I trust none of the exchanges fully. It will be somewhat better when they get audited by trusted people of the bitcoin community (gmaxwell, antonopoulos but certainly many others i unfortunately did not monitor so closely), but no 100% guarantee still.
After watching all the exchanges for some time now, coinbase and btc-e are my favors.
I was in favor for bitstamp for some time over btc-e, until they pulled some strange maneuvers which were similar to what gox pulled. Freezing withdrawals for days/weeks without any public announcement about what is going on, leaving people fearing for their funds hanging.
Shortly after they pulled another two strange maneuvers, like the site being inaccessible for some time when the price was tanking hard, not allowing to sell, and AGAIN inaccessible when it shoot up, not allowing to buy back in.
This is the works of how manipulators do it, faking a ddos attack being responsible for it, and the way gox did it when the price shoot down from 266 to 50 in the major crash, and back up after.
BTC-e even if slowed by ddos at times, always allowed me to buy in or out so far. So i am going with BTC-e knowing very well that even this is not 100% secure, but in a world of blind, the one eyed is king.
With the newest BTC-e statement
Dear BTC-e.com participants,
We are concerned by MtGox shutdown and would like to assure you that:
1. MtGox losses do not affect account balances or the operation of BTC-e in any way.
2. We confirm the Bitcoin system operation and its exciting prospects, and MtGox bankruptcy has not been caused by any underlying technical problems of Bitcoin. Bitcoin international peer-to-peer network and cryptocurrency are independent of actions of a single market participant. Bitcoin protocol continues to function exactly as it should. The cryptocurrency maintains its stability and the network will continue to develop and exist as long as required by its users.
3. At BTC-e we are constantly monitoring Bitcoin accounts and FIAT reserves. At BTC-e we continue to maintain all clients’ assets in full – both Bitcoin and FIAT.
4. BTC-e has no vulnerabilities during client transactions as we use safe and proven transaction protocols. All transaction issues reported by our clients undergo a thorough check.
The safety of client funds and transactions is of ultimate importance for the company, and this is the reason why we have been an industry leader for the last three years.
1. BTC-e is at its peak of financial strength with the record levels of clients and capital adequacy. The company plans to start publishing financial statements, verified by an external audit, on a regular basis.
2. The highest levels of security are already in place at BTC-e, and the company regularly uses external professional advice to further increase the security of our clients.
3. BTC-e is the only exchange to offer a modern trading platform, MetaTrader 4, to its clients, and many other exciting projects and further upgrades are in the pipeline.
The company plans to soon begin to publish publicly available statements certified by external auditors.
i feel a lot more secure now. Again... not 100% secure
p.s : It's best to buy coins on coinbase if you are from the US and use them on btc-e to trade, then cash out via coinbase again. The reason for that is that coinbase fully complies with US laws, while btc-e might not.
