Topic: Your favourite exchange can be nowhere to be found (Read 361 times)

Exactly, your coins should be in your noncustodial wallets if you intend keeping it for a longer time for safety. The come that goes into your exchange should be those that you intend trading with. The mempool shouldn't be an excuse at all because you pay a greater price when you lose all your coins to CEX bankruptcy.

Some people give the lame excuse of accumulating their coins in the exchange to send it as one piece to their  non custodial wallets, but its still possible to do same with two  accounts in the same noncustodial wallets at a cheaper rate because sending to and fro exchanges costs more transaction fees. Safety of your coins is very important abs a serious issue because once its gone, its gone forever.

They prioritize convenience than safety of their fund and it's easily to ignore risk even they are already informed about risk.

Like in Bitcoin forum, there is a pinned topic about that but I doubt that most of members, newbies read that thread and if they already read, they actually apply it for their fund storage.

Reminder: do not keep your money in online accounts

Information, warning are good only for people who are open-minded and ready to change from thinking to practice.

Laziness and ignorance, as simple as that. Luckily for CEXes, theere is a constant influx of new users that no very little about all the dangers of using centralized exchanges to store their crypto.


That would be great if those were the only one who are keeping their crypto on exchanges. In reality, biggest "problem" are those who are using centralized exchanges for a long term hodl, as they mistakenly see exchanages as a sort of bank while in fact they are much worse than them and offer bascially no protection at all.

Those who keep funds on exchange are those who is trading on a regular basis and it's very hard to keep moving fund in and out when they want to carry out some trades as the case may be, you know as a trader there should be some funds on reserve in the exchange, what I will like people to do is to always move out their fund when they have made enough profits in their trading than keep accumulating the whole fund inside exchange when collapse come they lose everything. For investors, it's advisable to use a noncustodial wallet where they can have access to their private key and seed phrase.

The reason why most people prefer to store their coins on exchanges is due to the difficulty they face why withdrawing their coins from non custodial wallets to exchanges because of high transactions fees and congestion in mempool that basically takes more time even days before transactions are confirmed and is not everyone that is hodling Bitcoin as majority of people are just interested in swapping their Bitcoins to fiat especially when they have recorded a little profit.
The percentage of hodlers is very low because most of the people that uses non custodial wallets are long term investors so they prefer to store there coins for a long interval knowing too well that they can have access to their coins anytime with the use of their seed phrases.
But for short term hodlers, they mostly use exchanges for easier transactions.

Custodial wallets are not secure because it is a third party like an exchange that manages your assets. So this is not recommended by many people, you can start by creating a non-custody wallet or called hotwallet as a free wallet where you can have your own control will be better or have hardware much more secure, I save here.

It's simpler that all you have to do is withdraw BTC from the exchange to a custody wallet even that's simple right? But I realize the withdrawal fee will be quite high.

I'm not familiar with the exchanges listed but I made a little research about FTX, this is another means whereby owners misuse people funds and from my understanding this is common among exchange. But at first I don't think the idea of storing coins in an exchange is right besides I believe exchange are meant for buying and selling as the name imply. I read similar story few days ago concerning exchange and should be avoided cause the person giving this testimony has experienced such situation before (victim). This issue have been discussed several times here so it's enough reason we stay out from exchange in terms of storing our coins but still it's best forum members  throw more light on this in order to enlighten newly investors

There’s no way they can dragged Binance down because CZ itself orchestrated everything before he cut ties with them. He is one of the co-conspirators of SBF on doing shady things on their exchange

SBF pull out his investment on Binance while CZ do a rhetorical action but with greater intensity that cause a downfall to FTX. Right now CZ is also on the road for jail time same with SBF. I believe he already accept the penalties just to avoid more auditing on his exchange that might cause same scenario to FTX.

They would have dragged Binance down with them too. Luckily, Binance knew what it was doing. They offered help then withdrew their help a couple days later. Why? Because by doing so the demise of FTX would be guaranteed in a matter of just days instead of weeks or perhaps even months. You try to save then back off at the last second, very well executed. For sure and without a doubt CZ was applying a secret technique from The Art of War. If Binance had not backed out, it would have been the one that faces bankruptcy because they will suddenly have to hold a worthless asset and huge obligation to FTX debtors.

Just don't keep your funds on any exchanges, whether they are centralized or decentralized or you truly trust, it's best to have your funds on your hand where you hold the key. You'll never be sure whom to trust with your funds but no other than yourself and a non custodial wallet.
We have to learn to the past incidents that exchanges that have been known became an issue of the era where they've became popular.
@OP, don't forget about mt.gox.

Not your keys Not your coin this should be put in the mind of people since if they always feel comfortable storing their funds on exchange and don't check any updates then provably with this they might lose their money if the exchange scam them or suddenly collapsed just like what happen on those exchange.

Maybe its really so hassle to withdraw our funds then exchange it but we should be more mindful that even if the exchange is high reputable one they still have a chance to scam we prove it so many times. Non costudial wallets is always advisable so that we can avoid any possible danger brought up by any exchange scamming or any unwanted scenarios that we don't want to happen.

There are more crypto exchange service companies that have gone bankrupt or have been hacked that didn't make the OP list, example is Patricia, an exchange service in my country, they built a reputation and gained investors trust, eventually they were hacked, and their investors funds are gone. One of the best lessons that I've learned on this forum is that I shouldn't leave my coins in an exchange, no matter how reputable that they are, because they can go down anyday, "not your keys, not your coins". None custodial wallet is the best option to hold your coins, because you're the sole custodian of the private keys.

Yeah as a forum user I am also that believer, I am just keen on those particular cex cause I can use them which noncustodial cant give me some needed features especially in p2p. Like in our country, The Sec pushing it ban here immediately without court order, I can see why our political aspect is indeed bound by crocodiles. Anyway thanks for that input.

Exchanges are having a rough time with some of the governments already and it is better that if we have our digital assets with them, we should move them to a non custodial wallet, a good example with how finance has been suffering a lot of threats upon attacks from US, Nigeria, India, Philippines and some other, we only know how it begins and we are not sure of where it may landed, you can just wake up a day to discover that the exchange have been banned from your country or it's under attack, what will be your fate at that moment being it's user.

Yeah a very bad news but still accesible on the app. I can still use it. I believe they will not succeed on banning the Binance app on those platforms as they dont have enough reason to do so. Its like a force act on the part of SEC to fully implement the ban, but clearly they dont have the rights. People of the Philippines which uses crypto suffered form their insisting approach on Banning they arent protecting the people at all.

It has been said repeatedly even here on the forum, that it is not advisable to keep most of your digital assets on centralized exchange, especially because of the uncertainty that is attached with them. I believe most crypto enthusias that leave their assets on most of the centralized exchange are basically traders, but for the long time holders, they mostly make use of non custodian wallet, as your keys is the gateway to access your assets.  
I don't even want to believe that a holder will keep his assets in centralized exchange because of the fear of mempool congestion, because that will be ridiculous.

Unfortunately, Binance has been negatively tagged by our SEC since the company failed to comply with the requirements provided under the laws of the Philippines. Though this may be the case, Binance has released a statement saying that they will fulfil such responsibility in order to provide exchange and trading services in the country.

I do agree with everyone here that leaving your BTCs/cryptocurrencies in exchanges are risky given that you have no right with your private keys. Having a custodial wallet is still the best way for security in order to guarantee full custody over your coins. This will not only benefit you in the long-run, but it will also give you the highest form of security that many still fails to take advantage.

QUESTION:
Given that we know custodial wallets hold the safest way for security, do you guys have any recommendations on how to start? I have been a forum user since 2017 but I still hold my BTCs inside exchanges. Are there any guides in order to transfer my BTCs in exchanges to non-custodial wallets?

Except one isn't a trader and is going to hodl for a long time, leaving coins in exchanges will enable one speed up trading of coins. The process of waiting for coins to confirm before placing trades isn't an experience one wants to witness. It's a frustrating one, especially when entry positions are clear. I believe that's why those who do it, do so. For instance, I've a few coins in exchanges I use for viable project staking. I don't have to keep transferring in and out whenever I want to stake or use them. No matter what we do, we can't completely eradicate risk in this industry. We can only minimize it.

Talking about exchanges disappearing or being no more, that's a part of the risk in this industry. We can only do our due diligence (Research) before patronizing any exchange but whatever happens later isn't what we can decide. Part of my research mechanism is to check the trust rating of any exchange before opening an account. I try to stay with those from 8/10 to 10/10.

FTX was quite a good exchange that many people had funds on but it was quite surprising to see that the exchange suddenly crashes to zero with users losing their funds. This was a big misery to many investors especially for people that has huge amount on the exchange using it to trade and hold for a better future. It is very important for us to know what we are doing so that we are not going to end up creating account on similar platform putting all our eggs in it with trying to calm down. It is important we calm down and put small amounts of money in an exchange so that if any wrong thing happens, it is not going to affect us.

OP you listed fine examples of exchanges that have failed yet your actions speak louder than your words. Plaguedeath already pointed out that you use an exchange wallet for signature campaigns, you can’t tell me you spend all your signature earnings immediately. From what I can see on blockstream, you have a decent amount of hodlings in that wallet. Maybe you should take your own advice.

I would say that trusting any exchange means accepting risks that can happen at any time. If there is a need to use an exchange, then do not rush to trust your money to the first one that seems reliable in your opinion. There are no reliable ones as such; however, try to find out as much information as possible about it, especially those negative moments that users had. Usually, people don't hesitate to write about it. And yes, do not store all your capital there; I use exchanges one day, no more.

I second this, nothing should make one keep their assets in a centralized exchange, if you do not want to trade it, then don't send it into a centralized exchange. It is common for people to say they have had their funds in a custodial service for a long time and they are yet to lose it, but they forget that it does not mean the assets are safe and it only takes a blink of an eye for the exchange to halt withdrawals and file for bankruptcy.

This is a timely reminder for newbies and others who keep large sums in exchanges. The fall of FTX came as a surprise because there was no indication that it would go bankrupt. I usually hear people say that a particular exchange is too big to fall. These persons don't know that any centralized platform can be mismanaged or government might seize it which will lead to the loss of your money. The only time I put money in exchanges is when I want to change them for fiat.


One of the reasons why people still put large sums in exchanges is because of ignorance. Many people don't know the difference between a custodian and a non-custodial wallet. The person who introduced me to Bitcoin didn't explain to me the different types of wallets. I had to read about wallets by myself. Most newbies are just interested in making money in this bull run, meanwhile, they have zero or no knowledge about where air what they are putting their money in.

Some of us might think that the exchanges are not collapsing any moment because they have a very rugged security system that is nearly hacked proof. We can also say that they have been around for so long time and other people serve much more higher amount of coins while your own is maybe less than thousand, nothing will happen. It could be true that nothing will happen but then to use bitcoin the right way it is supposed to be used, do not trust any system that doesn't give you your seed phrase. Use the exchanges as exchanges and use the wallets as wallets. By this, you will not have much to lose if things go wrong.

I used FTX to make transactions before they crashed and luckily I didn't store any assets there.
FTX exchange is global, while local exchanges are more reliable and trustworthy to use as a place to sell or buy so they are not as prioritized, including another reliable exchange, namely Binance.

Just use them as a place of exchange, not for storing. The best place to keep assets in a wallet is not on an exchange.
Putting something wrong in its wrong place is at your own risk.

I don’t just know why some people do take the risk of leaving their coin on exchange, we all have seen different exchanges that failed previously, lots of exchanges have been hacked before, I just dont know why some people are not learning from things that happened previously, exchange should be a place which we are suppose to trade alone, not a place to store your coin. If you are a trader, then you can be trading on exchange, but whenever you notice you won’t be trading for some time, then you have to withdraw your money from the exchange. Don’t leave your money on exchange.

Centralized exchanges did not worth to be trusted anymore because of the bad experience they have shown the crypto community in the past. Most of the exchanges that went bankrupt were ones top exchanges with reputation, but they end up going completely down with people funds that are mostly nowhere to be found, which means that people that fall victim of saving their money in these exchanges lost everything.

Trust no one in crypto space, and be very cautious on everything you are doing.

For security reasons, Mempool congestion or hight transaction fee is better than losing all your money to exchanges.

I think we can still use exchange for the sole purpose of trading due to its UI, liquidity and multiple user-friendly option which Exchange offers but it would be a bad idea to store your funds in CEX as wallets would be the best ones for storing it but people have been so casual that they don't differentiate between exchange and wallet.

Unfortunately, there are many more than those platforms that are closing their doors. It's just the ones exposed by medias because they were large enough, but many others have closed without making any noise while scamming many of their customers by not letting them withdrawing their remaining assets or not sending them despite official announcements saying the opposite.

Well its your opinion mate I have mine. As far as I can use Binance and some exchanges to my own benefit I think thats deserved a good feedback. Well I know what you mean about their hold our money, its right since its a custodial services but I am using binance not only for the trading purposes. You see they got a very convenient way to cash out your profits or fund to a remmitance platform that can easily be converted into cash which I believe isnt convenient as some dexes. So its still a good thing we have those exchanges for this purposes. You can see goodness on the exchange when you are using it on what you needs.

So whats not being reliable there? Which for me its totally reliable.

In the crypto world do not trust any crypto exchange especially the top 10 listed on CoinGekco. The top ten today can disappear out of existence in a few years. Look at what happened in El Salvador to Chivo wallet where the source code was hacked and released, it gives one a clue that if it is not opened-sourced, the security of your funds cannot be assured. There is a small set of people who would choose the risk over their own risk. And by their risk, I mean that they cannot for one reason be able to safely store their private key therefore crypto exchanges is a much safer option for them.

We're talking about exchanges, but only two out of five of what you've mentioned are actually exchanges lol.

But yea I get your point; don't get too comfortable with exchangescustodial services because from hacks alone — nevermind insolvencies through other causes, is already a huge risk in itself.

There's no reliable exchange. No exchange is too good to big to fail. You actually don't know what they're doing with your funds. Binance as big as they may be keeps having several issues in different countries and you really do not know how things will end for them. We keep hearing several news of them paying different fines due to breaching of different laws in different countries. Nothing beats having your coins in your noncustodial wallet. The funds are in your care and your control. If you get tired of a particular wallet or it gets faulty, you can easily import it to a different wallet.

If you must use CEX, then just see it simply as a marketplace where you trade your bitcoins alone. Just keep the coins you trade with in your account and the rest of your coins should be in your wallet.

Let us not allow ourselves to be decieved by high profits that these exchanges offers when you leave your coins in their custody, because they want to use your coins for business. This should not be the reason why anyone would be attracted with the offer and keep his coins in their custody because it is not safe.

Also transaction fee should not be the excuse, because if you are the one that buys bitcoin using DCA, you can allow your coins to pile up to a good amount, where you can transfer it direct to your self custody wallet. Don't leave idle funds in exchanges because they are prone to attack and bankruptcy. Not your keys, not your coins.

mempool or withdrawal fees are not the main reason for using these services. FTX was offering zero withdrawal fees for a long time, but many people left their money on the platforms either because they do a lot of trading and do not want to miss the opportunity, or because those companies promised them high profits from their investments, just as is happening with Binance Launchpool Tokens.

I'm not against people trading with exchange. Normally the fastest means to sell and buy is from exchange. But it is not good when bitcoin or other digital assets are kept in exchange for hodling. It is possible I make use of crypto exchange but I don't make use of it for hodling because it is not sage.

It is important that we know the risk associated with the use of a crypto exchange, am not completely condemning such for use, but if we are considering safety and our long time investment of crypto asset with reason amount or worth, then we should see any custodial means of storage as a bad actor on us, we should go for a non custodial means of storage as we have in cold storages, when we have access to our wallet keys, then we are in charge and will not loose our asset, than when an exchange controls it for us.

@OP you're correct non custodial wallet is the best place and it's bad to hold our coins in centralized exchanges even though the fee spikes in few days ago. But, how can the user who suggesting to use non custodial wallet choose to use centralized exchange?


Your address is a part of Kucoin. https://platform.arkhamintelligence.com/explorer/address/bc1qe80grekeexp2qsv5du7lnn3398gj4vj28trchm

Let's repeat what you said above.

The pinned thread as a warning for everyone and exchange grave yards with so many reasons behind exchange service closures give some other warnings.

Reminder: do not keep your money in online accounts
Exchange graveyard

In the last bull run, we have Luna and in this bull run we have Ethena but people are greedy with Ethena and seem to forget about Terra fiasco two years ago.

I noticed from the people around me they prefer to buy and leave their cryptocurrencies on exchange especially Bitcoins.  This is because of avoiding the transaction fees and the delay of transaction, this is not a reason to prefer exchange for storing bitcoin.
Thank you.  I know their are many that I may not be very familiar with that are no more to be found, but let just understand that exchange is never an option for keeping cryptocurrency asset. When thinking of wallet to use what should come from the mind first should be safety before anything. Anything that is not safe is not important.

You do not have an exchange wallet, you have an account with an exchange that owns all the wallets. The exchange can block your account at anytime and for any reason. Only use an exchange to exchange and after you are done, move your funds to your wallet which should be:

• Non custodian
• Open source
• Popular or reputable

- Jay -

The list is actually much much longer than what you have here. The ones on your list are only those that crashed during the latest crypto winter. But there were countless others before that.

More importantly, centralized exchanges don't have to go bankrupt for you to lose your funds. They could just vanish into thin air all of a sudden. There were rug pulls and exit scams in the past. And then there's the fact that an exchange may continue running while depriving you of your own funds. That a user isn't allowed to withdraw his/her funds isn't an uncommon story. It happens every now and then.

You did not add Bitforex to the list of failed exchanges, well they are the latest because recently they refused to allow users withdraw their funds.

It is increasingly becoming risky keeping funds in CEX and I'm glad this forum have done a great job at spreading that information and educating people about such risk. The popular "not your key, not your coins" is one of such initiative to enable people know that keeping funds where the private key is with another is like giving your money away without guarantee. Lately, the big exchanges have become the target of governments such as the US and Nigeria who are currently leading in this regards.

Since its advisable to keep funds on our own noncustodial wallet then leaving on exchange is solely based on someones preference. You got it mate, some of these are high tier exchange before like FTX but experience a disaster trimming of funds. Only trust few with reliable and trusted one backed up funds like Binance or maybe OKX.

Before you feel so comfortable and relaxed with your favourite exchange wallet know their were some people's favorites exchange like that of yours that is nowhere to be found.

As for those that are new with no idea about exchanges that went bankrupt in the past. Don't be so comfortable with the exchange you are dealing with to keep your digital assets. Exchange being popular and big is not assurance that it is safe and last forever.  Crypto exchanges are unpredictable and anything can happen.

This is a friendly reminder to those that may have forgotten or not aware of crypto exchanges that went bankrupt or crashed down and nowhere to be found.

list of failed exchanges & companies well known due to bankruptcy

FTX
FTX's implosion was the biggest and most spectacular crypto downfall in 2022.

BLOCKFI
Crypto lender BlockFi was the first crypto company to follow FTX into bankruptcy. BlockFi had several ties to FTX, BlockFi has previously said it had 450,000 users and intends to ask a bankruptcy judge to allow some of them to withdraw funds.

THREE ARROWS CAPITAL
The crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital (3AC) was a major crypto firm to go bankrupt in 2022, brought down by the collapse of cryptocurrencies Luna and TerraUSD in May 2022.

VOYAGER DIGITAL

CELSIUS NETWORK
Another crypto lender brought down by the Terra and Luna collapse, Celsius Network began its U.S. bankruptcy case in July on rockier footing than Voyager.

mempool should not be a reason to choose exchange to keep bitcoin over good non custodialwallet