Institutional Custody, Multisig & the War on Cash | Mike Belshe SLP773

<p>Mike Belshe, co-founder and CEO of BitGo, walks through how institutional Bitcoin custody actually works in 2026: qualified custody, self-custody co-signing, and why BitGo still centers a 2-of-3 model after pioneering P2SH multisig in 2013.</p><p>BitGo now operates as a US-regulated qualified custodian and public company, while still offering the same wallet stack individuals can run in self-custody mode. The conversation covers what “institutional security” means in practice — HSM-backed co-signing, open-source recovery paths, multi-jurisdictional key storage (including how BitGo moved WBTC when US regulation looked hostile), and why on-chain multisig still beats vendor-locked MPC for cold ops.</p><p>They also dig into the political and operational risks around large Bitcoin holdings: KYC and PII as honeypots, France tying names to amounts, the war on cash reaching Bitcoin, and whether an EO 6102-style confiscation risk still belongs in the threat model. On the institutional side, Belshe pushes back on multi-custodian setups that add failure modes, explains insurance limits versus the size of the Bitcoin market, and why splitting wallets matters after events like Bybit.</p><p>Timestamps</p><p>00:00 — Intro: Mike Belshe of BitGo</p><p>00:59 — Don&#39;t Lose Self-Custody&#39;s Power</p><p>05:41 — Retail Deserves Institutional Security</p><p>07:16 — Humans Are Terrible at OpSec</p><p>09:56 — 2-of-3 Protects Theft and Loss</p><p>14:35 — Retail Pays 160 Basis Points</p><p>19:22 — Why People Drift Toward Banks</p><p>20:35 — Self-Custody Is Never Trustless</p><p>23:39 — Why BitGo Sticks to 2-of-3</p><p>30:31 — A Public CEO Holds Zero at Home</p><p>31:27 — KYC Leaks Are Government Honeypots</p><p>39:28 — France Doxed Bitcoin Holdings</p><p>41:30 — War on Cash Reaches Bitcoin</p><p>43:45 — Multi-Jurisdictional Key Storage</p><p>45:29 — Executive Order 6102 Could Return</p><p>47:43 — Quantum-Resistant Wallets Today</p><p>49:27 — Multisig Beats MPC</p><p>53:33 — Splitting Custodians Adds Failures</p><p>58:29 — 2-of-2 MPC Can&#39;t Recover Loss</p><p>01:00:57 — $5–7B Insurance vs $1.6T Bitcoin</p><p>01:03:35 — Bybit Lost 10x by Not Splitting</p><p>01:05:21 — Multi-Institution vs Qualified Custody</p><p>Links: </p><ul><li><p><a href="https://x.com/mikebelshe"><u>https://x.com/mikebelshe</u></a></p></li><li><p>https://x.com/bitgo</p></li></ul><p>Stephan Livera links:</p><ul><li><p>Follow me on X:<a href="https://twitter.com/stephanlivera"> @stephanlivera</a></p></li