The majority of individual retirement accounts or simply IRAs are managed by custodians or trustees for investors — mostly banks or broker-dealers and have stocks, bonds, mutual funds and certificate of deposits CDs as their investment vehicle. Why Self-Directed? However, self-directed IRAs place an investor in charge of his investment decisions. Other Cryptocurrencies. For example, Equity Trust charges 3. In this financial climate, many investors seek alternative assets to diversify their portfolio. The process to add Bitcoins to your self-directed IRA is simple and fast.