Can I trust BTC exchanges?

[dedmax]

Yeah we all get that felling at a point in time, these days you cant be too sure, but trust me good background check before initiating any deal or exchange helps alot.

[freemind1]

Depends on which exchange want to use, always look where it has more volume of Bitcoin and quantity of altcoins . Also look not robbed the cold wallet as one well-known past him recently.

Greetings.

[Lauda]

If you don't care about privacy too much I'd recommend Bitstamp. I've used them since 2013 and have never had any problems with them. The support is also very helpful.
It already got hacked once and has paid back everyone. Just remember don't keep too much money on it. Any money, that is on an address to which you do not own the private keys, is not your money.

[LOBSTER]

Bitcoin is built up on trust. You need to trust everything in the Bitcoin world what is not decentralized! So actually you can only trust the network, because it will (actually) never fail.

[Icardi09]

you can trust it for a while, when you trade there
after your trade finish, don't trust it anymore
so you must withdraw your balance to your personal and private wallet

[randy8777]

i do trust kraken as it never have dissapointed me so far. but we all know it is better to store your coins offline for obvious reasons. better safe than sorry.

[demonicsheikh]

I don't think you can trust anybody these days. Best to be cautiousness. You should see the example of Egopay in front of us. Trusted and this and that and still ran away with people's money.

[carlosiness]

you can trust only the legit exchanges, bitstamp is recommended, they never fail.

[tyz]

Not at all. You should use exchanges only for single exchanges and after you have done your exchange immediately withdraw your coins to a secure wallet. Everything else is a dance onto a razor blade, literally spoken 

[RaginglikeaBoss]

Bitcoin is built up on trust. You need to trust everything in the Bitcoin world what is not decentralized! So actually you can only trust the network, because it will (actually) never fail.

You seem to contradict yourself, but I think you made your point.

I trade in moderate size transactions but never leave them on exchanges for more than a couple of hours.  Then if I want to trade BTC for fiat I use Coinbase to wire it straight into my bank account.

[Stifler]

Do you trust banks? Do you trust your friends? Do you trust the man on the street? Do you trust Bill Gates? Do you trust Bernie Madoff? Do you trust Mt. Gox? All exchanges are different - some are trustworthy and some won't be but they could always appear trust worthy then scam later on or get hacked.

[galbros]

You are correct to be cautious.  As many old timers point out, if you don't control the private keys to your bitcoin you don't own your bitcoin.

Having said that, I do keep a small amount of bitcoin on exchanges so I can trade on short notice, but you have to realize that it can all be gone in a blink of an eye.  Vircurex was one of the early exchanges and while it is still around it lost lots of users coins including some of mine.  So only keep coins on an exchange you are willing to lose, because there is a good chance you will until bitcoin becomes a lot more professional.

Good Luck!

[ThomasCrowne]

Absolutely right to feel kind of 'awkward', you have good senses.  If your going to use an exchange try to stick with the more reputable (i.e. well known ones), bitstamp, btcchina, coindesk, etc.  but as others have already mentioned, don't keep any of your long-term bitcoin savings on an exchange.  Your basically trusting the keys to your crypto-wealth to another party when you do and any number of things can obviously go wrong in that scenario.

[ranochigo]

you can trust only the legit exchanges, bitstamp is recommended, they never fail.

Many exchanges were legit before they were shutdown. And your claim about Bitstamp being resistant to failures is false[1]. No exchanges can be trusted well enough. Just take precautions such as depositing only when you want to trade.

[1] http://www.coindesk.com/analysis-bitstamp-hacker-stolen-additional-1-75-million/

[wiesen]

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 usually use BTC-e for buy - sell BTC, to buy - sell other forks and altcoins I usually use cryptsy.com

[Mehek]

yes you can trust them but not blondly because there is nothing in this world 100% risk free

[virtualx]

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!

Exchanges control the private keys so you are correct. There is a risk involved. It's similar to an online wallet where you do not own the private keys. You should verify the exchange is legit.

[kinnu]

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

[virtualx]

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.

[ranochigo]

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.