Topic: Always move your funds to self custodial wallets after buying from the exchange (Read 252 times)

As said by a few other members earlier, the coins or assets that you withdraw from a centralized exchange to your non-custodial wallets will still give away your identity and the transactions going from your exchange account to your non-custodial wallet will link your wallet with the account where you have already done KYC which means that if the government and authorities wish, they can still keep tracking your coins and transactions now that you have linked it to your identity.

To have complete anonymity, one should use a decentralized platform such as Bisq where one can buy Bitcoin without having to do KYC which means that the transactions coming to your wallet aren't directly connected to your identity and your coins and transactions can be looked but no one would know who is behind the wallet.

I can't agree more with you because the rule is simple not your keys, not your funds. This means if you are holding funds in exchanges and thinking that they are safe there then the idea is good to some extent because it totally depends on the exchange, but if you want full custody and security then you must hold your assets in a non-custodial wallet where you own the keys.

I just read a post about freewallet org that how they are scamming people and still are in the market advertising themselves, and the government is doing nothing about it. The thing is government is not monitoring your funds 24/7 you kept on exchanges because exchanges have to be in some kind of deal with the government to provide them with the data that they said in privacy and policy that is confidential and won't be shared by any other entity until... Dash dash means their own terms differ by exchange.

The point is, never trust governments and exchanges while you have the option of self-custody of your funds and privacy of transactions you are making. BTW moving funds to a noncustodial wallet from a CEX won't going to provide you privacy.

Buying Bitcoin directly or Hodling earned Bitcoin gotten from signature campaign payments is the best way to bypass KYC verification from exchanges and protect one's privacy and become anonymous and since there are various individuals in the forum that offers exchange services, it is better than exposing one's personal information on exchanges but except it involves someone you have met in real life, there is possibility of losing your money because let's assume that someone offers an exchange services in the forum here and before they release an asset to you they must have confirmed that you sent them Fiat in exchange for Bitcoins so if it involves someone that has ulterior motives regardless of their reputation in the forum, they can refuse to release the crypto asset to the buyer knowing too well that they can only receive a negative trust from forum users especially when it involves a huge amount of money in exchange for crypto.

Just like in the loan services offered by some users in the forum, I have seen some cases where a user built a very good reputation of borrowing and repaying back their loan to an extent they borrowed huge amount and due to the reputation they have created with the lender, the lender believes they gonna repay back but then they default their loan without minding their account being red tagged. So the same thing can still occur between someone who offers an exchange service, they can abscond after the buyer must have made payments. Possibly the best way to own Bitcoin is just by earning it either from the forum through signature campaign payments or by doing other jobs online that offers payments in Bitcoins.

That is a big ask for most bitcoiners, mining is capital and resource intensive and it is beyond the reach of most people, if it was before when it was easy to mine bitcoin, then this could be an option. Right now, for privacy you basically have to avoid KYC services, avoid reusing addresses and also run your own node, which is very important.

I believe that more people are now aware of the importance of this. storing assets in a wallet where full control of the assets owned is in your own hands.
several cases of exchange bankruptcy provide lessons for everyone including beginners in storing their assets. everyone must have learned, and those who have not, must seek information and learn more.
I also initially only stored assets on the exchange, but that did not last long when I began to understand asset ownership.

Peer to peer ways of buying Bitcoin is better than buying from a centralized exchanges and at the same time all transactions can still be traced, knowing who owns a crypto wallet address is different from knowing how much a crypto wallet address holds.

A centralised exchange will expose your identity, while a peer to peer platform erase such flaws, I don't mind using any because I have nothing to hide, its same reason why I don't see the needs for privacy coins and also Bitcoin mixers, I have never use these two.

It is a matter of choice, if you feel like hiding then use P2P only but as a part time trader that I am there is no way I won't use a centralised exchange, those who do trading know what I am talking about, trading is best on a centralised exchange.

Everything is correct, and beginners need to read such advice and listen to the topics regularly created here. However, no matter what is written here, we see that people do not understand why they should transfer their funds to wallets from which, if stored correctly, there will be no unpleasant loss. People are used to trusting banks and the government, believing that someone will always protect them. And until people who want to own Bitcoin accept the truth that they are obliged to be their bank, relying only on their responsibility and accuracy, bitcoin will not be a real means of saving for them, since at any moment they can lose their investments.

I agree that it is a good thing to move our funds from exchange to our own wallet but it would be expensive if we do it every time we buy cryptocurrency.  Like when we are withdrawing BTC from Binance, it was said that the current withdrawal fee of Binance is around 0.000068 BTC which is around a little above $4. Imagine if you DCA BTC for $10 worth each time you buy, you will only receive a little less than $6 if you decide to withdraw the funds each time of transaction.  That would be a huge lost on your part.  I think to maximize the efficiency of saving funds, one must have a threshold on how much he has on his exchange fund before he withdraws his holding to his own wallet.

So I think, while it's best to get our funds out of the exchange asap, it would be a huge loss for people who frequently buy BTC in a small amount.  Besides, as the earlier reply stated, Bitcoin transactions is not anonymous.  Bitcoin is not a privacy coin, being decentralized does not mean it can hide your privacy.  @OP if you wanted to have full privacy of your coins, I think Bitcoin will fail you. 


corrected this one for you 

Bitcoin is pseudonymous, not anonymous. It's almost impossible to achieve anonymous in Bitcoin, if you want to enjoy a complete anonymous, use Monero instead.

This is wrong, most people feel centralized exchange is more convenient, that's why they purchase Bitcoin using DEX over P2P or DEX.

Or a better option, mine it by yourself, so the coins is freshly new and has no trace at all.

If the purpose is to stay anonymous, to keep your government from knowing your Bitcoin purchases, you shouldn't be using centralized exchanges to begin with. Centralized exchanges are bound by duty to collect information from their costumers. Not only that, they're also obliged to store them and share them with authorities whenever requested.

Buying through a centralized exchange means you are already known and that you have purchased Bitcoin. You can't erase that even if you withdraw your Bitcoin to a non-custodial wallet, even if you abandoned or even deleted your exchange account.

Also, take note almost all exchanges right now offering to use their own wallet OKX, and Binance as samples for web3 wallet but are still not recommended to use we should always withdraw our crypto from exchanges and only leave some crypto that you can afford to lose or a small amount that you use for trading.
I had many experiences on some exchanges before they took custody of my funds and couldn't able to withdraw even I submitted documents from them for KYC they never give you a chance to withdraw your crypto because they asking for a source of funds even I am provided them you can't still able to do anything with your crypto.
Poloniex is one of them but it's fine since I only hold a small amount on that exchange.
That's why it's always recommended to withdraw your crypto from exchanges if privacy matters then use P2P exchanges or after buying from the centralized exchange you can use Exch.cx to non/self custody wallet.

Moving your crypto off exchange isn't an advice that is given because we want the government to not track you but because you don't have a control when you leave them on exchanges. Don't also forget that exchange aren't wallets so they shouldn't be used for that purpose irrespective of the type of exchange that they're are (CEX/DEX). Self constodial wallets put back the power in your hands just as Satoshi intended and not giving back the power to the government or a group of elite people and that's exactly what exchanges are. If you're looking for more anonymity, you know what to use.

Exchanges are vulnerable and not secured, don't buy into any bullshit that the exchanges are saying/trying to sell to you. Your crypto on their platform can be frozen and you'll be restricted from accessing your crypto without any concrete reasons. Lets not take about the profits they make from having control over your crypto as they can lend it out, trade it and make profits without giving you a dime or peanuts for those staking (also not recommended).

We only go to these exchanges if we really need them. It's fine to use them and use it as-is, no other than that. The problem that many holders do is they treat it as their vault which is wrong because of the different offers that they do. The interest rates that they'd give to their earning options are attractive. But even with that, you shouldn't be too hyped with it because you have no control over your funds if it's on them. And after sending it to your own wallet, non-custodial, you keep your mouth shut and never be too vocal about it even with your friends specially if your government is too strict about Bitcoin. They might cause you a trouble if you're too talkative about your holdings.

Making use of centralized exchanges that requires KYC is a already a big step to you losing your anonymity completely no matter what you decide because with the transaction been recorded publicly on the blockchain it will easily be traced back to your identity. This is where the practice of using decentralized exchanges take effect, you will not have any related problems with something like a tainted coins. Aside using decentralized exchanges to aid in going full anonymous there is also the practice of using different wallet addresses for every transaction that one wants to make just to cover traces.

Now aside going into full anonymity if a person doesn’t care about that there is no problem moreover bitcoin is pseudonymous both the idea of leaving bitcoin on centralized exchanges doesn’t just add up, at least there is an excuse for daily traders who can’t afford to move the funds everyday they can at least leave an amount that they can afford to lose there and move them when they are not going to trade for a long time

Self-custody is paramount for anyone serious about Bitcoin ownership. By moving your funds to a decentralized wallet, you're taking control of your assets and significantly reducing the risks associated with centralized exchanges. KYC requirements, while necessary for some, can compromise privacy. It's essential for investors, especially those with long-term plans, to understand that centralized exchanges are not immune to security breaches or government interventions. Decentralized wallets offer a higher level of security and anonymity, allowing you to truly hold your Bitcoin on your own terms.

Moving your coins from a centralized exchange doesn't erase the fact that you've already revealed your identity during the buying process, due to KnowYourCustomer (KYC) requirements. To maintain a low profile, avoid centralized systems altogether. Instead, use decentralized exchanges to buy Bitcoins and transfer them to a noncustodial wallet for additional security and privacy. If your coins are legitimate and not stolen, the government likely won't have a reason to trace them back to the exchange. Governments are mainly interested in tracking funds with suspicious or illegal origins.

The government will not track your coins as long as the coins are not from criminal offenses or from hacking, if everything you do is according to procedure then it will remain safe you will not be tracked.
For me it is too complicated for someone to meet and exchange bitcoins then indirectly we are not anonymous because other people know us as bitcoin owners.

I will not justify that keeping coins in CEX is safe, NO. Stick to non-custodial wallets it will be safer you have your own control.

This depends on your country and the legality of Bitcoin in such country. For country where Bitcoin is banned, the only way to go about it is through agents unless there are exchanges that will be operating outside of the country but still allow citizens of the country to use their platform. In my country, the authorities have been waging war against crypto users and cryptocurrency exchanges. They block citizens from access to forex so even if one want to buy in a decentralized exchange with card, it will not work. The only option available for these two scenarios is p2p trading of centralized exchanges.

The title of the thread is what many people been giving advice to other people especially newbies that they shouldn't store their crypto in an exchange for too long and transfer the asset to a open source non-custodial wallet like electrum for bitcoin. Only keep your crypto assets in the exchange when you are still doing some transactions like buy and sell then after that is where you will transfer your crypto out of the exchange. As many people would have said, NOT YOUR KEYS NOT YOUR COINS since you don't have the seed phrase of the wallet since it is an exchange then they should have the credentials of the wallet that being used.

This is true but a lot of individuals do jobs where I doubt they can actually use a burner email and also not everyone does a job where they can be specify to be paid with bitcoin. While physical meeting sometimes seems somehow anonymous I still rather opt for KYC CEX or maybe use the non-KYC exchanges which still yet might be decentralize or centralize and then move my funds to a Non-Custodial wallet and if I really want anonymity then I will rather opt to use Mixers or Coinjoin or rather also just use Dex non-Kyc exchange like Bisq exchange

If you really want to be anonymous, buy bitcoin directly, or earn it like we do here on this forum.

The government can always track your coins back to the place you did KYC at. If you win it on a casino where you did KYC, or on exchange, you're not anonymous, even if you do 100 transactions between new wallets and addresses. You are anonymous though if you get your coins as payment for a job you did anonymously, for instance by using a burner email to contact your employer.
If you meet with someone and you two exchange bitcoin, you are relatively safe, as long as the person who gave it to you doesn't know your full name and address.

Many factors are there to look into not to drop your money in a centralized exchange but what I’m more focus on is the full custody it does not give to your money in those exchanges. If I have a way that I can have my funds safe with me and can also make transactions such as exchanging my coins for fiat and also given me that anonymity as a bitcoin user, will be the greatest innovation in this cryptocurrency world.

The exchanges feel they’re more secured to keep your funds in because that also makes them more valuable than them not having anyone to trade with of keeping money with them in their exchanges. I feel exchanges are more prone to attacks by cyber criminals because of the so much money they feel they can make if they’re able to hack into their systems. To cut is short, not your keys, not your coins.

So exchanges are not the safest place to keep money. Go get a decentralized wallet to keep your money because of the total safety and control of your funds you have over any other thing. Only your carelessness can make one have access to your account when your keys are with you. The thought of that should even make you keep it safer and not vulnerable to the outside world.

Treat centralized exchanges like a market or a mall. You don't leave your items at the mall after you have paid for it. Right? You take it home where it will be sad. That's how everyone should treat centralized exchanges. At this point we have repeated this so many times that you an individual hasn't learned from the bad experiences of others, then he is going to learn from his own experience. On the other hand which should be like the part two of this discussion, your funds should be moved only to an open source non-custodial wallet. There is no difference between your funds being in an exchange and a closed source non-custodial wallet. In my estimation, the risk is the same.

Firstly Op moving to coins to your wallet only gives you back control of your coins and nothing more. Your coins can still be tracked by pretty much  looking up the TXID on a Blockchain explorer.

For maximum privacy you aren't supposed to make use of an exchange because to do a P2P in centralised exchanges you must have passed their KYC verification.

I guess I'm not getting it wrong with this thought; Lot of investors who fears or are concious about their vulnerability to be tracked of their bitcoin assets by the government on going through the process of KYCs when purchasing their bitcoins in the centralized exchange especially the newbies are mostly not aware that they can move their bitcoin to a more convenient and secured networks such as decentralized wallets for self custodial especially investors who has long term investment plans because the Centralized exchange is being pourous that your funds could be at stake to be stolen due to non self custodial private keys and the government would always be there keeping your transactions on track while you believing you're keeping an anonymous holding of self moderating digital currency as bitcoin.