Bitcoin Forum

Let's take coinbase as an example. Can someone (except coinbase) trace my coins if I send them to an exchange address and then send it to another address? I always see that the funds on incoming transactions are sent to another address and combined with many others. On outgoing transactions there are also many inputs and this should it make hard to trace it.

So, can someone tell if I sent the coins from one address through coinbase to another address?

Exchanges could be used as mixers If that's what you're asking yes. If you deposit funds to address A and leave the funds there for some time and then check that address in a block explorer, you'll see that the funds are gone from there, the reason for that is because you don't control that address, the exchange does and your funds are basically 1's and 0's. When you request a withdrawal, they'll take the funds from another address just like they did with the address you deposited to (because someone else requested a withdrawal).

as stated, all transactions are open to see for anyone, but since exchanges are indeed sending Out from a general wallet, while usually receiving to a 'user specific' wallet, noone except the exchange themselves can tell who withdrew what. but, it depends on why you ask - if you're planning on hiding from the government, surely this will come back at some point - it's being more and more regulated, coinbase already had to send their top 10k users to IRS. give it a few years and the IRS will probably have free access to all the large exchanges!

Technically it's possible, but the more "mainstream" and smaller your transaction is, the more likely it is that it can't be traced directly. If you make a huge transaction of a rarer coin/token to the exchange and then withdraw the same amount, it would be pretty easy to trace it.