United States cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase will soon hold a meg Bitcoins (BTC) in its cold wallets in a controversial start for the manufacture.

Co-ordinate to data from news and information resource Longhash released on Jan. 23, Coinbase's cold wallets contained around 970,000 BTC ($8 billion) as of Jan. one.

Coinbase weeks abroad from 1 million BTC

If electric current growth continues, the company will reach the ane,000,000 BTC mark by February.

Coinbase cold wallet balance, 2022-present

Coinbase cold wallet rest, 2022-present. Source: Longhash

The trend underscores growing tendencies to interact with Bitcoin via exchanges, with the Coinbase figures including both private and institutional investors.

Equally Cointelegraph reported, recent attempts to assess institutional habits when it comes to Bitcoin storage already firmly pointed to exchanges being investors' called method.

Now, despite the myriad exchange hacks and other dangers of trusting third parties with their cryptocurrency wealth, it appears that consumers in general still prefer not to control their coins themselves.

"More individuals and institutions need to learn how to self custody," Tales from the Crypt Podcast host Marty Aptitude summarized in an analysis of the Coinbase figures on Thursday.

Proof of Keys falls on deaf ears

With 30 meg users registered since launch, Longhash notes that Coinbase is by far the commutation with the largest Bitcoin holdings, but the majority of major trading platforms are seeing their balances increase.

Cryptocurrency proponents take long been irked by the miracle, which flies in the face up of Bitcoin equally sovereign coin — trusting someone else with one's wealth is the equivalent of endorsing primal banking.

A dedicated effort to inspire Bitcoin holders to remove their coins from exchanges and place them in wallets to which they control the private keys is now in its second year.

Despite the publicity effort behind Proof of Keys, all the same, assay of exchange wallets, which form several of the richest Bitcoin addresses in the world, shows that the nearly recent consequence on Jan. 3 did non spark mass withdrawals.

"Coinbase'south apparent authorisation and steady growth may be because information technology attracts a large share of long-term/institutional investors, who are less concerned with brusk term price swings," Longhash added in a proffer that institutions trust exchanges with custody.