Congresswoman Sheri Biggs Bitcoin ETF Purchase Highlights Why Self-Custody Still Matters
Rep. Biggs disclosed up to $250K in Bitcoin ETF holdings, but her choice reveals the tradeoffs between regulated access and true ownership.
Congresswoman Sheri Biggs (R-SC) disclosed a purchase of up to $250,000 in BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) on March 4, 2026, according to a filing reported on April 16. It's her second major Bitcoin ETF buy in under a year, and it signals something important: even lawmakers betting big on Bitcoin are choosing Wall Street wrappers over actual ownership.
That choice has real consequences, and it's worth understanding what she's gaining and what she's giving up.
The Trade She Made
Biggs made the purchase through her spouse's UBS account, buying somewhere between $100,001 and $250,000 worth of IBIT shares. This follows a similar purchase in July 2025, which she reported late and was fined $200 under the STOCK Act.
She's not alone in Congress. Senator Dave McCormick disclosed over $580,000 in Bitcoin ETF holdings in 2025. The timing of Biggs' trades coincides with Senate debate over the BITCO Act of 2025, which would establish a federal Bitcoin reserve. According to the Stand With Crypto Alliance, Biggs is rated as pro-crypto.
But here's the thing: buying an ETF isn't the same as buying Bitcoin.
What ETF Investors Don't Own
When you buy shares in IBIT or any spot Bitcoin ETF, you're buying exposure to Bitcoin's price. You're not buying Bitcoin. You can't withdraw it. You can't move it to cold storage. You can't use it on-chain.
The Bitcoin backing those shares sits in third-party custody, and that custody is remarkably concentrated. As of Q3 2025, Coinbase held over 80% of ETF Bitcoin assets. That's a single point of failure for the majority of institutional Bitcoin held through these products.
ETF investors also face limitations that don't exist with direct ownership: trading is limited to market hours, shares can be frozen or restricted, and the underlying Bitcoin could theoretically be rehypothecated or caught up in regulatory action. None of these are abstract concerns. The FTX collapse in 2022 demonstrated what happens when customers trust intermediaries who don't actually hold what they claim.
The Case for Self-Custody
The Bitcoin community's response to Biggs' disclosure was predictable and, frankly, reasonable. "Do not buy BTC ETFs," one commenter wrote in April 2026. "Buy BTC... move to cold storage."
Self-custody means holding your own private keys, either through a hardware wallet or a multisig setup. You control the Bitcoin directly. There's no intermediary who can freeze your funds, no counterparty who can fail, and no reliance on a broker's trading hours.
For serious Bitcoin holders, multisig storage adds another layer of protection. Tools like Caravan, an open-source multisig coordination software, let users build DIY setups without trusting any third-party servers with their wallet data. It's stateless, meaning it doesn't store your keys or transaction history. You coordinate signatures across hardware wallets while maintaining full sovereignty.
This is what Bitcoin was designed for: permissionless, censorship-resistant ownership. ETFs offer convenience, but they strip out the core value proposition.
Why Someone Would Still Choose an ETF
To be fair, ETFs aren't irrational. For someone like Biggs, buying through a brokerage account is simpler, fits cleanly into existing financial infrastructure, and carries regulatory clarity. There's no key management, no seed phrase responsibility, no risk of user error.
For institutional investors or high-net-worth individuals with compliance requirements, ETFs offer a regulated path that self-custody doesn't. And for investors who simply want price exposure without learning Bitcoin's technical stack, ETFs remove friction.
The tradeoff is real. Convenience and regulatory comfort on one side; actual ownership and sovereignty on the other.
Thinking Forward
Biggs' purchase tells us something about where mainstream adoption is heading. Bitcoin is increasingly accepted in traditional finance, and regulated products are the on-ramp for many new entrants.
But for anyone who understands why Bitcoin matters, the lesson is the opposite. The whole point of Bitcoin is that you don't need permission. You don't need a custodian. You don't need to trust anyone else to hold it for you.
If you're holding serious value in Bitcoin, hardware wallet security and multisig Bitcoin storage aren't optional extras. They're the difference between owning Bitcoin and owning a claim on someone else's Bitcoin.
Congresswoman Biggs made her choice. The question is what choice you'll make with yours.