Can I trust BTC exchanges?

[notlist3d]

Many exchanges scammed people by closing their services but there are some genuine exchanges also.

Was Mt. Gox the biggest scam in exchanges? I think it got a lot of press release but I heard some things about other exchanges.

Yes, in fact it was the biggest scam ever, about 850,000BTC were lost. This was mainly due to the fact that it had highest trading volume at time before hack and many people used it as a wallet too.

Part of it was Mt. Gox always had a higher price for BTC.  It attracted many people from that and with it's name becoming very common, and the most popular exchange at the time.

At this point I still stick with my thought of no exchange should be long term storage.  It should be used to exchange alt to btc, maybe fiat to btc, or opposites, but never as a device to store your coins.  Look into cold storage and make your life better.

[cloud36649]

Howdy,
I've been using one for a couple months now and it's given no reason to mistrust it. But it seems weird to me sending my money to an intermediary that's neither a wallet nor a bank and is entirely online. Feels like the money is hanging out in some nowhere zone that isn't completely under my control...

Dies any one else feel this way or do I just not understand this stuff well enough yet?

Thanks!

It's definitely a shot in the dark if you aren't dealing with a reputable/responsible and well funded exchange. For instance, it is known that Coinbase is pretty much the most capitalized company in the space aside from 21, and it can be expected that their security practices would be par-none. For the most part, it's tough to know how secure the other large exchanges are.

As good practice, it's probably best not to keep your coins sitting on any exchange for a long time.

[liuka]

Yes you can trust btc exchange
I believe exchange on bittrex and bitstamb

[ranochigo]

Howdy,
I've been using one for a couple months now and it's given no reason to mistrust it. But it seems weird to me sending my money to an intermediary that's neither a wallet nor a bank and is entirely online. Feels like the money is hanging out in some nowhere zone that isn't completely under my control...

Dies any one else feel this way or do I just not understand this stuff well enough yet?

Thanks!

It's definitely a shot in the dark if you aren't dealing with a reputable/responsible and well funded exchange. For instance, it is known that Coinbase is pretty much the most capitalized company in the space aside from 21, and it can be expected that their security practices would be par-none. For the most part, it's tough to know how secure the other large exchanges are.

As good practice, it's probably best not to keep your coins sitting on any exchange for a long time.

Mt gox was pretty trusted among many people too. Since coinbase only operates in US and there are some people who aren't from US, it isn't a good choice. Your best choice is to choose an exchange which has a proof of solvency audit available for you to review. It should however only be used for references and shouldn't make the exchange automatically trusted. Audits can be unreliable as time passes though.

[ObscureBean]

I wouldn't leave large amounts of BTC on any exchange but I have no problems trusting Bitstamp with 1 Bitcoin. These days I buy all of my BTC from Circle and I sometimes leave some in my wallet there, I think they're also pretty trustworthy. If you're not trading very often however, it would definitely be best if you moved the majority of your coins to a local/online wallet.

[opossum]

Howdy,
I've been using one for a couple months now and it's given no reason to mistrust it. But it seems weird to me sending my money to an intermediary that's neither a wallet nor a bank and is entirely online. Feels like the money is hanging out in some nowhere zone that isn't completely under my control...

Dies any one else feel this way or do I just not understand this stuff well enough yet?

Thanks!

I have trusted a few bitcoin on btc-e for well over a year and a couple of hundred dollars, i have made that back already and profit so if you take the risk only take it if you are prepared to lose it because it is only a matter of time before the exchange/s do a runner with everyones funds..

Saying that after all this time i still have the funds on there and they have been safer than in my personal wallets on occasions so even though it feels like you are feeding a blackhole with no return most the time your funds are safe enough lol

[chmod755]

Keeping your funds on well-known Bitcoin services with known owners should work.

Xapo and Coinbase do have a Vault option and they are insured like banks.

[notlist3d]

Keeping your funds on well-known Bitcoin services with known owners should work.

Xapo and Coinbase do have a Vault option and they are insured like banks.

Coinbase vault is most likely one of the very few exchanges that are ok to store long term.  They did go above and beyond almost all exchanges with their insurance.

If you have to leave it in a exchange  do Coinbase.  But I still say for majority of users best option is cold storage.

[jbrnt]

Trusting the operators and the security of the exchange are different facets of trust. You can only speculate on the honestly of the operators based on past history and the security of the exchange is always unknown until something happened. 

[koelen3]

I certainly cannot list all of the exchanges but it doesn't matter. NO You should not trust any exchange , i agree that some are good but what if they get hacked? Keep your btc/fiat in you wallet/bank and just transfer when needed . If you're trading , be sure to get it out after that to keep it safe.
Good luck

[achow101]

Currently I'm using Bittrex for trading Alt coins and BTC-e for trading BTC-USD.
Why I trusted them? Becuase they have very good support I usualy get answer from thier support less than 4 hours.

[redsn0w]

If I can say  my personal opinion, I will never trust an exchange (or third party service) when we're talking about 'store or save' bitcoin. I am using the various exchange only when I want to '(ex)change' btc for fiat or viceversa and obviously I will not 'stake' by *coin for more than 10-15 minutes.

However, if an exchange with a mutli signature address will be really created (and one of the 3 priv. key for example will be visible I will trust more the exchange).

[jaberwock]

You can trust any exchange that is listed on Bitcoinwisdom and that has no massive complains in the service discussion subfoum, lik Gox had just before collapsing.

If you want trade btc for altcoins other than Litecoin things might be more complicated

[techgeek]

Id trust the exchange what most are using at a certain extent.

You should always remember to have your own sense of judgment of how to protect loss or avoid them. Never hold them in an exchange over long periods is a general thumb, but it really varies based on all the operators.

How they react to support, and what they do to resolve issues.

[Shogen]

As a rule of thumb, never use any new exchange, never use any exchange offering you significantly better rates than the popular ones, and always make a google search of "<exchange name> scam" to see if there are valid scam accusations.
You should be pretty safe then.

Last but not least, you should never keep your bitcoin or fiat money on an exchange, unless you are planning to trade actively.

[redsn0w]

You can trust any exchange that is listed on Bitcoinwisdom and that has no massive complains in the service discussion subfoum, lik Gox had just before collapsing.

If you want trade btc for altcoins other than Litecoin things might be more complicated

No I do no think, he should not trust (at all) any exchange. He must trust only "himself".

Id trust the exchange what most are using at a certain extent.

I wouldn't use that as an indicator for reliability.

The exchange should be older than 2 years.

The owner(s) should be known.

For legal reasons it might be better to use an exchange that is registered in your country, if that's possible.

Do some research on the exchange you're planning to use. Use small amounts if you want to take the risk and try a new exchange.

Exactly, also mountain gox was the most used exchange at that time (maybe because it was the unique).

[rivoke]

Id trust the exchange what most are using at a certain extent.

I wouldn't use that as an indicator for reliability.

The exchange should be older than 2 years.

The owner(s) should be known.

For legal reasons it might be better to use an exchange that is registered in your country, if that's possible.

Do some research on the exchange you're planning to use. Use small amounts if you want to take the risk and try a new exchange.

The most trust exchanger I've still use until now, Poloniex ( with a new interface), Bittrex , and Cryptsy. Hope they can still exist forever.
Mintpal suppose to be the best exchanger that compete those exchanger. I'm never expected that it will being shutdown or being hacked...

[fonenumba]

Trust for what?

-If you are asking just for exchanging and getting your funds back immediately, then you can trust above posters exchanges like poloniex , bitstamp and btce for a very short time duration like 1-2 hours. You are still in danger but very limited one.

-If you are asking for keeping your coins for a long time , you cannot absolutely trust any exchange currently. There is no insurance mechanism for hacked/stolen coins at the exchanges.

[247exchange]

Just use fixed-rate Bitcoin exchange which doesn't hold your money and sends you funds right after you pay your order. Our exchange service www.247exchange.com works in this way, so, you don't need to worry about the safety of your funds.

[Victor Beckham]

The point is why should you ? Right now, there are exchanges that allows you to trade without having the requirement of a site wallet at all. Try www.100bit.co.in. There exchange commission is extremely competitive too. The only problem you'll face is lack of volume, but I have seen, at least my region people are coming on board. So, why Trust, if you can Trade in a Trustless environment ?