Which is better between keeping assets in exchange or personal wallet

[yemight600]

A friend told me few weeks ago to keep my assets in exchange because if the exchange got hacked or my assets are misplaced, the exchange will bear the lose and refund my assets. Just yesterday, someone told me it's a lie that most exchange will go bankrupt if that should happen. I'm really confused right now. More experienced members should please enlighten me.

[jackg]

How good are you at security?

Do you frequent weird and random websites, do you get a lot of popups when you browse the Internet, do you have antivirus?

If you have av and don't click random links, run random apps or visit strange sites you can probably safely store the funds yourself.

Exchanges likely don't have insurance for a loss of funds (I don't think one exists) so if they got hacked, your funds and many other people's funds are gone. Bitfinex got "hacked" a while ago and they credited everyone the dollar equivelant in a token they'd then repay. If you're happy with a random 33% of your fund sbeing liquidated and getting replaced by what could be a lower amount of payment then store them on an exchange if you really think you're incapable of keeping 12 words securely stored/a computer infection free.

[DdmrDdmr]

You may want to ponder this: Hacked Exchanges since 2011.

From a refund point of view, few Exchanges have had the capacity to support a hack out of their own finances, and those that have, has more to do with the amount being a fraction of their own reserves than by anything else. Some may have partial insurances, but have no doubt, that if an Exchange is hit really hard, it will likely tumble and fall, leaving you empty handed.

Having said that, you call also lose your crypto if you practice the "be your own bank" policy. Hacks and malware occur at a personal level too, and people can be clumsy both in terms of security, and in managing things for themselves.

[Coyster]

With your crypto funds you ought to take the responsibility of "being your own bank" and that has to do with protecting your funds yourself, of course quite a lot of people have lost their funds from their own follies, but thing is part of that responsibility is learning what you should do to make sure your funds are safe, asking questions, reading articles and making sure you're following the best security protocols; with this method, you have your funds and your keys without a third party and if you take this responsibility seriously, you'll definitely not lose your funds, at least your fate rests in your hands unlike on exchanges.

Having said that, exchanges are centralized and are third party services, if you leave your funds there and give them the responsibility of being your bank for you, how sure are you they'll take up that role seriously, we've seen exchange workers make mistakes that leaks data of their customers and makes them vulnerable to phishing attacks; then there is the other possibility of the exchange being hacked and your funds gone, crypto is not like the financial traditional institution, you'll most likely not get your funds back in a situation of a hack, and since Bitcoin was designed to eliminate a third party, then you're better of " being your own bank".

There is also a saying that "If you want something done well, you do it yourself".

[The Wasp]

I haven't been here for very long, and I still read and learn for the most part. But as far as I understand, the best way to store your coins is on devices called "hardware wallets" or on "cold storage" devices, such as some type of metal plates or chip cards. Such devices work offline, making it harder for hackers to gain access to your funds through malware and similar software.

I'm expecting the senior members to correct me if I overlooked something.

[gentlemand]

What sort of friend recommended such a stunningly stupid choice? They are saying it's good to be in an exchange in case it's hacked? If it was in your own wallet you wouldn't have this possibility.

There are many piece of shit exchanges that wouldn't survive a major hack. And some larger ones too.

You also have a much more likely event of you being hacked and someone accessing and emptying your exchange account. You get nothing from any of them in that situation.

[Cryptoababe]

A friend told me few weeks ago to keep my assets in exchange because if the exchange got hacked or my assets are misplaced, the exchange will bear the lose and refund my assets. Just yesterday, someone told me it's a lie that most exchange will go bankrupt if that should happen. I'm really confused right now. More experienced members should please enlighten me.

The best thing for you is the keep your coin in your private wallet. All you need is to keep your private key safe.

[kano]

Keep your Bitcoins in a private wallet, NOT on windows and NOT on a computer you use for browsing and playing games or anything else.
There are plenty of windows viruses directed at hacking, recording passwords and specifically trying to access wallets.
Windows antivirus programs do not protect your from viruses, they only protects you from known viruses.
https://kano.is/index.php?k=bitcoin

[Lhaine]

A friend told me few weeks ago to keep my assets in exchange because if the exchange got hacked or my assets are misplaced, the exchange will bear the lose and refund my assets. Just yesterday, someone told me it's a lie that most exchange will go bankrupt if that should happen. I'm really confused right now. More experienced members should please enlighten me.

Not all exchange can refund hacked amount your lucky if one of the exchange holding your crypto give it back to you once they are hacked .most of the time they close the exchange and become bankrupt after such event.

Cryptopia is one of the example there are also exchange turn to be scam in long run ccex is one of them . So the suggestion of your friends is not true, it's better to put it in a wallet that you can secured than trusting your money to any 3rd party services.

[Bitcoin_Arena]

Only keep your assets in an exchange if
1. You are a frequent trader or day trader and moving them back and forth might be costly
2. If you can afford to lose them in case things go south.

Otherwise, it's totally not a good idea to leave your assets in there because anything can happen to an exchange from hacks, exit scams, bankruptcy to Government seizure of the exchange domain or servers and one could easily lose their assets

At the beginning of October, 75 Crypto Exchanges had already shut down since this year started

[stompix]

A friend told me few weeks ago to keep my assets in exchange because if the exchange got hacked or my assets are misplaced, the exchange will bear the lose and refund my assets.

Probably he whispered the last part and you didn't hear it.
"...if you're lucky"

Does your friend know what happened from Bitcoinica and MtGox till Quadriga and Cryptopia ?
Here is a nice read for you and your friend.

What sort of friend recommended such a stunningly stupid choice? They are saying it's good to be in an exchange in case it's hacked? If it was in your own wallet you wouldn't have this possibility.

One that believed things like "Funds are SAFU" or stupid claims about having x amount insured by some god knows what bank? How many scam projects and fake exchanges have claimed this in the past? There are plenty of newbies that believe a lot of things even worse than flying pigs, I'm not surprised somebody would think exchanges have some sort of reserve funds or the money is guaranteed by the government like in banks. Actually, I would be surprised if they would less a few thousand the ones that think like this.

[boyptc]

The latter is telling the truth. Although your first friend who said it's fine to keep assets in exchanges because they will refund it. It just so happen that the affected and hacked exchanges last time can cover their losses.

But it doesn't go in general.

What if you chose an exchange and got hacked and they've got no cover and fund to retain every users loss in their exchange?

It is always best to keep your assets in a private wallet that you own the private keys / seed.

[akirasendo17]

A friend told me few weeks ago to keep my assets in exchange because if the exchange got hacked or my assets are misplaced, the exchange will bear the lose and refund my assets. Just yesterday, someone told me it's a lie that most exchange will go bankrupt if that should happen. I'm really confused right now. More experienced members should please enlighten me.

A very bad idea to keep your token or coin in the exchange there is a risk in doing so

first, if the exchange gets hack your money is gone, I mean everything in there will be lost, then the exchange withdrawal will be disabled no deposit either, then the investigation will take place, remember how long will it take for the result, and there is no guarantee they will return 100% of the value you were kept there, the best thing is to keep it where you have keys, your personal wallet yea you need to transfer it with the fee but you are sure that its safe, forget about the small amount of fee's, at least your safe, remember on what other is saying " not your keys not your coins" this is always important.

[ice18]

Just yesterday, someone told me it's a lie that most exchange will go bankrupt if that should happen.

Thats correct mate especially if those exchanges you are using have no insurance like small exchanges some big exchanges promised a safe funds like Binance who have a SAFU feature but we cannot really sure if this is 100% an assurance or just a false advertisement to attract users in their platform but the very best thing to do is if you want to hold your assets for a long period of time send it to your personal wallet. 

[kaseygriffin]

A friend told me few weeks ago to keep my assets in exchange because if the exchange got hacked or my assets are misplaced, the exchange will bear the lose and refund my assets. Just yesterday, someone told me it's a lie that most exchange will go bankrupt if that should happen. I'm really confused right now. More experienced members should please enlighten me.

It depends on the amount of money as well, as how long you keep? If you have a large amount of money i would suggest to you keep it on your personal wallet and if you are afraid of being hacked, it's really funny. If you use it carefully, then no hack will attack your wallet as for assets in exchange, i think just transfer a sufficient amount of money to be able to trade and invest

[noorman0]

Saving in a personal wallet also does not guarantee security, as most of the risk factors are with you.
Also pay attention to the types of assets that you will store in your personal wallet. If you think that storing a centralized type of crypto will have no risk at all except from you, that's wrong.
We learned how the Kucoin hacker transferred a stolen asset to a personal wallet. And ... his assets are frozen in his wallet under his own control. It is a worry and gives rise to the belief that striving to secure assets to personal control does not guarantee safety from the control of others.

The most secure asset stored in a personal wallet is Bitcoin.

[RabbiTANK]

A friend told me few weeks ago to keep my assets in exchange because if the exchange got hacked or my assets are misplaced, the exchange will bear the lose and refund my assets. Just yesterday, someone told me it's a lie that most exchange will go bankrupt if that should happen. I'm really confused right now. More experienced members should please enlighten me.

It depends on which exchange the hack took place, not all exchanges will be able about to do reimbursement after been compromised, some exchanges will go down and never recovers after a hack and that's good bye to your fund, do not listen to your friend mate, download a private wallet and store your coins in it not on exchange.

[pooya87]

It depends on what you mean by "assets" and also your view of those "assets future".

For example I don't see any long term future for any of the altcoins, ergo I only trade them to make profit. This means I can never withdraw any of these altcoins to my wallet to "store" them locally because that would be riskier since it takes time to withdraw and deposit and altcoins get dumped in a blinking of an eye and I want to be able to act fast in selling before the dump gets bigger.
Another issues is that storing a lot of altcoins locally requires trusting either a lot of wallets or one single closed source multicoin wallet since I have not seen any fully open source ones. That process is tedious and highly risky. I can't go through multiple coin's code specially when majority of altcoins are not popular enough to trust someone else has already done it. And as I said the alternative choice is closed source so I can never trust them.

But when it comes to bitcoin, I believe in the long term potential and even if I trade it still is in favor of making more bitcoin so I would never leave it on any exchange more than it is needed.

[Greatdev]

A friend told me few weeks ago to keep my assets in exchange because if the exchange got hacked or my assets are misplaced, the exchange will bear the lose and refund my assets. Just yesterday, someone told me it's a lie that most exchange will go bankrupt if that should happen. I'm really confused right now. More experienced members should please enlighten me.

Only very few exchanges can take responsibility of things how wrong, it's better to take my advice and never trust your fund with any centralized exchanges either top or small, always move your coins back to your wallet, they are more safer in your own wallet, that's why we need to keep our wallets recovery seeds or private keys because that's the only thing we need to recover our funds if anything happen to our smartphones or PC, do not entrust your assets to any exchange

[Little Mouse]

If the hack is minor, exchange may bear the loss but in case it’s big, they will go bankrupt for sure. Your first friend have no idea.
To compare the better place to keep your crypto asset-
Would you love to keep your fund in your hand where you can do whatever you wish with the fund whenever you wish or you want to keep your asset to someone else who don't give you the control? Which one seems better should be the best.