To avoid confusion between exchange withdrawal fee and bitcoin transaction fee, bitcoin transaction fee is not high like the exorbitant withdrawal fee charged by centralized exchanges.
The withdrawal fee at exchanges is not so much related to the network fee.
While a normal (1 input 2 outputs) transaction costs under 300 satoshi now, while during the week don't really go higher than 2500 satoshi, Binance, one the cheapest options, charges you 40000 (!) satoshi.
And they can easily combine multiple withdrawals to lower the fee/person (also that's why you'll probably see bigger total fees).
2500 sat equals to 0.000025 BTC.
If bitcoin price is presently $40000. The fee will be 40000 multiply by 0.000025 which is equals to $1. The fee depends on the present price of bitcoin, the mempool and the number of input and output. In conclusion, bitcoin transaction fee is not high like people think, exchanges charges than normal.
This is just about having control. Some people use centralized exchange to buy bitcoin, after they buy bitcoin, to send it to wallet become difficult for them because they do not want to spend over $25 or more on exchange withdrawal fee for bitcoin which is very high. Because of this, some people will prefer other options like the lightning network. There are other alternatives like the ERC20 (high fee too), BSC, BS and many others which have low fee but which are not bitcoin, they are all altcoins, the only real alternative is lightning network. Bitcoin transaction fee on exchanges are very high than usual.
According to a research which may or may not be accurate enough but show the true fact that lightning network adoption is increasing, there has been significant increase in the number of users that is using lightning network, much significant increase since 2021. Lightning network users increase from 150000 users in August 2021 to over 80 million users in March 2022 with increase in lightning payment transaction volume.
Detailed reporthttps://assets.ctfassets.net/4rilomtvvae4/3wrBvznCykPAohtwhCGmfE/9ab5a76cce470cc65a656b896d2300fb/The_State_of_Lightning_Vol_2.pdfPeople can use lightning network for low fee and fast transaction. People can use it to transfer from a crypto exchange to lightning channel on noncustododial wallet with low fee, the person can decide to transfer the bitcoin to blockchain bitcoin address by closing the channel after transferring from an exchange. This can be done on wallets like electrum.
A Beginner's guideline to Bitcoin Lightning NetworkElectrum Lightning Network WalkthroughBut for simplified option, wallets like Bluewallet is a good option.
But only few major exchange are still supporting lightning network.
Binance, Coinbase and FTX are not yet supporting lightning network. which is the only way that bitcoin can be withdrawn on exchanges for low fee. But few exchanges are supporting lightning network.
Having total control On centralized exchanges, you can not have total control, you do not have the keys, you account can be freezed, locked or blocked, there can be maintainance issues and no available option for withdrawal for some time and many other issues someone can face on centralized exchanges. You can be forced to get verified on the exchange. The exchanges can be hacked. This are good reasons we should not leave bitcoin on exchanges. If you want to withdraw low amount of bitcoin and the withdrawal fee is too high for you, you can use lightning network which is good for this purpose.
What to do if the exchange you are using is not supporting lightning networkIf the exchange you are using is not supporting lightning network, there is no better option than to leave such exchange, but if you like the service of the exchange and because of trustworthiness, you can decide to open another trustworthy exchange that support lightning network, send using the altcoin like BSC to the exchange, then send the bitcoin using lightning network to a noncustododial wallet. You can close the channel and move the coin to a blockchain address.
No complete control on centralized exchangesBecause some people are traders like scalpers, day traders and position traders. Some people prefer to use centralized exchanges for bitcoin purchase which is not advisable but they keep on doing it. If a trader is not using his bitcoin to trade or if he had make profit already, or someone that purchase bitcoin, they should all move the coin to a noncustododial wallet to have complete control. But the best way to buy bitcoin is to use decentralized exchanges like
bisq or
localcryptos, using a decentralized exchange will make the bitcoin to be transferred from a noncustododial wallet address to your noncustododial wallet address without the need of a centralized exchange and KYC.
Lists of bitcoin lightning network exchanges