Most scams & hacks occur when third parties hold Bitcoin on behalf of others
Many scams and hacks have occurred with many exchanges and custodial platforms due to them being central points of failure.
As of 2021, more than $2.1Billion has been stolen from exchanges in more than 52 separate hacking events.
With scams, there have countless events where custodians have run away with investors' Bitcoin. Just take a look at Mirror Trading International.
Bitcoin itself, has never been hacked
Bitcoin and its network has never been hacked. It is basically impossible to do so.
When custodying your own private keys (password) to your Bitcoin in a secure manner - with your own wallet - you have decentralised yourself immediately and are sovereign over your asset. No one has control of your Bitcoin in this case, only yourself. And you never need anyone's permission to use your Bitcoin.
The only way that people can then steal your Bitcoin is to get access to your private keys which has become harder to do - due to great self-custody offering in the market.
Always make sure to keep your backup/passwords/pass-phrases to your Bitcoin wallet in a non-digital, secret and safe manner - and you will be at ease with your Bitcoin.
To learn more about how to Self-custody your Bitcoin and all the different wallet setups. Read our article guides on our knowledge base here.