Bitcoin Forum

Is it Okay to keep BTC and other coins at exchanges?

If you're planning on holding certain altcoins for a longer period of time, it's advised to keep them in a secure desktop or hardware wallet.
You're always running the risk that the exchange gets hacked or that they'll disappear with your coins.

If you're actively trading with them, it's probably cheaper (in fees) to keep them stored at the exchange though.

That's really a personal opinion. I keep the bulk of mine on Coinbase in the hope that they are well insured and secure. Some of my friends refuse to keep most of their's on exchanges though due to past issues.

Exchange gets hacked = you're fucked. If you only hold a small amount and dont mind losing them, then go ahead.
Relevant: THE INSIDE STORY OF MT. GOX, BITCOIN'S $460 MILLION DISASTER (https://www.wired.com/2014/03/bitcoin-exchange/)
Don't make history repeat itself.

Cryptocurency Exchange also have security measures but is not advisable to store a large amount of Crytocurrencies. Hackers are tirelessly working day and night to steal BTC's in an Exchange. Convenience is one of the common reasons why people are always storing their money in an Exchange. Also in real life, most people are not storing their money in bank because it also has the possibilities to be robbed, more likely in an exchange which is Digital and hosted by the internet.
Set up a wallet specifically a cold storage.

Keeping your money at an exchange means that you keep your money in the pockets of somebody you don't know only on the promise they will give your money back when you ask for them.
They can run with your money, they can get robbed, they can pretend they got robbed and poof! your money's gone.
Is it worth the risk? That's really up to you.

I would not trust my money to the someone who can be hacked or lost my moneys

I keep the coins I don't trade with on my ledger wallet. The ones I don't plan on holding for too long on an exchange because the fees are too high to transfer them back an forth.

It's a bit like a self-fulfilling prophecy.  The more people who keep their money on any given exchange, the more tempting that stash will look to thieves and the more likely they are to try and intercept those funds.

Always remember that Bitcoin was designed as a peer-to-peer transaction between two people, with no third party holding custody of your funds.  Leaving your money on an exchange in the hands of someone else is categorically not how Bitcoin was intended to be used.  If you don't have direct and sole control over the private keys where the funds are stored, you don't have control over your bitcoins and they can be taken from you.  Exchanges have proven time and time again that they generally aren't secure enough to be treated like banks.  

As others have said, if you're actively trading and don't mind taking the risk because it's potentially profitable, sure, keep them on there.  Otherwise, only trust them with what you're prepared to lose, which I'd hope isn't a very large sum at all.  

But I would stress that if you do start to look after your own funds and you haven't had a great deal of experience with that, be sure to learn about security (http://www.wearedecentralised.co.uk/bitcoinforbeginners/security.html) first if you haven't already.

Cryptsy taught me that keeping anything more than a few quid to play with on an exchange is foolish.

Expensive lesson, but oh well.

Yer, I unfortunatly learnt that expencive lesson. Not keeping my coins on any exhanges, too risky to keep anything that your not trading with on them.

Not the best idea unless you plan to trade them frequently

Yes it's Okay to keep money on exchanges. Trading requires agility - and you don't have that when the money is at home in cold storage.

If you are not trading - it's also still okay to keep it on an exchange - but it's safer to move the funds to a personal wallet, especially large amounts that would make you cry if you lost it.

The fear people have in my humble opinion is similar to the fear of traveling in planes. There's been a handful of high profile hacks, but these are spread across almost 8 years.

I would suggest a reasonable level of due diligence before using any exchange.
Find out what type of business structure they have, and what level of security they have.

it is in your best interest to get an offline wallet or hardware wallet yo store your coins because you dont have access to your private keys on an exchage.

Exchanges can lose your money but allow you to sell quickly when things go south.
There's no best option, but I like my ledger

If you do plan to hold coins on long period then I suggest you to keep them in their official released wallet :)

But if you are active on the exchanges just to use the pumps and dumps through period of time to double or triple you'r investment then it's smart to keep them on the exchange.
But beware, once they are on the exchange you do not own them, even tho you have created your own wallet address on the exchange. Once they are on the exchange, the exchange owns them , so if the exchange decide to shut down for some shitty reasons or idk, then everything is lost :)

Keep 35 % of your coins in exchange if you want to use the pumps and sumps and the other 75 % in the wallet :)

But everything depends of you :)
more safer is always the wallet
but always make a BACKUP of it :)
hope this helps

It is definitely safest to store your coins in a hard wallet or software wallet on your computer.

For me its alright if its low value but if its like 10 you should restore it on your own wallet

I keep coins at exchange only if I plan to trade them soon. If it's about holding - cold storage recommended

Sorry to nitpick, but most exchanges should naturally be pretty cagey in regard to what details they give out about their actual security, just in case anyone is able to identify a weakness.  They shouldn't be publicising every detail about how your funds are stored, because that would be almost as much of a risk as not having any security.  Exchanges operate very much in the "security through obscurity" bracket.

The limited details and buzzword-filled assurances they might give on their website really aren't sufficient to make a truly informed decision, assuming they're being truthful to begin with.  Do all the research you like, but you're never going to know how good their security is until the moment they suffer a breach.  Ulimately, it's pot luck, so take your choice and be prepared to live with the consequences.

I store all my cryptos on exchanges and all went hacked I suggest keep your funds outside exchangers and put only amount that you are ready to lose.

Good point.

Here is a decent guide on conducting due diligence: https://howtobuybitcoin.io/good-vs-bad-exchanges/
It may not provide any deep insight into the quality of security of an exchange, but it helps support my point.

The general premise is this - if some parts of the business is weak, under-developed, or simply done in a poor way, it is an indication of the quality of their security.

Absolutely not. Even if the exchange isn't hacked, your account may be phished. If your account isn't phished these days we have the exchanges freezing people left, right and centre for non compliance or simply being overloaded.

The latter is my main worry these days. I get in and out as quickly as possible and I'd never go all in with a buy or sell. I'd step it just in case they froze me.

For me, I lost some coins in the past because I could not keep the wallet info safe.
Based on what happened to Mt. Gox, I would think the newer exchanges should protect themselves better.

As the regulations evolve to tax earnings from cryptocurrency,  I don't want to be subject to taxes and regulations.  But how do I achieve the liquidity of fiat with coins?  I do hope that everyone moves off the fiat to cryptocurrency soon, but I don't see it happening soon.  My thought is that it would be easier and hopefully safer to use the exchange than my own wallet.

I store only coins that I'm planing to trade. I use only exchanges with good reputation - kraken and freewallet for my trading. That gives me feeling of safety although I'm aware that every eschange (even with a perfect reputation) can get hacked

I stopped using exchanges half a year ago. Now I just use https://shapeshift.io only when I sell some crypto for food and shelter :) ... also I hold all the coins. Because I have been researching alternate cryptocurrencies for a couple of years, and I have found my favorites, so now just HODL! :)

I have like 15 coins.  Wouldn't it cost a lot in fees to transfer in and out of exchanges?

Don't allow the convenience to fool you. Im saying this as a former mtgox survivor

I would recommend maintaining not more than 5% of the overall portfolio on the exchange because even if we are taking necessary security precautions like two-factor authentication, you never know what kind of security precautions is being taken on the server side but since you will need some amount to trade on the exchanges I would recommend the lowest part to hold there. If you want more amount then you can top up using hardware wallet and then again with withdrawing surplus funds from the exchange at the end of the day.

every coin deposit has a high risk, (on the stock or in the wallet) but saving the coin in exchange I think is safer. because right now, almost every exchange has better security protection. (this is just my personal opinion)

Depends upon many factors:
- Intentions of the exchange itself and their behavior (take example of HitBTC as to how they reacted (did nothing actually) when everybody was asking them about their TRX deposits when the coin was pumping really high.
- Security offered as well as implemented on the exchange itself (SSL Certificate as well as DDoS protection, high-quality servers as well as 2FA should be offered in variance).
- If any previous hacks occurred, how did the exchange dealt with the situation (Take Poloniex and Bittrex's examples, as well don't forget MT Gox).

Other types of coins are actually a mess when it comes to wallets as not all devs provide lite versions of their wallets. If you're specific about Bitcoins, storing it on an address whose private key is held by you is the best option.

I keep half of mine on Coinbase as well. They say they keep majority of coins offline and are insured so that seems like a pretty secure way to store coins.  Problem is they only have wallets and vaults for 4 types of coin (BTC, BCH, LTC, ETH) only.

Do yourself a favour & if you have any of the major coins invest in a ledger nano s for peace of mind, or some coins not supported have their own wallets... an example of this is the Deep Onion coin which has a high security/private wallet for investors   :D

to keep up with Jonses..

Short term/Day trade = exchanges
Anything past 3 days = cold storage

The problem with these exchanges is that the can go out of business and you can’t get your funds out. This happened with MtGox, Cryptsy, and Bitconnect. They may just steal your money or get hacked. Whatever the reason for it, you are taking a risk. I keep most of my find in an offline wallet.

I know, that it's considered not safe enough to store coins in exchange wallets, but I've chosen two trusted ones and never had a problem. My choise is coinbase because backed by trusted investors and used by millions of customers globally, Coinbase is one of the most popular and well-known brokers and trading platforms in the world. And freewallet because it's the best fee rates on the market.