In October 2017, Netherlands native Didi Taihuttu and his family sold all their valuable belongings and their house for bitcoin. The decision paid off and the Taihuttu family has traveled all around the world and recently moved to the island of Phuket. On Nov. 30, the 44-year-old Didi Taihuttu told CNBC that after storing crypto in cold storage, centralized exchange (cex) platforms, and decentralized exchange (dex) protocols for years, the Dutch family has decided to proactively transfer $1 million in digital assets to dex protocols in order to have more control via self-custody.
Didi Taihuttu and Family Are Taking Proactive Steps to Self-Custody Their Crypto Assets
Just over five years ago, Bitcoin.com News reported on the Taihuttu family after they decided to sell their home, children’s toys, and vehicles so they can accumulate bitcoin ( BTC ). On Wednesday, the patriarch of the family, Didi Taihuttu, spoke with CNBC and explained that the family is moving $1 million in crypto assets to dex protocols following the FTX collapse.

Taihuttu detailed that before the decision to proactively move the funds from cex platforms to dex protocols, the family stored a fraction of funds on trading platforms like Bybit and Kraken. “If you never send your bitcoin to an exchange,” Taihuttu said, “your bitcoin stays in your own wallet, meaning you have complete custody of your coins. [But] you connect to a dex, and by making that connection, you trade out of your own wallet.”
Taihuttu continued:
If the dex collapses, it doesn’t matter, because the bitcoins are always in your own wallet.
Taihuttu explained that he learned his lesson in 2017 when the cex platform Cryptopia was hacked and he lost four bitcoins. “From that moment, I was always searching for alternatives,” Taihuttu said. As far as FTX is concerned, Taihuttu insisted that “too many influencers were paid too much money to promote that one.” The family would not disclose how much they owned in crypto assets but they did say roughly $1 million worth of BTC , ETH , LTC , DOT, and other tokens would be moved to decentralized exchanges.

Taihuttu says the current drama associated with FTX is similar to what happens every bitcoin cycle. “We seem to get that lesson every bitcoin cycle — “It was Mt Gox, it was banning bitcoin in China, it was banning mining. There’s drama every time,” he added. Taihuttu wholeheartedly believes BTC is holding steady, and simply doing what the leading crypto asset always does.
“Looking at the current situation: We have a huge war going on, we have a huge financial crisis, we have FTX, we have Celsius, we have a lot of bear market signals,” Taihuttu told CNBC. “I think that bitcoin is really holding strong at $16,800. For me, bitcoin is still doing perfect and still doing what it always does: Being a decentralized currency that is usable by all people all over the world,” Taihuttu concluded during his interview on Wednesday.
What do you think about the Taihuttu family’s progress and the family moving $1 million from cex applications to dex protocols? Let us know your thoughts about this subject in the comments section below.