Custody Types Explained — SIPC, FDIC, and Self-Custody

The single largest determinant of platform risk is custody, and most retail content gets it wrong. A reference guide to the three custody envelopes and how to score them.

Custody is the first scoring axis we apply to every platform in the Obsidian library. It is also the axis most often missed in retail content. Here is the reference for how SIPC, FDIC, and self-custody differ — and what each one actually exposes you to under stress.

The largest single determinant of platform risk in retail passive income is custody. By a large margin. Custody — the legal and operational structure that defines who holds your assets and how — almost never changes during the life of a platform, while yield rates change weekly and platform features change quarterly. Yet custody is the axis most often missed in retail comparison content, where the focus is overwhelmingly on the headline yield rate and on the marketing surface of the platform rather than on the structural reality underneath.

Topics

• custody
• risk
• frameworks