even have as much bitcoin as they tell you they have!
Honestly, it doesn't make a difference with the traditional investments and finance system that a third-party is buying and hodling your bitcoin on your behalf. It still avails the middleman in the process which is what ought not to be with bitcoin adoption where the individual or investor buy and take self custody of their bitcoin in a noncustodial wallet.
The biggest risk in custodial investment is the bold part above which I only hinted at earlier. It is very easy to see them go corrupt in order to maximize their profitability. They can take people's money and tell them they have bought bitcoin for these people but in reality they never do.
This is somewhat similar to the problem we already have with centralized exchanges as well, many of them are insolvent and are running a form of "fractional-reserve" where they can't cover all the withdrawals if everyone wanted to pull their funds out.