Bitcoin Forum

Hello,
For buy and sell coins and token, a wallet is better or an exchange? Which one is cost effective?


Thank you.

The best place to buy are decentralized exchanges like bisq, it helps in privacy than custodial exchanges, all wallets I have known are making use of credit or debit cards to buy, that will leak your information. I have heard of mycelium local traders but I have never used mycelium before, maybe that can also be decentralized.
 
People are using custodial exchanges for convenience but you will need to verify on most centralized exchanges and wallets before you can be able to buy bitcoin or altcoin.

The best to me are decentralized exchanges.

The cheapest way (since you asked about cost effective way) to buy altcoins are centralized exchanges, preferably those that doesn't require KYC, like Kucoin or FTX. Just bare in mind that you shouldn't store your coins there for a longer period of time. For that, you should use your own wallet.

Another way to trade tokens is via Metamask wallet, which you can use to connect to fir example Uniswap and Pancakeawap (popular decentralized exchanged), but fees are quite high, especially on the former.

It depends on the amount and the coins. Let us use bitcoin as an example, you buy bitcoin what of $100 on centralized exchange, you do not want to leave the coin there, more fee will be charged while withdrawing. Correct me if I am not right because the withdrawal fee differs from exchange to exchange, but I know that centralized exchanges charge too high fee on bitcoin and ethereum transactions.

Bitcoin is not supported, you can not also make use of all these token based exchanges ls to buy and sell to fiat, not supporting fiat.

Thank you for your replies.
In a wallet, I must swap my tokens to something like Tether to maintain its value, but on an exchange I must sell it. Which one is more cost effective?

Maybe I misunderstood OP, but I was mainly referring to the cheapest way to buy and sell altcoins, not specifically bitcoin. For bitcoin I agree, that there are better solutions than centralized exchanges if you are buying smaller amount. Iirc, all BTC i bought was either directly from someone or via BTC ATM, never through any of the exchanges.

If the swap will happen through a dex that uses an Ethereum chain or smart contract, it's more expensive. That's why sending it onto an exchange is going to have you a lesser fee. Unlike swapping it on dexes, it will require you fee for the transfer and as well as the fee for swapping it and that's not cost-efficient.
You just have to look what exchange that token is accepted and has a decent volume to trade it.

This. Buying from decentralized exchanges cost high fees especially if it's a ERC20 token or ETH-related token due to congested network (always) though there are lots of advantage for using DEX but higher fees is one of the cons.

Now if you're buying alts and want to send it to your wallet if ever, avoid buying tokens from ETH-related tokens as I mentioned it cost a lot even on withdrawal fees on CEX, if the token is a cross-blockchain compatible, use BSC or TRX, etc. related tokens instead.

If you care of ownership and privacy, you must use DEX and non custodial wallets. The setback is on DEX, you have to pay higher fee. Slippage is high.

If you only care about price and fee, you can use CEX. It's important to note, on CEX, you don't own private key so you don't actually own your coins. If a DEX is shut down, scam exit, whatever, you will lose your coins.

Bitcoin wallets

• J. Lopp - Recommended wallets (https://www.lopp.net/bitcoin-information/recommended-wallets.html)
• [BIG LIST] Hardware wallets (80+) (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5282364.0)
• Helpful Guides For Newbie on the Electrum Wallet  (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5351743.0). It is a good and light Bitcoin wallet. It's non-custodial too but remember to verify your wallet.

Ethereum wallets

• [BIG LIST] Ethereum Wallets (121 wallet) (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5277419.0)

More: Best Crypto Wallet Aggregators (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5283051.0)

Are your tokens BSC or ETH based?

Tether has several protocols, mainly Omni, ERC and TRX, last which usually costs less than a dollar in fees.

Assuming your tokens are BSC-based, selling and paying the network fees cost several bucks on average.

In terms of cost-effectiveness (lower fees), centralized exchanges, or CEXs, appear to be the better option. But there are other factors to consider. As a user of a centralized exchange, you are not the actual owner of your coins. You use a custodial wallet and entrust your coins to the service. Ideally, all funds should be withdrawn from the exchange after each trade into a privately owned wallet.

Understand that if not your private keys it is not your coins. This means that an exchange site is not the venue to keep your coin for a long term and choosing a perfect wallet depends on your motive.
There is some wallet that is open-source, good for buying/selling of coins and tokens. It is easy to use but with minimum security and you won't have a problem using it if you prevent human error though. An example is Trust wallet.
We have some with good security but can only take a few sets of coins/tokens not that easy to use due to security priority but you still need to prevent human error though. Ledger wallet

Depends on the wallet that can be used to exchange tokens. I already tried to exchange my tokens and it is a bit the same as the exchange site where a small fee is needed for every time you sell a token. I don't really recall if when you use wallet to exchange your current token to another token would also need a small fee but don't worry about it as it doesn't really cost much compared to transaction fees. Remember, don't use exchange sites to store your crypto for a long time.

I think it's okay if you use an exchange wallet to store assets if you are a trader who is always actively monitoring price movements. If you are quite active as a trader then you should better withdraw the profit to your personal wallet instead of having to pay a lot of fees for it ^{[withdrawal and deposit]}. If I were in your position, then I would be more likely to keep it on the exchange than to incur double the fee when I wanted to trade my asset again.

If you are an investor who wants to hold assets for the long term then we recommend using a personal wallet to store your assets. Keep in mind that an exchange is not a recommended wallet for long-term holding of assets even if your current assets are worth significantly less than other assets.

If you are trading a coin the best place to trade a coin is on exchange but if you are holding a coin for a long period of time don't hold a coin in your exchange make sure you keep your coin in your personal wallet address which you have the private key that's the best place to keep your coin, and you can also trade a coin using your trust wallet or you meta mask but you trading coins on Ethereum blockchain the gas fee is always high so I really prefer trading coins on BSC blockchain using Pancakeswap.

So, did you mean which is better if you are going to buy or sell (trade) crypto? In wallet or exchanges?
Well, if this is specifically for trading (buying and selling), the exchange is the best way in my opinion. Because we can choose many coins available on the exchanges. but of course, this must be a reputable exchange or top exchange.
You can check them here for reputable exchanges with the strength and weaknesses of each exchange:
https://coinmarketcap.com/rankings/exchanges/

And about costs, every exchange may have different costs for each different coin or token.
You can check the costs on every site or platform of the exchange itself.

However, if you prefer after buying coins and going to hold them, it is better to use a wallet (especially a hardware wallet).

Cost and it's efficacy will amount to dust if you don't end up having any crypto-coins at all, I will recommend what I have experience with using my personal wallet, and that is I have been safer and hadn't any cause of worry about external errors leading to me rubbed, than if I am using an exchange, and it's same when buying and selling, priority should be sensitive on who gets the transaction completed and not who has the highest rate.

I won't give the wallet list link because it was dropped already above by @tranthidung, that was a helpful thread for a list of hardware wallets.

IMO, if you don't care about a KYC procedure, I will go in a centralized exchange that has a lower fee upon withdrawal (it might be Binance but if you don't want as suggested above, an exchange like Kucoin is the best option too) and then, transfer on it in your hardware wallet if you want to store and hold it for a long run.  This has been always reminded by most members here to the newbies asking safe storing assets, always remember this line "not your key, not your coin", that's a golden rule in crypto.

But all of these I mentioned above were depends on you, I even allow myself to store coins on exchange but it should be a week or days only, not for a long term purpose.

We might need to underline how much more expensive it is because people don't seem to understand the difference. In dexes like uniswap, you have to pay something like $100 per swap. And you still might get rejected and would have to pay it again. So obviously CEX makes more sense financially. Things might change radically after eth 2.0 cheaper fees.

I prefer exchange. because it is easier and more practical. We can directly buy or sell our coins instantly. I only use the wallet to receive coins or tokens that haven't been exchanged yet

All suggestions here pointing to centralized exchange. But honestly, if you wanna be safe from restrictions then go for decentralized fees might be high but of course this is just part of the privilege to stay safe from censorship or anything that might compromise your asset. But if you are not that Conservative all the wonders of crypto features can be found on centralized like Binance products. Just a matter of your choice.

Depends on coin/token you are trying to trade, even if you use inbuilt wallet exchanges you will have to pay fees.

Exchanges are made for buying and selling so that is supposed to be very cheaper in terms of fee. And wallet is for storing coins meanwhile some wallets offer swap services but its very expensive than buying on exchanges. Go.to exchange where buy your desired coin then move them to an actual wallet.

For buying, I would always prefer an exchange over a wallet but for holding for the long term or for the short term I would always prefer a wallet over an exchange. Always remember not your key, not your wallet. Any exchange will never provide the private key of a wallet but with a wallet, you have access to your private key.

If one has no issue with KYC then binance is probably the best place to keep your coins. I like binance because security it provides to my coin and fee is reasonable unless you don't go out of binance network. I keep some of my coins in electrum wallet but I remain worry about there security all the time.
There are pros n cons of keeping your coins at centralized exchange like binance. They suspend trading at any time in the name of server maintenance and this is something not in case of decentralizer wallets.

I think tether even uses more, but I am not sure about this, about solana blockchain, that tether is using its blockchain also. Also it is not TRX, it is TRC, that is TRC tokens.

BSC tokens are not having expensive transaction fee.

Yeah. I don't mean super expensive. A few dollars comprising swap, transfers and staking altogether seems pretty reasonable.


Whoops, a typo on the TRX part.

I used Tether several times on the ERC20 blockchain since I had no choice. Man, the fees I tell you...

A software wallet can't be compared with a hardware wallet in terms of security. The hardware wallet will always come on top. Since you mentioned Ledger, that one is very easy to use and set up. Hardware wallets aren't meant to target tech geeks, but the regular Joe looking for a safer way to store his private keys than in a hot wallet.

Bother Ledger and Trezor support 100s of coins and tokens including various ERC-20 tokens. Some natively, others by connecting 3rd-party wallets. There is no difference in the number of assets a Nano S and Nano X supports, only a difference in the internal storage of the device. But you can use the same coins on either one. With Trezor, it's a bit different. The Trezor T and Trezor One don't necessarily support the same assets. Monero is a good example. The Model T supports it, while Trezor One doesn't. for example.

You are comfortable with keeping your coins in someone else's wallet (that of Binance) but you don't entirely trust the security of Electrum? Electrum (hot wallet) is as safe as the system you run it on. If you are a cautious and security-conscious individual with a clean OS, you have nothing to worry about. If your system is vulnerable and full of malware, that is your fault, not that of Electrum.

If you want to buy and sell coins for sure everyone will suggest you use the site: (crypto exchange), including I also recommend it.

However, if you have tokens from the bounty proceeds to sell, and can only be sold to certain wallets such as Etherdelta, Trust wallet etc, of course you should exchange it directly there into Ethereum, after that you just transfer it to an exchange to buy certain coins for your investment.

This is different from cash you have to buy coins, if that's what you want to do of course (exchange crypto) is the right choice, of course it's also a matter of cheaper fees.

There's a so called wrapped BTC and it's available on almost, if not all, blockchain that supports smart contracts. It doesn't use the Bitcoin but we know it still has 1:1 valuation on all exchanges that supports it. If you buy it on Pancakeswap (BSC), you can use the Binance tradin DApp available on Safepal non-custodial wallet then exchange it to other coins/tokens you desire.

It will be more convenient to you if you store a little bit portion of your money in exchange since it can save you fees and time but just make sure you choose the reputable exchange since if not and you just grab an exchange everywhere which you don't know the reputation then you might be at risk for getting scam. So for selecting which exchange is best for now go to coinmarketcap and select the top 1 exchange since its the most recommended exchange by majority.

Centralized exchanges (CEXs) are the best platforms for you to buy and sell coins or tokens as they have low trading fees and faster transactions. You might wanna prefer those centralized exchanges that doesn’t need KYC to start trading. Decentralized exchanges (DEXs) are the best KYC-less trading platforms out there, but the fees are expensive and transactions aren’t that fast.

Firstly you need to learn that your crypto isn’t stored on a wallet or on an exchange wallet. But for your question it’s better stored WHILE mot trading on a normal hardware wallet or not even in wallet but just the private keys to the chains as your crypto isn’t stored in any wallets be it app or program or hardware or on exchange. It’s held and accessed on its chain. Say it’s ETH or ERC tokens this run on ETH chain. You require your EpTH private key and or the wallets seed phrase to be able to move and or trade and or send your crypto.

Your wallet is like a bank statement you can’t make transactions with it. But the bank private details can be used to make transactions the only difference is the wallet CAN be use to make transactions but you need to use a seed phrase or the private keys to do so on the live exchanges and or to move to another wallet or chain.

This will take a little time to wrap your head around but your will get there!  :D

It depends on what coin you would like to buy and the security you would like some platform does not support the coin you want so you need to find, also if they are required KYC or not. Mostly this kind of feature is good if you are trying to use the metamask.  If we are talking about holding your assets it's not recommended the hold to exchange because you don't have a full control over your assets.

Well, we can say for now the mentioned exchanges don't ask for KYC but know that certainly it won't be for ever. There will be a time both will change terms and conditions and then demand KYC. After all, Binance never asked for KYC from the beginning until recently that it had to force its subscribers to it.

What duration can be considered bad and ill to leave coins on exchanges? I asked this because there were times I left my tokens on exchanges for over three years and they remained intact.

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To answer the OP, I guess the regular exchanges are better to trade on than wallets because of the high swap commissions on DApp. The commission is even worse when it's an ETH based token.

I can not say for now if all custodial exchanges will ask for kyc, but they are operated in a way governments can easily reach them and tell them to regulate their exchange, they will not have option that to follow what the government of their country and sometimes the government of other countries are telling them to do it.

This is how I also see it, the exchanges will begin without kyc, theyw will become dominant and known to the world, they know already that many people will not leave if they ask for kyc than closing down. Their popularity will make governments to tell them to enforce kyc, they will not have option for the countries not to disable the exchange to provide crypto services to its citizens, then kyc will be enforced.

The best solution for buying coins are decentralized exchanges. But if this coin is supported by the Ethereum blockchain, you will have to pay extra high fees, which amount to hundreds of dollars. For this reason, it is easier for you to conduct your transactions on a centralized exchange.

To me I prefer the exchange which I can Bitcoin for trading and also sell Bitcoin too when I wish too. I don't stress myself to find who I can buy cryptocurrency from.

I highly advise to check your local exchange in your country if they offer a buy and sell option for convenience. But like what most have mentioned, avoid exchanges that require KYC function as such offers abysmal rates on buying/selling cryptocurrencies.

Preferably, once you purchase your coins in a given exchange, avoid putting them and storing them in that exchange for a long period of time. There have been histories of exchanges getting scammed and most of the BTCs stored were stolen. I highly advise that you purchase a hard wallet for maximum security of your coins and to avoid the problem of getting scammed.

I am also new in crypto trading, but I prefer using exchange to buy coin so as to avoid unnecessary transaction fee in the name of sending the coin from wallet to exchange, also to avoid some mistakes and transaction error while sending and receiving token from wallet to exchange.

Well if you wanna sell a token you have to see where's it listed?  Is it in any cex or dex.
If you like to be secured and wanna get a taste true decentralized system in crypto, dex is best I mean wallet. If you don't wants so difficulty cex is good for you.
Overall depends on your taste . If you looking for a little bit cost cutting then Cex is also useful for you cause cex don't charges any network fees for trading.

I hope you get my point

For buying and selling option its really good to store your balance on exchange since we might miss some good opportunities to enter if we are storing our funds on our personal wallet but we need to choose always the best exchange for this knowing that hacking is rampant and we should be more aware about phising since this attack exist even know. But eventhough how trusted the exchange is we also need to withdraw whatever profit we get so that we can secure our capital little by little and take it out on exchange and lessen the risk of losing everything if hacking occurs.

Apparently, both seeve same purpose but has a few advantages over the other. One of those is in the sense that,

For an exchange,
Though the coin might be allocated to your user on there platform, it ain't entirely yours. This is true in the world of cryptos as it is said, not your keys, not your coin. In the case of an exchange, the  exchange holds the keys and as such, owns the coins. Your only given a leverage to use its platform.
Another advantage that follows is in the sense that, you can trade or swap coins on an exchange more easily.

For a wallet,
It's measure advantage is that, your entirely in charge of your affairs as, your private key's safety is entirely up to you and so is your coins.
A wallet as it is now, is impossible or not susceptible to a hack.

So, its all your choice on what to go with based on your purpose.

Well when we are talking about the fees and having an option of wallet and exchange, I will prefer to choose an exchange and it is a centralized exchange that commonly has low fees. Buy and sell in your wallet is usually has high fees, just like the Coinomi app wallet, I used this before buying and selling crypto but I did not know that I have terrible fees to pay which is what I realized after having a third transaction there. The best is a centralized exchange and I am using Binance since there is an option that you can minimize your fees but for other reasons, a wallet is the best and safe to store your crypto, not on the exchange.

An old piece of advice in the crypto world says "never keep your assets in a big amount for too long in exchangers". There are many examples of hacking, scamming, and other problems that happened with exchangers. Just send some of the assets that are prepared for trading in the exchangers. I think it only applies to CEX, cause as we know now there's a simpler, easier, and safer way to trade which is DEX. We just have to connect our wallet to the DEX anytime we need it. However, I know the trading experience might be different.