Bitcoin Forum

Does anybody leave a percentage of their BTC on the exchanges, or do you guys store all your BTC in your wallets, etc?

Exchanges are meant to be used for treating coins, not storing them, so there is no point in leaving them in an exchange.
 
If I use any centralised exchange today to buy bitcoin, the only purpose for using that is to buy it, and that's where its service ends. Storing it is my personal responsibility, so I move it to my private wallet (self-custodial wallet), to be precise.
 
I don't leave bitcoin in any exchange, but I leave some funds in some exchange as a result of me using them to place a buy order, which I don't expect them to execute at that very moment. Only those funds on an active order are what I leave in an exchange; the rest of them are moved down to my private wallet.
 
Not your key, not your coin.

It's safer to store it in your wallet, where you have full control over it, than to keep it in a place where anything can happen at any time, such as fund freezing, hacking, bankruptcy, etc.

I'm sure there are people who leave a percentage of their BTC(perhaps a small one) on their exchange account but I don't, I use it as it is intended, exchange coins, and then withdraw. it's always better to store your BTC in your wallet/s. As the saying goes "Not your keys, not your coins"(a lot of people here will say this to you).

Most of my Bitcoin is stored in my non-custodial wallet. I only have a small amount. It's in a hot wallet. I know it's risky but at the very least it is non-custodial and open source. I also have small amounts in my gambling accounts. It's for betting, mainly sports betting but I also sometimes bet on dice and other casino games, especially during times when I don't have anything to do. Right now I don't have funds kept in a centralized exchange. I don't trade often. If there's a need to do some trades, that's the time I will send my funds. It is especially discouraging recently with the fees rising so high.

I have a Trezor still sealed in the box, but I admit I'm intimidated in learning how to use it. Is ColdCard easier, or are they equal?

Centralized exchanges give you a wallet too but it is a custodial wallet and centralized exchanges own the wallet private key, not you.

By saying "Store all your BTC in your wallets", contextually you meant it is non-custodial (self-custodial) wallets and you own those wallet private keys.

Reminder: do not keep your money in online accounts (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5421039.0)

Because of this risk and also risk from trading, that we should not use all capital for trading. Like using 10% of capital for trading to have good risk management, it means we should not store more than 10% of our capital on centralized exchanges.

I still have some leftover bitcoin I bought early last year on an exchange.

In terms of the ratio, it's about 1.25% of my total amount of bitcoin.

My ratio:
0% in exchange.
100% in wallet.

Because exchange is only to trade, not as a place to hold your coins "Not Your Keys Not Your Coins".

Both are equal, you're still using someone else product. It's hard when you create your own cold storage from scratch. But Trezor is better than ColdCard because Trezor is open source while ColdCard isn't. (https://nitter.cz/sethforprivacy/status/1651039483419058177)

Traders would keep funds on exchange whereas holders keep funds in their wallets. The amount won't be disclosed by traders as it is their trade secret whereas holders will keep 100% of their Bitcoin in a noncustodial wallet. It is always recommended to keep Bitcoin in a cold wallet for long-term holding. As cold wallet provides a lot of security as it is not always online.

Yes, I leave some percentage of my BTC on exchange for emergency purposes or personal needs which could be loading of cryptocurrency virtual debit card with funds, and quick accumulation based on the opportunity presented by the market.
Meanwhile, the ratio is mostly 1/4 while sometimes it depends on the important is things which I planning to use the crypto for.

I have different amounts of Bitcoin kept in separate wallets but none on centralized exchanges. So the ratio would be 100% to zero. I don't trade anymore. There's no problem with Bitcoin users who are maintaining certain amounts of Bitcoin on exchanges for as long as they trade. If they aren't, their coins have no business on exchanges. Their funds should be pulled out. They are courting unnecessary risks.


What's so intimidating about it? Trezor has all the guides on how to do it. Just make sure you're on their official site. Trezor's Learn page is comprehensive. It's complete from the most basic up to the more technical ones. It's probably more intimidating to make a paper frog than learn how to use your Trezor.

I would never leave a single Satoshi on an exchange. Usually I just leave some shitcoins that I buy hoping to sell them for a decent profit, so since I place a limit order I need to keep them on the exchange but, at the same time, their value is not very high so in case something bad would happen I can take the loss. Of course I don't use any small exchange.

I don't use centralized exchanges at all. So I keep 90% in my wallet, and maybe around 10% is on crypto gambling websites. When I need to exchange BTC for fiat, I use local exchanges where you don't store money but send it directly to a specific address when placing an order. This way, I get by without using centralized exchanges. I realize that keeping some funds on gambling websites is similar to keeping them on exchanges, but it's very convenient for gambling, so I'm okay with it. It's not a form of storage to me, it's just some funds that are there for gambling, so it's fine.
Keep in mind that wallets can also be different, and centralized wallets have the same issues as exchanges, so, of course, I assume that by wallets you mean non-custodial wallets.

The only Bitcoin I leave on exchange is something I will like to use for trading, I don't like leaving anything on crypto exchanges but due to transaction fee I am now used to leaving some Bitcoin on exchange, not enough to hurt my feelings if anything goes wrong.

I also like looking at mempool to know the exact amount required to send or withdraw some Bitcoin, like yesterday it was just $3 and it's been months that I saw this price range for Bitcoin last, whatever you choose to do always make sure it's worth the transaction fee, either sending or withdrawing off a crypto exchanges.

It totally depends on the situation and requirements. if I have the intention and plans of using Bitcoins in trading or P2P selling. I'll keep them in exchange. if I have intention of storing(hodling) them for long term then I'll transfer them to a safe none custodial wallet.
I also leave my coins in exhange if I had no long term plan of hoding. for example I don't want to trade them instantly but I want to sell them next month or after 2, 3 month then I keep them in exchange too.
I only use Wallet for long term holding.

I know it's not safe to store your coins on exchanges but 0%, it is unbelievable.

It's hard to find people who don't trade on exchanges and 0% trading in this market is very rarely to find people like this. Maybe you are different.

Decentralized exchanges can be one of choices for trading without storing coins on exchanges but they are not too convenient.

It's only good option now if you receive your bitcoin from signature campaign payment and know that you will need to sell it to stable coin or cash to use. If you know you don't need to touch those coin next like 3 months or 6 months, it's not a good option.

100% of all BTC is in a private wallet that I alone have control over, never leaving coins on the exchange unless exchanging and withdrawing them directly.

As many say Not your keys, Not your coins.
Remember that exchanges always have a risk of anything that could freeze your assets at any time, I recommend a private wallet as storage and no gratuity on exchanges.

Just use the exchange naturally, such as trading, exchanging coins etc.

Keeping all your coins on an exchange is kinda asking for trouble.  Exchanges get hacked and stuff gets stolen more often than people realize.  Use exchanges to buy and sell coins when you need, but don't treat them like banks.  Keep most of your holdings in a separate wallet that you control and  that way your nest egg is safer if the exchange goes belly-up. 

Exchanges are handy tools but they aren't meant for storage.  Use a secure wallet for that.  Transfer just what you need to the exchange when it's time to trade.  That's the smart way to go about it.  Minimizes your risks.  Keep the core stash safe in your own wallet that only you control.



Why would you even consider another hardware wallet if you haven't even tried the one you already have? What's stopping you from using your Trezor hardware that you already own right now?

I never keep my BTC on exchange, however I will send my BTC to exchange if I need to cash-out. I used to send my BTC to exchange if I need to make payment using other crypto but currently with the high-fee it's cheaper to buy some crypto with bank card rather than sending my BTC and then swapping it to other crypto.

I think most people in this forum will advice you to not storing your Bitcoin in exchange wallet, and they are not wrong it's very risky, the exchange can just freeze your account or some hacker might stole the exchange fund. Storing your Bitcoin in your own non-custodial wallet is the safest way.

When I was still new, I thought that it's okay to keep all my btc's in exchanges. But thanks to the people who have been concerned and endlessly reminding everyone that it's not safe to keep your BTC on exchanges, they've just learned their lessons from the cryptopia and other exchange debacles where most of the BTCs that have been deposited with them have never been returned or if they were, it took time for the retrieval of it. And that from then, I've learned that it's best to keep it on my wallet and that's what I've been doing and passing the info that I've learned from them to the newbies that if you're going to store some money on an exchange, make sure that they're just actually for trading and not for long term holding.

I keep it in three different wallets, and one of them is an exchange wallet. It's true that I don't have full control over my balance there, but I still use the exchange service for a small amount of BTC that I own, allowing me to instantly sell and buy BTC.

For most hodlers, what I'm doing might seem a bit stupid, but I also hodl BTC in two of my private wallets (the amount is bigger than BTC in exchange wallet). So, I'm prepared for the consequences of my actions. Besides, for now, what I need is something only I know, so even though some people might see it as a mistake, it still feels right for me.

Everyone has their own individual needs, and everyone should understand and respect that.

I did DCA by purchasing through the exchange of course some of the BTC is still on the exchange because of the withdrawal constraints with high fees so I let keep it there until the withdrawal is normal again.

Why do I do that, because it's a shame if you have to spend a lot of money on withdrawals, the money is still meaningful and it's better to keep it than withdraw it, I know the risk of storing on the exchange but it's not too much because the ratio is greater in a larger non-custodial wallet than the exchange.

I believe what others have said about the risk of storing BTC on exchanges, when something bad happens to the exchange where your assets are stored then immediately withdraw, but so far the exchange is still safe.

I usually do not support keeping your Bitcoins in the exchange wallets, but with the current surge in transaction fees forced me to keep a specific amount in my exchange wallet. I simply cannot afford to make multiple transactions with such high fees.

While this practice is not encouraged but sometimes we need to be practical as well. Ensure that your exchange login credentials are difficult to guess and also ensure that you have two factor authorisation enabled.

Up until December 21st I usually had few hundreds of dollars worth of bitcoin on Binance as I used their debit card. Since card is not working anymore, I withdrew remaining bitcoin to my hardware wallet meaning 100% of my crypto is now there.

Unless you are day trading or using one of the the other exchanges debit card, there is absolutely no need to have any crypto on the exchange but unfortunately many people don't understand that until they get rekt, and some not even then as I know some that have money stuck on both Celsius and FTX while they still hold large amounts on other centralizedexchanges.

Some time dilemma when saving or holding bitcoin in wallet face problem with high transaction and take more than several days for withdrawing or deposit on exchange wallet, but another side when holding bitcoin assets in exchange wallet get worry until how long exchange site keep trusted before collapse such as many exchange have been scam like FTX. But I have trust with my local exchange although many time get problem with maintenance but I think most trusted to hold bitcoin assets for long term.

But not all my bitcoin assets hold in local exchange but also I put around 40% of my bitcoin fund in Binance exchange, I trust this exchange and have been seven years hold and trade cryptocurrency with Binance exchange.

Leaving Bitcoin on exchange is just like trusting your future investment to random guy that has a risk to run your money since you don’t hold it personally. The only time I deposit my Bitcoin on exchange is when I seriously selling my holdings to take profit but besides that I only store my Bitcoin on Electrum since I’m not always using it for regular payment or trading purposes.

I have different wallet allocated for my trading altcoins and leave Bitcoin on my Electrum no matter what happened on the price or fees. I’d rather hold WBTC on non custodial wallet rather than hold my Bitcoin on exchange since I can immediately react to sell my WBTC if there’s something wrong on its pegged while there’s no saving once exchange collapse.

This community and thread has inspired me to finally take the leap, and instead of over-thinking it (like I do everything), I just calmly followed the instructions and set up my TREZOR over the course of about 15-20 mins.

I did a small amount test send of BTC from CoinBase to said Trezor, and it worked. It may sound dumb but I was scared of losing SATS or being confused about the address, etc. I've never done this before so that was literally my first time, despite stacking BTC for over a year on CB.

Thank you, BTC peeps  8).

Another newbie question: do larger sums take longer to transfer over, etc.? Thank you all in advance for helping me along and secure my keys and thus coins!

There's a popular slogan in the crypto space "Not your keys, not your coins", which simply means you're not in complete control of your coin except it's stored in your personal wallet. So I wouldn't advise you to store your Bitcoins on exchange because it could be frozen by the exchange, you could lose it if the exchange go bankrupt or get seized by the government. My advice is that you get a reputable open source software or hardware wallet and store your funds, by so doing you're in custody your asset. However, one reason you can keep some of your assets on exchange is if you're a daily trader.

Totally! Finally took the plunge and set up my Trezor just now. Feels awesome!

If I don't actively trading, I don't leave my coins in central exchanges. That should be the norm for all people. Not your keys, not your coins. Simple but true.
I'd say %10 if I have to give a number, I wouldn't trade for more than %10 of my coin portfolio. And that rarely happens, for a very short time-frame.

The exchange functions as a place to trade, sell and buy.
The wallet functions as a place to store assets.
Exchanges do not provide seed phrases, only passwords and other security for login access.

When transaction fees are expensive, the percentage of people leaving Bitcoin on exchanges may be there, but since Bitcoin transaction fees are already low, I believe the percentage of people leaving Bitcoin on exchanges is very small.

There is not anything as a ratio like to keep 20% in exchanges or 80% in the personal wallets but it usually depends upon the position size of the trade that you will take on the exchanges and the funds that you will need to move that amount in the exchange. I will usually move the coin back the my personal wallet if i bought it in a spot market.

If you are trading in a future market, then there is not any option but to keep those coins on the exchange till the trade is finished.

I think it is not good to discuss your financial matters openly like this. But if I have to say I usually try to keep 0% of my holding bitcoin amount in centralized exchange. However, due to the congestion situation of memepool, the withdrawal fee from the centralized exchange has skyrocketed so that currently some amount of bitcoins from my regular bitcoin adoption have to be left on the centralized exchanger to avoid this withdrawal fee.
But I'm not so stupid as to use a centralized exchanger for long-term holding, I believe in "not your keys, not your wallet". I am always using decentralize wallet for holding and will suggest everyone to use decentralize wallet for holding and if there is an opportunity to use hardware wallet is better.

I agree with the idea that you should diversify the custody risk. It's fairy tale you tell yourselves that your hardware wallet or laptop is completely safe. The millions of lost bitcoins tell a different story. It would never happen to you - until it does.

Not really. You can store it all at one place with multisig. It's literally impossible to access 2 or 3 wallets, especially if they're hardware wallets held in 2 different locations. Many richest people hold millions of dollars this way and so far it hasn't failed them.

In my case it's 0% bitcoin on exchanges. I have 80% in an offline wallet that I don't access at all. OI only check if the addresses are untouched using blockchain explorers. I also have 20% in my desktop wallet for easy access. I'd never keep any coins in a custodial service like an exchange or a staking site. Even when I gamble I send money I want to use for betting to the casino each month and if I win I withdraw everything (unless I want o make another bet in a short period of time).

No I do not leave my BTC on the exchange. If I send my BTC to an exchange, that is to convert it to fiat money in order to cash it out to use for my financial needs or to trade it with other coins.  After all the trades and exchanges, I make sure that I will withdraw the fund that is not needed to trade since I always make sure to keep the idle cryptocurrency into my non-custodial wallet.  It is not that I do not trust the exchange but I am just doing these things to avoid possible problems.

There are users who leave their BTC in some exchange just for the fact of not paying the withdrawal fee (exc+red), even with knowledge about Cex, anyway, I use exchanges for strictly what they are, to carry out operations, WR: 9:1, but, never1:10.

I have zero coins on exchanges even though I'm selling them from time to time and it would have been beneficial to keep some larger amount there instead of sending smaller amounts more frequently and having to spend more on fees. But I think the risk of storing any significant amount of coins on exchanges is just too big, they get hacked all the time, they can pull an exit scam or start having problems with authorities. So better to spend an extra on fees just to be on a safer side in the long run.

As many other members have said, if we plan to hold bitcoins for the long term then it is best to use our own wallet and the best is to use a hardware wallet. Exchanges are not safe for the long term because we see many exchanges closing or going bankrupt so we cannot store our assets on the exchange, use the exchange as intended i.e. only to convert our bitcoins to other coins or to fiat.

That's not a good practice to do leaving a percentage of btc in an exchange. As you have known, it is not a wallet but an exchange which it is used to buy and sell cryptocurrencies that you want to buy and sell so that means it is not meant for storing your crypto unless it is a wallet that lets you buy and sell at the same time. My answer to your questions is no, I don't leave BTC in an exchange at all and you shouldn't leave any BTC at all too.

My exchange to wallet ratio is 1 to 99% lol. Don't keep any of your money on exchanges for long periods of time. Do what you are set out to do and do it all in one shot IMO. you don't want to risk getting hacked and losing everything. That is generally my rule of thumb, there is no use keeping anytihng on exchanges you just don't want that kind of stuff to happen to you! Have heard enough from crazy stories.....

In my case I diversify or bring other coins/tokens to other exchanges if ever the one exchange that I used is down/hacked I still have some coins/tokens on other exchanges I think 5%-10% is enough ratio so that it's not hurt if the exchange is down.

People who do not trade usually move their money/tokens/coins right away from the exchange even me, even when I always move them to the wallet that I fully control just like what I experienced from exchanges before like Cryptopia where until now no coins are being refunded. So if you don't want to risk your crypto and want to hold them for a long time better use a wallet that you have full control of.

I never keep any of my bitcoin on an exchange platform.  You shouldn't either if you can avoid it.  Leaving crypto on an exchange defeats the purpose of being your own bank with this technology.  Exchanges are meant for buying and selling, not storage. 

So to answer OP's question directly - no, I don't think it's wise to keep a percentage of your BTC holdings on an exchange and  theres too much risk something happens to the funds while they are in the exchange's control instead of your own crypto wallet.  We've seen too many examples of exchanges getting hacked over the years. 

My current ratio is 100% in cold wallet and 0% in crypto exchange.
Several years ago, when I was a crypto noob, I used to store almost all my BTC in my Localbitcoins account. Luckily, I never got scammed by Localbitcoins(LBC was legit). I also stored small amounts of BTC on other crypto exchanges like HitBTC and Trageogre without getting scammed.
I was ignorant back then. Now, I would never trust a centralized crypto exchange to store my coins in the long term.
Maybe by leaving small amounts of crypto on the exchange you are "flying under the radars" and you won't get scammed. Try leaving big amount of crypto on a centralized exchange and see what happens. ;D

depend on the situation , I tend to leave some funds in exchange when there is a plan of usage in
the coming days but mostly i maintain my funds inside my decentralized wallets or off line wallets in which I know Im
safe and my money will be for long having no issues at all. and I may add to never let big amount inside the  exchange
even how big or popular this exchange are as they are commonly the target of hacking and cheating.

I have all funds in my wallet. I don't trade on centralized exchanges anymore, as almost all of them ask for kyc ('almost' word used just in case there may be exceptions). So to trade I use instant exchanges, DEXes and for leveraged trading I use perp DEXes, only con there being of smart contract hacks, otherwise decentralized alternatives just as good.

I would say about 1:10 ratio so around 10% for emergency money that I can exchange quickly for fiat and I store it in Binance since that's where a lot of people in my country use as an exchange and the P2P there seems to be much easier for me. I can't really remember the exact as that rationing of bitcoin was around 2020 and I have since then increased the bitcoin that I'm hodling so that's probably around 1:20 now or 1:30, I got to check up on my Binance account, it's been a long time since I've logged in on it, I might edit this to for the accurate ratio or percentage.

Edit: I've got about 4% in my Binance of my total that I'm hodling right now.

I would recommend you to have most of your Bitcoin on a self custody wallet. So to be the closest to 100% on a wallet.

But I you want to do some trade some time, you can have 10% on exchanges.

What happen to FTX last year is a good example of why you should not have much BTC on exchanges but mainly have the self custody of your Bitcoin.

I keep most of my BTC in my wallet. I still have some BTC left on the exchange because I sometimes trade when market conditions are good. And when there are bigger profits, I send those BTC to other wallets and collect them there.

Don't store large amounts of your BTC on exchanges because you don't know what will happen later. If you store your BTC in a wallet, you should pay attention to the security of that wallet. Only keep as much BTC as you can afford on the exchange.

Storing BTC in Trezor is recommended by many people and besides Trezor there are Ledger and others that you can use. Congratulations to you who have finally used Trezor to store your BTC.

If I'm not mistaken, there are a bunch of reports about wallet hacks on Trezor.
So therefore, I might consider this Ledger wallet as a good hardware wallet than Trezor.  It has a lot of security features that you can trust or can countermeasures against attacks.

I use exchange when I want to convert my crypto into fiat and nothing else, but I didn't let my coins sleep on exchange for the long term.
It should be your coins stored on the wallet that you have full control over, never trust SAFU at all on the exchange because IMO, that's only a marketing strategy that people have their trust.

From my admittedly-limited understanding, it's not as easy to hack Trezor as people may appear to think it is. This doesn't preclude the issue, of course.

My eventual plan is to have a few separate wallets; nothing ever all in one place.

Nah not at all. Im storing all of them on my ledger. Now considering the security bugs and continuous upgrade releases I am thinking to switch to another hardware wallet or maybe newer version from the ledger series. I do not like exchanges for another reason than custodial one. For example, in our country anything that is traded on crypto exchanges will get 1% TDS and 30% flat tax post selling. The TDS is applicable to all type of volumes whether its crypto to crypto exchange Or it is a crypto to fiat. Just imagine the taxes that we need to pay. Anyways, as far as second reason is considered then that would losing control our coins and tokens. For me, I am selling the bitcoins to friends overseas who then transfer me WISE payments or other type of payments that get here easily. We can always mark this as advertising funds or others to reduce the taxes on them. So long story short I am good with hardware wallets rather than exchanges.

Not to be harsh but the slogan itself already says it all. So there is no need for you to define it again. Also, when it comes to crypto wallets, we have two kinds here. That is custodial and non-custodial. So simply saying to store coins in a personal wallet compared to the exchanges may still not be valid. Better to be clear. OP says a percentage of BTC only.

The first thing that came in to my mind is these are only small amounts, which are not life-threatening even when lost. There maybe a reason on why someone will do that. It could be that they can earn an incentive for doing so. But it was the traders are mostly the ones who can do that.

Many people were using Electrum wallet and other Bitcoin wallets to store their coins but base this recent hike of fee made most people to send there coins to exchange and use exchange wallets to do their investment and trading so the percentage people have in the exchange is very high now but after now when the fee goes down to it normal position then they would go back again to there wallets again. Lolz!! People disregard " Not your key, Not your coins" phrase these days and saved their coins in exchange and use it to survive for the period. Because they can't pay the high fee to exchange and before making transaction to others in the p2p. So instead they just keep it in the exchange and do all their transactions without fee if within the exchange to the exchange.

That's what I like to see. IMO acceptable ratio is anything below 10% on exchanges, but currently I also have 0.

I see no point in holding money on exchanges, unless you're either a day trader, or own very little. People who don't do any of that and still hold significant amounts must be lazy or scared to learn self-custody.
It's a huge risk nobody should be willing to take.



Then don't make multiple transactions until the fees go down. Group them, use lightning, or keep risking the money. There's always a choice.

This question is contradictory because I don't know if a wallet address do absorbed or extract it own fees, but in exchange they can only have their own percentage whenever a transaction is been done and their percentage sometimes come from the both parties both seller and the recipient or buyer, so exchange percentage is not really obvious

Well, it depends on the BTC I have or what kind of investment I make with my assets. If the coins or assets are for holdings, then I would leave them in a crypto currency wallet so that I would not use them or what, but if the assets are for trading or anything involving using the coins frequently, then I would put the assets in an exchange platform to avoid frequent transfers of coins and the fees, as today the transaction fees are high.
Well, it's safest and better to store your assets in a crypto wallet because we never know when you might accidentally place a trade or swap on the exchange platform, and also to avoid hackers who are targeting the exchange platform to find a victim.

I personally prefer this ratio of 50/50 in exchange and crypto wallet to ensure the balance of funds and a more dynamic way of storing the funds or assets.

I only have a small percentage compared to my personal Bitcoin wallets.
These small percentages are my accumulated bitcoins that tend to sell at a specific price or time when it comes, it's likely taking profits off to this.
And these small percentage are stored in multiple exchanges.

In addition to transaction fees becoming our nightmare, we can also see bull season approaching, bitcoin is approaching the $50k level. So I really don't think people will continue to keep their bitcoins in non-custodial wallets like many are saying. As I said before, the collapses of Mt.gox or FTX will quickly be forgotten when bull season arrives. And the fact that people keep coming back to use and store money on exchanges will continue because everyone wants to make a lot of money, everyone wants convenience...that's why exchanges will never disappear. I believe that in these days people are using exchanges to store their assets more than using non-custodial wallets.

If they can broadcast transactions from Electrum wallet or other wallets, they already accept to pay on chain fee. I believe what you said is they changed receiving addresses from Electrum wallet to exchange account address, to save on chain fee. Because the senders will pay fee and they as receivers don't have to spend any on chain fee to deposit on exchange.

If they don't have big money and need to deposit to exchanges to cash out, it's not bad choice.

They just need to change to use their non custodial wallets again when transaction fee becomes cheaper.

Those percentages will vary depending on what are your personal preferences and your current strategy, those which are traders probably keep the majority of their coins on an exchange in order to take advantage of any opportunity that may present itself, long term holders may not keep a single satoshi in exchanges, while other users may decide to keep some of their money there so they can make a quick transaction in the case they want to buy something and they are on the move.

Even if that's true, it's due to someone's negligence in protecting their Trezor wallet. As long as he could take care it well, his wallet would be fine too. Even if he uses Ledger or another more secure wallet, but he can't protect it, it will be the same because his wallet can be hacked.

By storing our assets, such as Bitcoin, in a hardware wallet or other wallets, at least we have full control over those assets. And if we can protect it by following the advice given, that should be enough to protect its assets. If you have assets in your wallet, you need to be more careful and not let many people know that you have Bitcoin.

I also do exchanges like you and do not keep most of my assets on exchanges. And I've been doing that for a long time. We must be responsible for these assets, so we try to protect them by using a separate wallet or hardware wallet.

Hardware wallets in theory are good but you must choose open source hardware wallets to use. Ledger is not open source and they looks shady with their latest product Ledger Recovery Service and they have bad record of data breach.

[LIST] Open Source Hardware Wallets (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5288971.0)

If you don't use hardware wallets, you can use multisig wallets as your alternative for hardware wallet.

Storing bitcoin on centralized exchanges is very risky. We can go to bed, sleep and wake up with a nightmare news. When something go wrong with a centralized exchange, we as users of their exchange, can not do anything because we don't have private key.

Noticing that CoinBase wants to take $10 per transaction to my Trezor, as well as some SATS once it's received.

What's the average/good SAT exchange rate and am I getting screwed on that end now?

Using the current rate, you only need to pay around $4.8 for the priority transaction (https://mempool.space/) (although it depend on how many of the input and output), so the answer is yes. I guess all centralized exchanges charge higher fee, it's the way for them to earn more profit.

Is it a taboo or forbidden to cash out your coins? :D

We can keep BTC in our wallet but before that we need to see how safe the wallet is to keep BTC. If I feel that my wallet is 100% safe then of course I can hold BTC in my wallet. I keep my BTC in my wallet even though there is little risk in holding BTC in long term wallet.

As a businessman in cryptocurrency, it will be so senseless for me to store all my Bitcoins in my non-custodial wallet, nonetheless, I have the majority of my coins there. Also, if I am making so many gains with my trading and investments, I send more to my non-custodial wallets and it has been so easy for me. This is against what I do hear that it is so bad to have any asset in the custodial arrangement, but what about the business around it that the self-custody and even DEX cannot offer you? That is good for those who cannot maximize their earning potential with Bitcoin with what they know and rely only on what the HODLing of the coin can offer them alone.

I will continue to do my style even as I use the Bitcoin-USDT transfer often within the exchange with low fees depending on the market condition and my disposition which has always helped me rather than discouraging me unlike many here would want people to believe.

That depends on each investor. It would be a lie for someone who is a trader to say that they always store their crypto assets in a non-custodial wallet or always withdraw all their bitcoins to their wallet at the end of the day. But if someone has no intention of short-term trading but just wants to accumulate and hold for the long term, storing their bitcoins on exchanges would be the stupidest idea.

For me, long-term portfolios are always stored in hardware wallets, and part of the capital used for short-term trading is stored on centralized exchanges. Risks are always present when we leave money on centralized exchanges, but to be able to trade and make profits, we really have no other choice.

What's Your Exchange to Wallet Ratio? I usually put a big chunks of money in an external wallet meaning outside the exchange, especially the BTC because the fee is insane.

and I like the DeFi World so Most of my money is outside the exchange + I have 2 wallet hot wallet and cold one and that it

1%

The question is not quite correct. If a person trades bitcoins, then, naturally, he will keep part of his bitcoins on the exchange. And if a person does not trade bitcoins, why should he keep his bitcoins on the exchange? Using exchanges as a wallet is a bad idea.

Even if Centralized exchanges charge additional fees to earn profit that amount still charging $6 extra is too much.. if coinbase really doing that then they are really insanse. I am glad that coinbase don't work in my country and I'll never get to use that.
and that is yet another reason to keep your holding in your safe wallet. only keep as much as you need for trading in exchange and when you earn some profit from trading withdraw them too.


it is good that you are a Defi lover. but I suggest you to use separate wallet when using Defi platforms. never use your personal/cold wallet where you store majority of your funds.

It is really that always be on which it would really be just that right that people shouldn't really be treating up those exchangers to be their long time wallets. Only noobs who would really be having this kind of consideration and this is why on the time that there would really be some exchange hacks and exploits then this is where they would really be that making searches that storing coins on exchangers are non suggested.
Yes, they do make out those realizations but it is really too late and this is why it would really be that always best that you should really make yourself wary as early as possible. The only issue when you do make
those active transfers from exchange to your main wallet is that into those fees, people would normally be trying out to save fees as much as possible and this is why they dont make those active
transfers just for having that kind of saving up for  those things specially now that even on Bitcoins fees were high then it would really be that just a waste if you do make out some active transfers.

This is why i do only store up into those coins basing up on what would be i trading. I dont put up 100% of my coin holdings into an exchange but rather i would really be just
storing or transferring coins which are really that bound for me to make use into trading or something that i would really be making out those active buy and sell
on which i dont need on keeping transfers.

I don't leave any BTC on exchanges because that would be weird and pointless since I don't trade, but I do hold some Ethereum on an exchange in order to get interest on my holdings.  As far as a ratio if I were to put a number on it...  I'd say the ratio of crypto assets on exchanges as opposed to being held in wallets as opposed to exchanges is just under 1 to 100.  This should change once the mtgox coins are distributed, but I imagine I will either cash out those coins or remove them from the exchange as well.

0% at exchanges.  If you look at the history of exchanges, they are not safe for long term storage.  And if anyone - like Celsius, FTX etc - is offering something that appears too good to be true or wants to have custody of your coins, it probably is and they are probably scammers.

If you don't have the private keys, you are merely a creditor as many have found out to their regret.  Only put coins on exchanges briefly to sell (or after you buy).  I think Coinbase is legit of course, they seem quite competent, but many others are just scammers.

Anyone who is offering a higher percentage in your bitcoin holdings is obviously telling you to hand your bitcoin over to them, and they are trying to use someone greedy to steal from them.
 
Once bitcoin is sent to a centralised exchange, the custody of that fund is no longer in the hands of the owner; the bitcoin now has a new owner, and all that the person gets is just some figures added to their account and nothing more than that.
 
The question most people need to ask first is: how and what exactly will this exchange offering this reward do with the bitcoin, which will increase the reward over a short period of time that will be enough to reward both depositors and keep their business going?
 
NOT YOUR KEY NOT YOUR COIN. No matter the kind of offer Celsius and FTX give, it's not worth handing them over your custody of your coins.

With Bitcoin Spot ETFs are coming, people will be given a new option to invest in Bitcoin.

If they want self custody, they will buy bitcoin directly and store bitcoin by themselves.
If they want convenience and are not fearful of custody, they will not buy bitcoin directly but buy shares of Bitcoin Spot ETF alternatively.

If they choose Bitcoin Spot ETF shares, it's their decision to take risk by spending money but won't actually own bitcoins.

Some people can feel storing bitcoin by themselves is inconvenient but I don't see it like this. I love self custody and see it convenient too.

If you would really be doing trading then most likely you would really be experiencing that you would be storing up your funds into the platform on which it would really be just that normal that would be doing less on transferring it out into those non custodial wallet on which it is recommended but if the platform or exchange you are dealing with is something reputable and long time running
then it cant be denied that we could really be able to mold up such confidence and we might be considering on storing up those funds in long time. Even myself would be thinkin up the same.
It isnt really just that because of the fee but also the main reason on why people would be storing up their coins is that it isnt really that hassle on transferring go back and forth into those
funds which you are tending that you would gonna trade. This is why we do hear up different opinions but in general case on which its never been that recommended
for you to store up huge sums no matter how trustable it is, we've seen the worst so its better to be safe than sorry.

I do not have any, all of it is in either exchange or cashed out in fiat form at my bank account, I have no wallet of my own that put any money in right now, I do have a wallet, electrum, but I do not use it currently because I like to trade with mine right now and that means I need them on the exchange to make some money. Doesn't mean that it is a smart idea, it just means that it is not that easy to handle at the moment.

I believe that the best thing to do at this moment is not to really take any risk, and just let it be, I believe that would definitely make it a lot better and could end up with a good result one way or another. That would not be all that easy, and it would still be a smart idea to keep it in wallet if you are holding.

I am not leaving a percentage of my coins at the exchange. What's the point in that? I can understand that if you are trading actively and need to react quickly that you will leave money at the exchange. But if you are investing for long term and will not likely touch the coins any time soon, then I would always withdraw all the coins. It's better to remain in full control and have all our coins in a well secured wallet that at the exchange. In the past there where too many security issue with large exchanges, so that I wouldn't take the risk of leaving any coins there for a long period of time. The only benefit I see is to be able to react more quickly to price changes in the market, but even then we could just send the coins from our wallet again. I prefer to pay a bit more in transaction cost for higher security.

1 to 4 at the moment. I don't want to keep any coins on the exchange at all but like every other guy who makes trades, I don't really have a choice. At least I am not 100% on the exchanges like many people. I will only lose 20% of my crypto if the exchange goes down. 20% is still a big amount but that's the risk I am willing to take because no risk = no gain. I wish decentralized exchanges were more popular and safe but somehow they never took off. I guess trading will always happen on the centralized exchanges and some people will always lose money... It doesn't look like this will change anytime in the future.

i do not have anything on an online exchange, I don't think there's any reason to store any on an exchange unless you're day trading or only trading for very short term. I'm pretty against online exchanges because you're not the real owner of your crypto, the exchange is. You don't control your private key, they do. It's extremely easy to get sim swapped or hacked another way on an online exchange. If you're planning on holding for a while, id recommend you transfer to either a hot or cold storage crypto wallet, not an exchange. Personally, I keep about 15-20% on Exodus, for day to day use, maybe spending a little, and the rest ~80% of my assets are locked up on Trezor.  Holding till the moon.

You are very correct and it is practical. Just like me, I do not have to keep all my Bitcoin in self-custody that is decentralised, which is not good for my trading business but only good for the investment part. It is the HODLers who can be comfortable with the keeping of all of their coins in the self-custody arrangement,t but for those who want to trade and will use Bitcoin for payment and also send money home to be exchanged with P2P and others, it is unwise and not necessary to keep it all in the self-custody. The way I see it is that once money is moved to the non-custodial wallets, that money should be locked there, and God forbids that the person has a problem, the money should be there until Bitcoin has a long-term bearish pattern on the monthly chart. Nothing other than that should cause the moving out of the money for any reason. But for business to continue to happen, the centralized exchange which is custodial must be used and it is even better than the DEX alternative for business in all ramifications.

My exchange to wallet ratio is actually unhealthy for some one who understnands the slogan of "not your keys, not your wallet".  I have literally all my Bitcoin on exchange wallet owing to the gas fees Bitcoin network is currently unfolding. Lightening Network is doing its own bit but sometimes we just have this cluster that makes us feel the rel deal a little bit so I deceided to leave my Bitcoin on exchangers.

Wow this thread took off  8).

I feel very confident after using my TREZOR several times now. I understand how it works and have moved much of my BTC off of the exchange and onto it. What an awesome piece of tech.