Is it safe to hold coins in your Kraken account?

[Dvd1989]

Hi,

Some people have Wallets to keep their coins, but some just keep their coins in their Kraken account.

Is it safe to keep coins (100 - 500 dollars) in your Kraken account?

Kind regards,

Dvd1989

[TryNinja]

It will never be 100% safe to store your coins/money in any exchange or web wallets.
What you want to do is be sure to hold and fully control your private-keys, so you can do whatever you want with your Bitcoins.

When you don't own the private keys for the wallet holding your coins, the exchange that does can do anything they want with your Bitcoins, like: Freezing your account, run with your money, don't let you withdraw or let your coins be stolen by a hacker.

You should only use exchanges to do transactions between btc/altcoins/usd and withdraw afterwards. Never use them for long-term storage.
Just remember that what happened to Mt. Gox and multiple other web wallets and exchanges can easily happen with any exchange you use...

[Dvd1989]

It will never be 100% safe to store your coins/money in any exchange or web wallets.
What you want to do is be sure to hold and fully control your private-keys, so you can do whatever you want with your Bitcoins.

When you don't own the private keys for the wallet holding your coins, the exchange that does can do anything they want with your Bitcoins, like: Freezing your account, run with your money, don't let you withdraw or let your coins be stolen by a hacker.

You should only use exchanges to do transactions between btc/altcoins/usd and withdraw afterwards. Never use them for long-term storage.
Just remember that what happened to Mt. Gox and multiple other web wallets and exchanges can easily happen with any exchange you use...

When I store my coins on my Kraken account they hold the private key?

I also have a wallet from MyEtherWallet, from which I do have a private key. The downside is that it seems that there are some coins that I can not hold in that wallet. Do you have multiple wallets for multiple coins? Seems so confusing..

[mk4]

Hi,

Some people have Wallets to keep their coins, but some just keep their coins in their Kraken account.

Is it safe to keep coins (100 - 500 dollars) in your Kraken account?

Kind regards,

Dvd1989

Never store a good number of bitcoins on wallets whereas you don't have access on the private keys. Basically, if Kraken gets hacked, then say goodbye to your bitcoins.

You might want to read this: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitfinex_hack

[TryNinja]

When I store my coins on my Kraken account they hold the private key?

Yes they do. They only give you a public address so you can deposit on their wallets and use that balance on their website to sell/trade Bitcoins. Therefore, you don't really control the coins you have on their exchange.

I also have a wallet from MyEtherWallet, from which I do have a private key. The downside is that it seems that there are some coins that I can not hold in that wallet. Do you have multiple wallets for multiple coins? Seems so confusing..

Every coin has their own wallet. In your case, MyEtherWallet can only hold Ethereum coins and ERC-20 tokens.

If you want to store Bitcoins you will need to find and download a proper wallet for BTC. You can find the most recommended ones in this page: https://bitcoin.org/en/choose-your-wallet. (I recommend you to try Electrum - https://electrum.org)

If you don't want to download one wallet for each coin you have, there are a few wallets that let you manage multiple coins in a single software. If you are looking for this and have multiple coins to store, Exodus (https://www.exodus.io) is a good choice.

They support those coins atm: Bitcoin, Augur, Dash, Dogecoin, Ethereum, Golem, Litecoin, and are planning to support more in the future.

[xFiber]

It's never completely safe to store your coins on an exchange since you don't have the private keys. You're basically hoping they will give back your coins when you ask them but generally there's no problem storing your coins on an exchange unless you're storing huge amounts on there.

[Blackout1321]

Hi,

Some people have Wallets to keep their coins, but some just keep their coins in their Kraken account.

Is it safe to keep coins (100 - 500 dollars) in your Kraken account?

Kind regards,

Dvd1989

Invest in a hard wallet also. Ledger Nano S is what I'm getting, but at the same time it takes almost 2 months to ship and receive.

Best hard wallet imo.

[Dvd1989]

When I store my coins on my Kraken account they hold the private key?

Yes they do. They only give you a public address so you can deposit on their wallets and use that balance on their website to sell/trade Bitcoins. Therefore, you don't really control the coins you have on their exchange.

I also have a wallet from MyEtherWallet, from which I do have a private key. The downside is that it seems that there are some coins that I can not hold in that wallet. Do you have multiple wallets for multiple coins? Seems so confusing..

Every coin has their own wallet. In your case, MyEtherWallet can only hold Ethereum coins and ERC-20 tokens.

If you want to store Bitcoins you will need to find and download a proper wallet for BTC. You can find the most recommended ones in this page: https://bitcoin.org/en/choose-your-wallet. (I recommend you to try Electrum - https://electrum.org)

If you don't want to download one wallet for each coin you have, there are a few wallets that let you manage multiple coins in a single software. If you are looking for this and have multiple coins to store, Exodus (https://www.exodus.io) is a good choice.

They support those coins atm: Bitcoin, Augur, Dash, Dogecoin, Ethereum, Golem, Litecoin, and are planning to support more in the future.

Thanks a lot for your help! Where can i find what tokens are ERC-20 tokens? Is there a list?

I've looked at Exodus but they only support the coins that are more or less established. For instance, BNT can not be held in Exodus. I will keep that coin in MEW.

Low amounts of cryptocurrency (between 0 and 100 USD) I will keep at Poloniex or Kraken. If they screw their users over, the damage is limited

[Nagadota]

When I store my coins on my Kraken account they hold the private key?

Yes they do. They only give you a public address so you can deposit on their wallets and use that balance on their website to sell/trade Bitcoins. Therefore, you don't really control the coins you have on their exchange.

I also have a wallet from MyEtherWallet, from which I do have a private key. The downside is that it seems that there are some coins that I can not hold in that wallet. Do you have multiple wallets for multiple coins? Seems so confusing..

Every coin has their own wallet. In your case, MyEtherWallet can only hold Ethereum coins and ERC-20 tokens.

If you want to store Bitcoins you will need to find and download a proper wallet for BTC. You can find the most recommended ones in this page: https://bitcoin.org/en/choose-your-wallet. (I recommend you to try Electrum - https://electrum.org)

If you don't want to download one wallet for each coin you have, there are a few wallets that let you manage multiple coins in a single software. If you are looking for this and have multiple coins to store, Exodus (https://www.exodus.io) is a good choice.

They support those coins atm: Bitcoin, Augur, Dash, Dogecoin, Ethereum, Golem, Litecoin, and are planning to support more in the future.

Thanks a lot for your help! Where can i find what tokens are ERC-20 tokens? Is there a list?

Yes, there's one on github.

Note:  I would feel safest using a hardware wallet along with MyEtherWallet or taking other precautions for security.

[Dvd1989]

When I store my coins on my Kraken account they hold the private key?

Yes they do. They only give you a public address so you can deposit on their wallets and use that balance on their website to sell/trade Bitcoins. Therefore, you don't really control the coins you have on their exchange.

I also have a wallet from MyEtherWallet, from which I do have a private key. The downside is that it seems that there are some coins that I can not hold in that wallet. Do you have multiple wallets for multiple coins? Seems so confusing..

Every coin has their own wallet. In your case, MyEtherWallet can only hold Ethereum coins and ERC-20 tokens.

If you want to store Bitcoins you will need to find and download a proper wallet for BTC. You can find the most recommended ones in this page: https://bitcoin.org/en/choose-your-wallet. (I recommend you to try Electrum - https://electrum.org)

If you don't want to download one wallet for each coin you have, there are a few wallets that let you manage multiple coins in a single software. If you are looking for this and have multiple coins to store, Exodus (https://www.exodus.io) is a good choice.

They support those coins atm: Bitcoin, Augur, Dash, Dogecoin, Ethereum, Golem, Litecoin, and are planning to support more in the future.

Thanks a lot for your help! Where can i find what tokens are ERC-20 tokens? Is there a list?

Yes, there's one on github.

Note:  I would feel safest using a hardware wallet along with MyEtherWallet or taking other precautions for security.

How does that work? I can either store coins on MEW or on a hardware wallet right, not both?

[decryptionary]

Is it safe to keep coins (100 - 500 dollars) in your Kraken account?

Hey OP, I wrote a really simple article on protecting your crypto. I write about the vulnerabilities of exchanges and some steps you can take to securing your accounts.

Check out these 8 Steps to Protecting Your Crypto https://decryptionary.com/what-is-cryptocurrency/8-steps-protecting-cryptocurrency/