About

About Hanzelor

I’m Hanzelor — a long-term Bitcoin holder, not a trader, and the person behind HodlSafe.

How I got here

I bought my first Bitcoin in 2018 on Coinbase. Like a lot of people back then, I didn’t think too hard about where my Bitcoin actually lived — it sat on exchanges, and I trusted that was fine.

Then FTX collapsed. Watching billions in customer funds vanish overnight drove home something that should have been obvious: not your keys, not your coins. Self-custody isn’t a paranoid edge case — it’s the entire ethos of Bitcoin. It suddenly struck me as silly to leave any meaningful amount sitting on an exchange when better options existed. I haven’t kept a meaningful stack on an exchange since, and I started HodlSafe to help other people make that same shift without the confusion and second-guessing that nearly stopped me.

What I actually do

I’ve been self-custodying Bitcoin for about four years. I use a Bitkey and a Ledger, I’ve tested multisig setups firsthand, and I’ve moved Bitcoin across just about every major on-ramp — Coinbase, Binance, Robinhood, Cash App, Strike, Crypto.com — and into cold storage. I’ve also been through multiple Bitcoin and crypto market cycles since 2018: the euphoria, the crashes, and the long quiet stretches in between.

Everything I write here comes from doing it myself, not from rewording someone else’s guide.

My background

I come at this with a background in markets and investing that goes back to 2018, including some hands-on experience with options strategies — though I’d never call myself an options expert. At heart, I’m a buy-and-hold guy. I’m not here to call tops, shill tokens, or tell you what to trade.

What HodlSafe stands for

  • Bitcoin, not “crypto.” I think the distinction matters, and this site reflects it. You won’t find altcoin hype here.
  • Self-custody first. The goal is to help you hold your own keys with confidence — hardware wallets, secure backups, inheritance planning, and avoiding the scams that target holders.
  • Honest and transparent. When I recommend a product, I use affiliate links and disclose them clearly, and I only point to tools I’d actually use myself. Nothing here is financial advice. It’s one holder’s experience, meant to help you make your own informed decisions.

A note on the name

Hanzelor is a pseudonym. In a space built on self-sovereignty and privacy, I’d rather let the work speak than attach my legal name to the internet. The experience behind every article is real.

Whether you’re already holding for the long run or still working out what your Bitcoin plan is, you’re exactly who I built this for. You don’t need to have it all figured out to be in the right place.