Topic: Newbies don't leave your coins in an exchange (Read 502 times)

For the sake of safety exchange is not a place anyone should think to leave their coin, from past experience it is not something hidden that we have heard about exchanges that closed down and never returned.  Not your keys not your coin, this is what beginners needs to know.. so far as exchange is not a decentralized wallet anything can happen. I don't see any good reason why one would even prefer to use exchange to store bitcoin when their a good wallet very safe for storage.  Take of your bitcoin from exchange,  exchange are unpredicted,  they can shutdown as a surprise without anyone knowing.

The purpose of a currency exchange business is to make a profit by buying and selling currencies. Traders use exchanges to exchange currencies on exchange platforms and earn contractual profits so that prices increase. Exchanging from a secure wallet can primarily help shine security as it can help keep your assets safe. However, it is important to be safe with multiple security measures when exchanging currency on an exchange. There may be a personal preference between an exchange account and a bitcoin wallet. Using an exchange account allows you to easily buy or sell most cryptocurrencies, although there can be a noticeable headache in terms of security. On the other hand, owning a Bitcoin wallet allows you to control your wallet yourself, but that can create an additional claim and dilemma.

Yes, I consider that situation and no exchanges have been excused for hacking but choosing a reputable exchange is better than the others as they assure refunds if that happens. But as we do this - saving some funds on the exchange, we are also ready to lose them all and never make regret. I think leaving $50 - $100 is not huge enough that we need to worry but yes, that will depend on the capability of the exchanges and it was difficult to trust an exchange that has several cases of getting hacked.

They say experience is the best teacher, and unfortunately many of us choose to learn from our mistakes because we believe we have a different orra of luck from those that had a bad experience with an exchange...

But when it comes to leaving coins on an exchange, I have mixed feelings about this...if a user is into p2p trading and this kind of business requires that it's up and running 24/7 , I honestly don't see anything wrong with having coins on the exchange as coins are constantly moving in and out, but if you get to use the exchange as a wallet to hodl coins for a long time or try to save on transaction fees, then whatever happens to your coins like a hack , exit scam or closure you have yourself to blame as your safety of your coins is better off in non custodial wallets.

I think the discussion here should have been that DON'T LEAVE YOUR HARD EARNED MONEY ON EXCHANGE, coin can be different type coin, fiat is what we can't leave on an exchange, and at the back of your mind you think you are saving in the right place.

I hate it when we tend to live a fake lifestyle on the forum when it is clear that many of us that are earning through signatures are using exchanges to exchange the coins to fiat. We don't need to sing it aloud while it could be obvious that some of us maybe deceiving ourselves. If not mistaken, 80% of majority here are using exchange and most time they could even leave there coins on exchanges for many reasons. Some persons uses exchanges because of staking, buying altcoins, p2p trades and many more. If we are on exchanges for any of these reasons then we don't have to sing it here like using exchange is a bad idea.
 

The reason why a newbie may leave their Bitcoin in an exchange is because it is not amount that they can afford to lose or it is very little. It is not that they do not know about the dangers of leaving your coins in an exchange is just that they do not care and can bear the risk of losing the coins.

For this message to actually sink in to those of them who have refused to heed the instruction, they have to come face-to-face with a hack on their account which I hope does not happen to them. Newbies once again treat your exchange as a temporary store. You buy and move your coins to a wallet you have control over.

It is true, almost every year there are cases of hacking on the stock exchange, this is very sad for all parties. If we are hacked, of course our funds will not be returned, and the exchange party will only apologize and the rest is our own responsibility. I myself have experience storing assets at FTX, although I don't store much there, it is enough to be a valuable lesson for myself.

And it is true that holding assets on an exchange is necessary for trading and withdrawing to fiat if we need them, but the wisest choice is to keep only enough funds on the exchange and keep the rest of the assets in a wallet that we can fully control.

People keep their coins on exchanges for a few reasons.  First, it's easier to trade fast if your money's already there.  You can buy and sell whenever you want without waiting to transfer funds back and forth.  Plus it means your money's ready to go if some new opportunity pops up and  second thing is liquidity.

ANd, like I said before, if no one kept any funds on exchanges, there wouldn't be buy and sell walls like there are now.  That's just how crypto exchanges operate.


I disagree. In many cases, it is a calculated risk, not ignorance. You simply can't profit from market swings without that kind of risk.

There's No issue with the readjustments in transactions, point is if you have a decent amount of funds and you think it's reasonable to spend the fee, on that time don't be careless while moving the funds to self-custody.

You can save in fees when you are in the position of fewer Bitcoin holders, and interested in hunting more Bitcoin while not being able to afford more to invest from the limit you are already spending. You can consider it as a an accumulation strategy  haha.

The transaction fee is one vital area to consider when you want to transfer a small amount of bitcoin, because the fees alone can eat deeply into your withdrawal, leaving you with little coins left in the none custodial wallet. So it's best to let the bitcoin to accumulate in the exchange's wallet before considering to move it. Recently I tried transferring
a little amount of bitcoin into another wallet, the transaction fee was so high that I had to reconsider making the transaction.

However, the importance of storing bitcoin in a none custodial wallet can not be over flogged, as it has been consensually agreed in this thread. Like the saying, "not your keys, not your coin", this phrase should be a constant reminder that your coin inside the exchange wallet, is not yours and safe 100%. We only need to remind our selves about the case of FTX, to be wiser.

Hardware is the best for security and privacy but as for me the best advice is for Newbies to learn about the securing their bitcoin since we know is not to get a hardware wallet but getting the trustworthy one in the right place and how to use it securely, Aside this not all Newbies can afford to get a hardware wallet when they start investing in bitcoin but there have been good means of securing your bitcoin aside using hardware wallet and alot of forum members use this before they could get an hardware wallet or possibly still using it because no means is 100% secure except you make it so.

It is always a risk to leave your coins in an exchange as we have seen in the past with various exchange hacks and closures like we have recently hack of CoinEx and FTX is a big example of bankrupted exchanges. It is important for both newbies and old members to understand the importance of securing their cryptocurrencies in a wallet.

An exchange account provides you with a bitcoin address, but it is not a secure wallet. If you have big amount of crypto so you should buy a cold wallet otherwise you can use a hot wallet too. But secure your keys at a safe place. Not you keys not your funds.

By this way you have full control and ownership of your funds reducing the risk of losing them in case of exchange bankruptcy or other issues.

But if you are trader and you are buying and selling assets with you research so the exchanges are best but if you have assets to hold so you should withdraw them to the wallet.

Yearly, some of the known exchanges face some huge trials and others become victims to hackers and only a few of them have recovered their funds and paid their users with them. others are not capable of doing it because they don't have any means to do so. That's why when you lose your cryptocurrencies to hackers in the exchanges, there are low chance of getting them back. that's why everyone always recommends you have your own personal wallet that only you can have full control of. Sometimes they get frozen because of some malicious activities that are linked to your account.

I agree with your statement. Unfortunately, I have yet to receive or to purchase a hardware storage for my BTCs since I left them inside our local exchange in the country. While this practice may be potentially dangerous, the amount of BTCs that I receive weekly is somehow insignificant compared to others who have more than 1 BTC on their wallet.

Though this may be the case, I think this practice of mine should not be tolerated by newbies. Having your own hardware wallet is still the best choice for security and privacy so you can have full custody over your funds.

This has been like campaign in this forum concerning using exchange as a means of saving your coins, it can be nice when your coin is in a registered and reputable exchange platform because I know quite well that exchange can misplace someone's coins from my understanding, so it's better we have verified account in any exchange incase if you lose your coin in the exchange and the exchange will make sure you have been compensate with some valuable coin when they return, because hackers goes into some exchange through their teams to penetrate into exchange to hack their funds, so it not encouraging to leave your coin in exchange platform.

People should buy and sell in exchanges then, why do they keep their coins in the exchanges if they are not using them very often? There is nothing wrong in keeping your funds in the exchange if you are using those funds every day for trading and you don't want to pay withdrawal and transactions fees twice every day, but if you are not a regular trader, you don't use the funds in your exchange account, and you are planning to hold them for long term, why not take them out of it before it's too late?

A lot of people make this mistake, and it's just out of ignorance and nothing else. Someone, who has knowledge about the market, knows what happens every now and then with centralized exchanges, and also knows that an exchange isn't for keeping assets but it's for trading purposes, wouldn't do that at all.

The FTX scammed was nor expected as it was considered as one of the best exchange, and mostly users have store their funds at the Exchange. Also, I'm still storing in the Binance but I think it is also dangerous? What do you think about? After that incident I had got the hardware wallet which gives me some relaxation about the storing funds in my wallet.

In my opinion, hard wallet will be a better solution or the better wallets to store the funds which are completely secured in all aspects if we think of it. Many people are using hardware wallets which are quite easy to store the funds and they are mostly used by the YouTubers, even I'm also using it because it not only stores my funds but it also give me 100% security.

It is really necessary to warn repeatedly by including examples of cases that have occurred so that beginners who are new to the world of crypto do not experience losing money due to feeling comfortable saving online.

First, I activated myself in forums, I participated in various discussions on various boards. I often come across reminders about not saving money on the stock exchange. I think how stupid those who do that are - saving money on the exchange without caring about the negative effects that will be received when the exchange has problems.

Maybe they get involved in saving without going through the knowledge gained from the learning process, because if they go through the learning process, then they will know what the function of the stock exchange is for. I don't want to do something without having knowledge about it. It's better to look stupid by asking than to suffer a big loss.

The collapse of FTX is an eye opener for all of us especially those who practices to keep their assets in the exchange account. This practice is not applicable to newbies. A lot of people choose to keep their Bitcoin in an exchange accounts despite that they are not traders. Even as a trader, it's not advisable to keep large quantities in exchange for long time because there are some risks involved in doing so. If the exchange gets hacked, your Bitcoin is gone. These exchanges can go bankrupt or shut down and could leave you without access to your funds.

There are several dangers associated with keeping Bitcoin in an exchange account and If you value your privacy and financial sovereignty, it's not ideal to keep your Bitcoin in an exchange account. Always store your Bitcoin in a hardware wallet.

The incident that FTX has experienced should be a lesson for anyone who still has or chooses a Wallet exchange as a place to store assets. Exchanges can only be used as a place to exchange crypto assets, but many traders/investors who are new to the Cryptocurrency field make a mistake, they store their coins in the exchange wallet instead of transferring them to a wallet where they can control the private key.
If something happens to the exchange such as a hack or the exchange goes bankrupt, then the coin owner does not have any control over his coins because the coins are not under his control.

Well, OP may have had a personal experience that prompted him to create this thread, maybe he didn't feel like sharing it but giving a general moral lesson from his experience, which isn't a bad thing entirely. A friendly reminder of this issue isn't a bad idea cos these newbies need a constant reminder of the dangers of trusting exchange with their  funds regularly. Enough cannot be said about this, I'm even in support of giving these bitcoin engagement security prerequisites everyday cos new members enter the forum regularly, so this board should do that work of constantly reminding them of these simple things like how to store your seed phrases safely, using non custodial wallets and never trusting exchanges by leaving their funds behind.

I believe, newbies will learn a good lesson from this trend because we have seen a lot of things in the community where by some coins will be missing in the exchange wallets after transaction and the coins is no where to be find that made that particular newbies to learn his or her lesson to download the real Bitcoin wallet that is well secured and safe for the users. The reason why some are still losing their money in the exchange market, is that they don't know that the place is made for exchange market, but some of them will start storing their coins into the exchange wallets hoping that, that is the right place to store coins for future use which is not true. When you want to trade your coins in the market, you can move your coins from your wallet to exchange to trade amount of coins your want to trade to make your income at the moment but don't leave any coins on the exchange market.

If they want to trade Bitcoin to altcoins, trade around altcoins, they will need to use centralized exchanges that give them more options to trade, more trading pairs than decentralized exchanges.

They must know 3 principles:
Trading is very difficult and mostly don't help traders richer.
Don't trade what they can not afford to lose.
Storing money on centralized services, exchanges is very risky.

You can describe what is a good wallet software.

Non custodial
Open source

Then you can create multisig wallet or cold storage wallet with that software, use strong password for your wallet, cosigners to increase security.

Not only does this apply to newbies but also to everyone who doesn't put their bitcoins or other currencies into an exchange. If a bitcoin is held in an exchange and that exchange suspends or withdraws, his bitcoins will be lost forever or he will never get them back. So Bitcoin should never be held on an exchange but should be held in a strong security complete wallet.
Many people have lost their bitcoins in the past on such exchanges so there is no need to experience this again. Those who deposit bitcoins in the exchange should withdraw from the exchange and transfer it to a bitcoin wallet.

Leaving funds in the exchange is not a miracle, even if it is accepted that the newbie is not aware of it and they do not know that keeping funds in the exchange can lead to loss for you. It is understandable, but even those who know Exchange is not trustworthy and yet they don't transfer their funds or assets to a safe place, so I think no one can be more stupid because they know that doing this is not the right thing to do. However, he does not show any action on it.

So the purpose of saying this is that personally, I also believe that if you have more funds and you have kept them on an exchange, then immediately withdraw them from this exchange and transfer it to a cold wallet. exchange cannot be trusted to guarantee you that I am responsible for refunding your funds or any other circumstances. And tell me the funny thing that there is no such exchange in the big exchanges that has not been hacked even the world's most trusted and larges crypto exchange, Binance, was also hacked by hackers as can be seen by searching on Google. The only improvement will be to be careful, No exchange can give you full protection; you should be the protector of your own funds through a hardware wallet.

I agree with you OP it's important that newbies and even old members be reminds of this vital information you just passed, sometimes not only do exchanges crash, they also get hacked and all you coins could be stolen and you will have nothing you can do about it. Its very important newbie understand the difference between wallet and exchange as it will help them to better safeguard their assets.

Some persons still make that mistake of storing their assets in exchanges probably because of the ease of been able to sell of at once but then the disadvantage could be really bad especially when it causes one to loose their assets, but with Bitcoin/crypto wallets there's some level of safety with which you can safeguard your assets.

We have discussed this many times here and in different ways, many forum members already know the consequences of that action. The people who need reminder are the people who are investors in bitcoins but are not members of this forum. Some of them are investing wrongly by leaving their bitcoins on exchanges simply because they believe and trust the reputation of these exchanges. If we meet these kind of people we need to always tell them that they are doing the right thing the wrong way. They are doing well investing, but doing it wrongly by keeping their bitcoins under the keep of a third party.

It's true that some people don't learn from the mistakes of others unless it occurs to them and they have the necessary experience. I don't anticipate people to still be putting their coins within exchanges, especially with huge quantities of money, given the rate at which people are losing their money through exchanges.



Yes, newbies may not know the difference between exchange accounts and Bitcoin wallets, but what I expected from anybody before putting their money or investing in anything was the safety of their properties. So as a newbie is not and excuse to leave their coins on exchanges, they need good knowledge about how to provide strong security for their money first before investing their money.many people are desperate of making profit in crypto industry and often forget about proper thing they need to learn first. If someone money is not properly secured even you make more profit the money may not be yours.

Becoming a successful trader demands a lot of information and is not an easy task. It will be challenging for someone who is still new to the cryptocurrency business and has not acquired sufficient trading knowledge to succeed in trading. Therefore, trading is not for the ignorant or inexperienced. Additionally, trading requires diligence and technical analysis rather than laziness. You will remain a loser if you don't conduct study.

They just want to save from paying huge TRX fees but the security of their funds has been ignored putting their situation at high risk because whatever will happen to the exchanges, they will also suffer the consequences and might not be refunded. Though we can say it was not a good idea but I admit that I've done this before. Well, maybe I was trusting the platform that I'm using and it is quite different from using new exchanges. Therefore, before leaving our coins in a particular exchange platform, we are also aware and are ready for whatever will happen.

For beginner who want to invest in BTC for the long term, it must be sent to a wallet after buying it from the exchange with the aim of so that there is nothing unwanted, because if we put BTC on the exchange it is of course very risky.

But for those who like daily trading, of course there is no problem putting BTC on the stock exchange as long as it has to be on a trusted stock exchange and you have to be able to do technical and fundamental analysis and have good insight and experience. However, putting BTC on the exchange is very risky and we have to learn from the FTX incident.

and according to my personal experience, if our put BTC on the stock exchange, our are usually always tempted and want to sell it when there is a slight increase and always forget the main goal, namely long-term investment in BTC.

I really agree with the topic you made.
Of course, there are beginners who know about this and there are those who don't. Of course, with the topic you created, hopefully there will be many benefits, although I think many people have discussed this.

It is sad to see that exchanges deceive their users to keep funds in their custody so that they can be in full control of customers funds. And newbies fall for their trick because they don't know that it is not safe to do that because this exchanges can run away with your funds and there is nothing you can do about this. Be your own bank as bitcoin has given us this opportunity, not you keys, not your coins

This reminder is something that we have been seeing over and over again here in the forum, but because of transaction fees some people prefer to leave their funds in an exchange so that they can get easy access to their coins, which is bad. I think that it is only traders that needs the exchange most time and not we hodlers. I will say that you should see an exchange as an enemy to your bitcoin, maybe this will make you get scared of them.

Bitfinex was also hacked lately, I will never trust any centralized exchange with my assets, even as a trader I always withdraw my funds from the exchange after each trades, some people still leave theirs on the platforms, but I don't blame them, they must be thinking about the transaction fee of moving in and moving out of the exchange everyday.

Some people just decide to trust the exchange that they are using for no reason, such people must be willing to lose their money, the only exchange I trust is Binance I can leave my asset on this platform for a while but I always end up withdrawing them when it's time.

There is no such thing called smart in crypto, anyone can still lose their funds even if they are very smart, you must always be cautious about your decisions, give no space for silly mistakes that could cost you everything.

This topic is always better than those who tell here what Bitcoin is, something that is now popularized. In fact, post above from yours says the right things, not everyone knows about the forum, and new people who come here will always look for simple ways. Our privilege is that the community immediately discusses all events happening in the world of cryptocurrencies, and it is not a fact that the one who begins the path to Bitcoin alone, can cover all the information at once.

Take a look at this post.


I have witnessed that people I know who are not forum users still store their seed phrases in “password-protected form” in their emails, and every time they wave their hand at the warning that such storage is unsafe. So yes, the OP is right, the best teacher will always be the experience gained from your mistakes.

Experienced ones, pretend to be more conscious but in reality still, with their attitude they face serious losses, there was a thread last about indicating a case of the Account frozen by Binance and the Op was asking fo help from the serious to solve about the estimated amount was $500+ which refers that the users were not newborn at least this is wah ti think.

With the careless attitude the Op lost his funds now its 50/50 weather he recovers his funds but putting him into further investigations by the platform or the support team complete ignores his request, From million if they lose a customer it wont impact their overall reputation. Its Obvious that newbies will make mistakes as they are not aware of the conciqunces and they are not guided properly, or they ignore sometimes important suggestion by taking them lightly.

No matter how you warn people, they will never listen until they fall victim before they know the reason why people are discouraged from leaving their coins on exchange. Both newbies and even people that have been long in crypto space do leave their coin on exchange. If newbies are leaving coins on exchange, I do warn them and advise them, since I believe they don’t know the implication, but I get annoyed when I see people who have been in the crypto space do the same. They already have experience, so they shouldn’t be making the same mistake.

Since leaving coins on exchange is easy and can easily be accessed, people decide to turn them into their wallets. Even if some individuals are aware of the risk of leaving coins on exchanges, they maintain the belief that there are trustworthy exchanges with robust security measures that prevent hacking and guarantee the return of user cash in the event of an issue. However, they are unaware that any exchange can be compromised. Even though the exchange you believe to be secure hasn't been compromised in the past, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be compromise.

You can leave the money you use for trading on exchange if you are a trader. You can’t send coins into exchange when you want to trade and withdraw them after trading. However, if you know that you will be taking a long-term break from trading, take your money out of exchange and deposit it into your wallet. You can then return your funds to exchange when you decide to resume trading. However, before engaging in trading, always ensure that the exchange you choose is reputable.

You will lose all of the money you are going to trade with if you want to be a trader but lack fundamental information. You cannot make quick money without having basic knowledge in trading. You should be ready to read if trading is truly your goal to generate money.

I highly agree with @OP.  From the word exchange, it does not mean that it is a place to stash our Bitcoin.  It is where we do our transaction of converting our cryptocurrency into fiat or other cryptocurrency.  I have a  bad experience with stashing my cryptocurrency to exchange.  Since I am comfortable using that exchange, I just leave all my altcoins on their platform.  Then I became inactive for a year or two because my focus was directed to something else and I needed a lot of time building that plan so I forgot about my holdings on that exchange.

A year passed when I was about to check if my holdings on that exchange had grown, I was surprised that my cryptocurrencies were gone, I do not know if it was liquidated or my account was hacked.  One thing I learned from this experience, if we invest in cryptocurrency and want to forget about it for some time, never leave it on exchanges.  Yes, there are some reputable exchanges but other exchanges are looking for an opportunity to confiscate your holdings.

This has been in talks many times.
If the goal is to hold as a long-term investment, then it is not recommended to hold it on an exchange. especially if it is an unknown or fake exchange. It's still better if you save it on top exchanges like Binance or others, but that is also not recommended. Personal wallets, especially hardware wallets, are the best choice and have the best level of security. But unfortunately, many people still choose exchange wallets.

But if it's not a large amount, especially if you still use it for trading, then it's not a big problem. However, if you have a very large nominal value, a lot of assets, and also for a long-term period, it would be better and safer to transfer it to a personal hardware wallet first, don't forget to secure it and save all information regarding how to access it properly, don't lose it.

I believe learning is a continuous thing and everyone who is associated with this forum unless a newbie account that was created few weeks ago should be the only one hasn't been informed about the topic of the op. One of the reasons why people get scammed is ability not to act after getting information about a particular thing so I hope the repetition of this thread helps to remind everyone here not to store their funds in exchanges because they can't be trusted 100% as so many examples has been seen from the recent happenings, I hope we no only learn but also put our knowledge in practice to avoid certain mistakes that will lead to lost of funds.

There are threads that are worth repeating but in a unique way that it doesn't bore people and I love the the how the op treated his. Centralized  exchanges can be likened to a lion's den  you can never feel safe there with your funds. They are only fit for a drop and pick funds and what I mean by that is buy and sell immediately or send to your personal custodial wallet where your private keys are under your absolutely control.
Due to the recent hike in bitcoin transaction fees many persons are now trynna feel comfortable holding their funds there to cut the effect of the fee hike in transactions if they wanna sell their bitcoin for fiat they just use the p2p,  that's not an excuse to have your funds kept in CEX they can fail you with every opportunity to their interest.

Since it's related to this topic, this should be seen by those that are still keeping their funds on exchanges. One big reason why you shouldn't leave your coins on exchanges.

This is just one of the many:

--> https://cointelegraph.com/news/poloniex-exchange-hack-60-million-drained-5-percent-bounty

Exchanges are third parties and are not reliable to keep assets with hence the slogan "not your keys,not your coin" . If you have any assets with an exchange, just know that they are not yours because you have no access to the keys of that wallet holding the assets on the exchange platform so one needs be wise. They can fold up at any time and also they can be hacked at anytime. There have been lots of hacks years past and many people have lost their assets and funds and most times, they get peoples assets frozen for no reasons. This thought should always come to your mind whenever you think of saving your assets with exchanges. If well known exchanges like ftx and Coinbase could suffer hack what are these other smaller exchanges Compared to them. Is it your assets that can not be taken away from you which is not in your custody?  You should be able to hold your assets for yourself rather than risking it with third parties.

You just made an awakening on what has been deliberated several times though ... But the truth is, you've created an awareness that alot of newbies have learnt from and you've also made indirect references to mega threads with discussions like this.
It's never been an option to leave your coins on centralized exchanges - I once left some coins deliberately on an exchange and was hoping to have it rise ..lol how's that even possible with no basic skills for analysis ? ...well, that was my worst experience as I lost virtually half of what I deposited by the next two to three days.

Sandra 🧑‍🦰

Not your keys, not your cryptos, it is no longer news that any coin that you store on a centralized exchange should be seen as if you have already lost the coin because there is no guarantee that you would wake up the next day and you still have access to that coin.
The collapse of FTX should serve as a very big lesson to all of us both old and newbies in the space. They say experience is the best but this experience should not be something that one would wish to have because it will really run you down just as it did to many who lost hundreds of thousands and millions of dollars.

If you can't keep your cryptos safe, then how do you think someone else would do that for you? Think and take full control of your funds.

I support you, how can we not put the assets we have for a long time on an exchange, especially a centralized exchange, even though it requires you to pay a fee for transactions, but putting your assets back into your personal wallet is the best thing. I am one of the victims of the FTX collapse, and up to now I cannot withdraw the 5mbtc I have in my old FTX account, because since FTX was declared bankrupt, all the assets available there have been frozen and the site is under the supervision of the US government. Remain alert and skeptical about all exchanges because anything can happen on the internet, including the collapse of a large exchange.

Centralized exchanges should not be our first priority to store funds for long term purposes because we know its a custodial wallet where we don't own the keys so we don't own the funds in it. The exchange can do whatever they want all they need is some accuse to make. Like, some in exchange technical issue, or regulatory issue at country level to freeze your funds.

These cases makes them bad choice to store funds so we should go for non-custodial wallets every time.

You brought the talk of trading in the discussion while you are talking about the choice of centralized wallet of exchange or decentralized wallet, well, if you have brought that up then you should also mention that exchanges are our first choice when we have funds that we have to use in trading.

Exchanges are like market place, their wallets is the store assign to you where you store your bitcoin or other coins. Just like market place it is not advisable to leave your goods there because it is not in your custody, the people that risk their funds there are traders just like the traditional market where traders have warehouses in the Market. But it is still risky because any day the government exchange collapses or gets hacked since it is online you will lose all your funds.

Bitcoin wallet which is sometimes referred to as wallet only is a store where you keep your bitcoin and you hold the keys to it. Without this keys no one will have access to your bitcoin except you.

An exchange is Just as the name implies; it’s meant to be used to exchange your coins for other coins or to trade your coins for cash, but over the time some people have started using it to keep their coin and an event took place that costs so many people that kept their coins on a certain exchange their money. While for wallet, non-custodial wallet to be specific it gives you the ability to manage your coins yourself and if you don’t give out your private keys to others no one will be able to access your wallet.

But for exchanges the dev could for some reasons decide to close your account and confiscate all your holding in you account with the excuse that you went against their terms and conditions but the same cannot be said for non-custodial wallet.

Hacking can happen regardless of whether the exchange is the most popular or safest, because any system can be hacked. I don't store my main funds on the exchange because I know the risks, I use personal wallet storage to store all my main assets. this is safer and more secure than having to be on an exchange managed by a third person. If it's just for trading then I will transfer only what is needed, not everything to be safer.

That's the step that should be taken for someone who wants to store assets or trade crypto on an exchange. Unfortunately, many mistakes are made by keeping a lot of their assets in exchange and assuming they are all safe.
I also did this when I first started investing and trading. Storing assets on the exchange is more time-efficient. but it turns out that it is not safe for our asset ownership.
now use the exchange only for trading activities. and if you want to store assets, we can use a personal wallet. and that's what I'm doing right now. Many experiences give us important lessons that we must emulate.

Very good advice OP, In crypto or any online payment system we have to be very careful and we should do all necessary step which needed for security. Most of the old members are very careful but yes there are some old people that are still so lazy and didn't learn from other people's mistakes.



I think newbie should start investing with low money after learning some basic skill because one can learn in more proper way when he experience practically and most of skill only could be learned when we lost or win like emotions control and many other things. Investing small is best choice for this purpose.



I will prefer CEX only when we need to do daily trading or use fast fiat to crypto exchange or vice versa otherwise holding a token in Exchange is so risky. The best place to store wallets is an open source wallet where we have full control over our own funds

In my early days in this forum, this is what have been repeatedly talked about in the forum especially in this board, Beginners and Help. After all this warnings, people still fall victims of this problem. I just assume that those that see the information and neglect it are okay with losing such money and some could be that the exchanges keeps giving them assurance that their funds are save with them and they don’t need to worry that anything will happen to them amidst the controversies and cases that has occurred to other big exchanges in the past. There’s only one thing to reiterate ‘Not Your Keys, Not Your Coins’.

OP, thanks for the reminder and telling those newbies who are new into the cryptospace that don't know  how to store their bitcoin. I wouldn't even blame newbies for this kind of practice becaise even we the old ones still ignore this message and still keep out funds in an exchange and such people will learn an hard lesson before this advise will stick to their head.

I could remember a newbie saying that most people were telling him that Binance is a good wallet, can you imagine that. This is how so many of them still think that the moment you have bought your bitcoin in an exchange that is where it should be kept. This should be a continuous reminder to newbies because everyday by day newbies are always falling for this. Bitcoin is decentralized and should not the kept in a centralized platform.

This kind of topic is as always continuous and repetitive even though we keep saying that they must need to store their asset to their wallets and not their exchange using still keep doing this and one of the reasons is they can easily manage to sell or buy and opportunity of an asset. There's nothing wrong with it if you keep storing those but again the risk is there you can't tell anything that can happen with your asset if you keep holding it into an exchange. Just like a preventive measure to store in your wallet. Well if you are confident its just a charge to experience if you lose your asset.

Well, this is not just for newbies but also for everyone including me because I would admit that I sometimes choose to leave some of my funds to exchange wallet. However, I do this for some reason just because I am trading when I have free time and I think that I could save some fees as I don't need to top up my wallet. Maybe it was not thought that the site might possibly be hacked and lose my funds but because I trust the platform that brings me confidence that it was safe and secured.

Even the amount you can afford to lose did not worth leaving any crypto exchanges because they are not decentralized.

FTX went down with people funds some years back, and people have a lot of money in the exchange. Now that we are approaching another bitcoin halving, we are expecting a bull run soon, and new people due to FOMO will venture into bitcoin and crypto investment, where they will mostly use exchanges for easy access to their coins. Therefore, exchanges will be at AKART to scam or take any funds that are worth taking, which is why we cannot trust them anymore.

Take them (exchanges) as a market place where you buy your bitcoin, and take them home (your bitcoin wallet you have the private key in your control)

It's not uncommon to see threads that warn against storing assets on exchanges, this has been a common discussion and others have suggested storing in your own wallet that has a key that you hold.

theymos has announced this, there are also those who still insist on storing on the exchange, let's leave it alone, the important thing is that we have given advice on it, as long as we don't talk about the dangers of storing assets on the exchange but still use it then it is not logical with the advice given.

Not all newbie is good for researching these kind of information that's why its good that there's reminder like this will bump up especially on Beginners board so that they will be aware about possible risk for leaving their balances on exchange even if its reputable and running for long time. What happen to Mt.gox and FTX is really serious matter since they are good exchange before that's why this should serve as a warning for newbies that they should never trust those exchange especially if they are a busy person and cannot monitor what's current happening in the market. Those suggestion where to keep his bitcoin on kucoin is really a bad information they can read so hopefully no people got influence about those words and they continue to do further more research about scams or other important that need to consider.

Not your keys, not your coins. Discuss? There is nothing to discuss with that statement. It's a clear answer to any of your questions that you must have related to keeping your coins in any exchange or centralized platform. The best part of Bitcoin is to be your own bank and if you are not using that aspect, then you shouldn't be using Bitcoin at all. At least if you don't want to have your own wallet, use a Hardware Wallet.

It's pretty straightforward, mate. Exchange wallets come with your exchange account. you get them when you sign up. These wallets are handy for trading various digital assets on the exchange.Now, a Bitcoin wallet is different. it's a wallet for storing your Bitcoins. If you're trading or doing everyday transactions, go for an exchange wallet. But for keeping your Bitcoins safe for the long hodl, decentralized wallets are the way to go.

Here's the deal. It's not recommended to leave your Bitcoins on exchanges. Why? Because most, if not all, exchanges are centralized. That means they control your wallet and have the keys to your deposited cryptocurrencies. They can use this control to help with trading on their platform. So, unless you're actively trading, it's best to keep your coins in a more secure, decentralized wallet.

To be honest reminding is necessary. Some newbies who joined the Bitcoin system lately are still buying and storing on their exchanges. This is because the persons who introduced them to Bitcoin did not go further to discuss the security aspect with them. There was a thread that a beginner was saying that he was advised to buy and keep his Bitcoin in Kucion exchange. Many people have heard of this information but they still choose to ignore because it hasn't happened to them yet. But this reminder may give them a second though.

Some topics with similar reminders but maybe there are some points you missed.

Reminder: do not keep your money in online accounts
Be careful with online services
Security checklist
Wallet basics

what is the difference between on exchange wallet and bitcoin wallet, what you suggest on creation on it?


Thanks.

The issue is not limited to financial losses only in case of bankruptcy or hacking of these exchange platforms but also extends to the leakage of sensitive customer information and KYC documents provided by the client to use these platforms. The advice not to leave any person's currencies on centralized exchange platforms is well-known. Still, many beginners are unwilling to transfer their currencies to any hardware wallet. Although acquiring a hardware wallet can be costly, it can be done through popular desktop or mobile decentralized wallets. I do not know why they trust these exchange platforms, which may freeze their assets at any moment or require them to undergo additional complex verification procedures. If they prefer long-term investment and want to feel reassured after years of holding their assets, they should transfer them to any wallet they have complete control over, including its security details. Exchange platforms are only for trading and P2P transactions.

Well, it's not bad to keep reminding users about this important advice despite the fact that the same topic, same facts, and same logic have been discussed on the board several times, but some people still get ignorant and deposit their coins on the centralized exchange for the sake of getting a small ROI. There was a thread created some weeks ago when the OP was asking where he could invest his crypto in order to make a profit. In the comments, someone mentioned staking his coin, which got me wondering if there's any place one can stake their coins if not on centralized platforms. Centralized exchange is not actually a wise place to store coins, like you said.

Left and right threads we see these nonstop threads about advising not to leave the coins in exchanges and even for simple replies, we tend to say this.

But that's good because we're keeping everyone reminded that it's not a good thing when you're not going to use an exchange as is but a storage of your assets.

Also some threads have been discussing about those robbers that are also getting the exchanges fund through forceful robbing, so be careful with those too.

I thought OP was going to tell us a personal experience that motivated the creation of this topic. To be honest, I’m surprised we are still discussing about this, enough has been said on the topic already and if recent events cannot teach newbies and old members (I doubt if anyone who’s been here for six months would make such a mistake) to store your coins in a non custodial wallet, then you will likely learn the hard way.

Poor orientation beget all sort of things can harm them! If not for this forum and some other crypto related platforms, many will have been victims of this and we will prolly have more of people that keeps coins on the exchanges. We might not have the result but if they should take census of users that kept coins on the exchange from 2021 to now, we will have more of people that joined crypto between this years(2020-2023) and it is because they are not aware or didn't take note of that, despite all that has happen since FTX collapse, they believe Binance is the best for them and that is because Binance give them more awareness than we here in the forum, only a gullible here will not know the dangers of exchange and still use an exchange to keep coin.

FTX should be a lesson for people that keeps their coin on any exchange because some many lost their lives because that mistake. If you are not a trader, I see no logical why you a coin should be left on any exchange and even as a trader, it's better to remove some of them and withdraw them out of the exchange when you are not trading for the time being to avoid pain stories that will make you start from scratch.

There's not a ton to talk about here.  Your warning and reminder make total sense.  but we've seen these kinds of warnings a million times before. and  It's crazy how some people whove been around a while still don't get the risks.  The distinction between an exchange account and a noncustodial wallet is so important.  And you're so right to say that people need to make a secure wallet before jumping into exchanges. But for some folks, it's not just ignorance or laziness.  The exchanges need traders to function.  What good is a coin exchange if no one is buying or selling coins?

Yes, it is true that we do not need to keep all the assets on the exchange to avoid bad things that can happen on the exchange. We have seen what happened to some exchanges that became scams or even closed their exchanges because they could not explain the situation and circumstances.

Therefore, we must immediately move those assets if we have purchased them from the exchange.
It's better to keep it in a separate wallet that we can control completely so we won't worry about anything.
And we know that bitcoin is already expensive right now so we should really keep it in that separate wallet. There are many wallets that we can use so we have to find one that suits us.
Beginners may not be able to buy a hardware wallet, so they can use a wallet that can be installed on their smartphone. That is enough to secure all our assets as long as we can look after them well.

I like your analogy down there, throwing light on exchange with reference to what's obtainable in a real life commonplace market situation. Any simple minded person or layman should be able to grab something from that illustration. However, what hasn't ceased to amuse me is how everyone is on the beat about why people shouldn't leave their funds on exchanges. There should be a demarcation in that respect between someone hodling and someone trading. Traders aren't of the same make with hodlers. We shouldn't expect traders not to leave funds on exchanges. How do they execute trades if they don't have ready funds for them on exchanges? Perhaps, what should be canvassed should be not to leave idle funds on exchanges for a long time.

There isn't a lot to talk about here. Everything that's been said is important for anyone who owns or is new to Bitcoin. Exchanges are for trading, not for storing money. If someone keeps their funds in an exchange, they need to be ready for any risks. For me I only funds my exchange wallet when I'm going to trade. I'd suggest the same for everyone else.

This is one of the most repetitive threads on the forum aside newbies announcing their arrival here, I would say this constant reminder is definitely needed as newbies are coming every and with centralized exchanges promising them that their funds are save with them especially at this period of time (accumulation period), they need to be aware that these exchanges can never be trusted no matter their liquidity or reputation on social media.

As OP pointed out the most important thing is to download the right wallet and with many fake wallet apps around the best way to know if the wallet you downloaded is the right one is by verifying it. You can verify your electrum wallet by following the guide on this thread. The two wallet listed by OP is a bitcoin only wallet. For Altcoins you can use unstoppable wallet or any wallet but it should be an open source wallet. And for maximum security you use an offline wallet like hardware wallets or airgapped  wallets.


It’s worth mentioning that seed phrases should be stored offline probably on papers and in rare cases of natural disasters on Stainless steels and in different locations. You can also add passphrase to your seed as second layer of security should it get compromised. On no account should you trust password managers to store your seeds.


Lastly prioritize decentralized exchanges or exchanges that do not require KYC for trading of tire coins to ensure maximum anonymity or privacy.

Frankly, I no longer blame beginners for making such fatal mistakes, despite all the repeated recommendations. When I see experienced users who have sufficient experience and cognitive capabilities falling victim as a result of their negligence and irresponsible behavior, blaming beginners becomes meaningless.
The only explanation I found to justify these behaviors of the experienced members is their negligence and failure to take the necessary precautions resulting from their false sense of security. Because the losses incurred by users on platforms that are hacked or that steal their clients’ assets are huge amounts, and not all of them can be owned by novice users.
I really hope that people will consider the mistakes of others and not trust these platforms, whether they are regulated or not.

The taste of learning from their own mistakes is much more pleasing compared to the so-called unexperienced learnings , TBH those who care don't need any sort of reminder. I've SEEN SUCH Stubborns haha.

For newbies with a self-custody reminder I want to make them that it's not that simple make sure to realize the network fees, if you are holding for the short term with a lower capital it's is not worth it to move coins to the self custody better prefer a reputed exchange where, you've bought them. In the other case where you are accumulating for a longer timespan, you can consider the self custoday and its more likely recomennded.

This is a warning to newbies and a reminder to old members that they should not leave their coins in an exchange. Some old members would not learn from other peoples mistake but they will want to learn from their own mistake.
From the word exchange, it means that it is where one goes to buy and sell cryptocurrency to fiat and vice versa. I have observed that newbies don't know the difference between an exchange account and a bitcoin wallet. When you register with an exchange, they have a bitcoin address available for you, in which you can use to receive bitcoin and send bitcoin but that is not a wallet. It is advisable that before you buy your bitcoin, you should have created a noncustodial wallet like electrum or blue wallet and only download the wallet app from the original website. After setting up your wallet and you have your seedphrase backed up, this is when you can now go to the next step of buying your bitcoin from an exchange. After you must have bought your bitcoin from an exchange, you should not waste any little time but transfer your bitcoin Asap to your noncustodial wallet to safe gaurd your bitcoin.

Exchanges are used by traders for their daily trading and as a newbie, you shouldn't jump into trading until your have learnt the fundamental analysis and technical analysis to your proper understanding and also have learnt how to read charts, this is because trading is very risky and a newbie with zero knowledge on trading will end up losing all his coins. You should see exchange as a market place where you go to buy and sell and when you are done with whatever you went for in the market, you take your goods home because if you leave what you went to buy or sell in the market it will be stolen in the market.

See exchanges in this same way and whatever that makes you to use an  exchange, when you are done, you should not leave your funds in there. We have seen big exchanges like FTX crashed and the whole thing is still a drama currently. You should only leave the amount that you can afford to lose in an exchange and don't for once risk your bitcoin. This is because exchanges are in full control of your bitcoin and they will decide what happens to your coins the moment you keep it in their custody.
Keep your bitcoin safe from third party.
Not your keys not your coins.
Let's discuss.