Why is it bad to leave crypto on exchanges?

[Anonohmon]

I have most of mine on an exchange because I'm getting paid interest. Has there ever been a time when an exchange like Binance for example, steals your funds or gets hacked and people lost money?

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[jackg]

Almost all exchanges have been known to freeze accounts due to investigations or other reasons. Most exchanges also deny any liability in case your funds are stolen.

Bitfinex were hacked and took 33% of all users funds back in 2017 (I think) - users were compensated later but btc was what was stolen and users were compensated in the usd value (so all but people holding usd lost out).

A lot of exchanges exit scam too and that's another risk you'll have to bear by storing funds with them long term.

Is it even worth storing funds on an exchange for interest? You might get higher interest by switching to investing the same assets on trusted defi marketplaces (you'll have to do a bit more research and determine whether it's worth the risk but the roi is probably higher). The safest way to store crypto is to hodl it in hardware wallets or cold storage though (with software and hardware being obtained from a trusted source).

[GreatArkansas]

"Not your keys not your coins". The famous line for people who are using centralized exchanges/wallets as their personal wallet because the one who controls it is the entity where your coins at just like on exchange.

But in your case you are using it for interest, you are earning interest. It is still risky, even if you are storing your funds to exchange but think about or ask yourself, "Is the interest worth if ever your coins will be lost in the exchange"?  I am not telling exchanges are not safe at all but as long as you don't hold your own keys or you don't have full control over your funds, I can say it is not 100% safe.

[MiF]

I have most of mine on an exchange because I'm getting paid interest. Has there ever been a time when an exchange like Binance for example, steals your funds or gets hacked and people lost money?

 I think it is safe and has more advantage if you store it in a most reputable exchange like binance and houbi or kucoin you know that there is a lot of new exchange and it is a big problem if you store it in new exchange because you dont know if the particular exchange is scam or not, so i suggest to store on proven and tested exchange. Storing your crypto on exchange for interest is good idea keep storing and goodluck.

[tranthidung]

Not your keys, not your coins

• https://notyourkeys.org/

There are many real hacks on exchanges and many scam exits based on faked hacks in history. Even one exchange is really hacked, will they be ready to make compensation for customers? It's just probably. If they compensate, will they compensate by the exact coin you lost, in the exact number or they will convert it into fiat value at the time of hack for compensation. In addition, will they compensate instantly, at once or will they compensate gradually over months?

At least, having compensation is better than totally lose your coin. However, not all compensation is completely fair for users. So if you leave your crypto on exchanges, you leave your coins and your life in hands of others. It's not good certainly.

[mk4]

Look at this and you'd immediately know why: https://cryptosec.info/exchange-hacks

I'm not totally against interest-bearing platforms, but you're doing it wrong if you have 100% of your funds deposited. You need to practice risk-control.

[rodskee]

I have most of mine on an exchange because I'm getting paid interest. Has there ever been a time when an exchange like Binance for example, steals your funds or gets hacked and people lost money?

all the answers had been shared above so if you are truly interested in our Opinion then best to Learn and check every details before continuing .
though in everything that profitable are risky , we can always Lose our funds in wrong decisioning .
so if you are truly into safe investing then like the post above me says?
never put 100% of your funds in exchange , and best to try spreading your money in different investing and in different exchanges .

[Despairo]

Look at this thread Hacked Exchanges since 2011 Binance once got hacked on May 2019, even they have SAFU and can recover their loss at that times, but no one knows in the future. Leaving your coins on exchanges is always a bad idea even you get an interest, it doesn't worth to risk all of your coins only to earn few percent. No one can recover your coins back, you will regret later.

[pooya87]

I think it is safe and has more advantage if you store it in a most reputable exchange like binance and houbi or kucoin

There is no such thing as "reputable exchanges" in cryptocurrency world. You think all the previously big exchanges such as Mt Gox, Cryptsy, Bitrex, ... were not considered "reputable" at the time?! They all were. For example Mt Gox was so big and trusted that it controlled more than 85% of the total trading volume at the time and yet it scammed its users.

[South Park]

I have most of mine on an exchange because I'm getting paid interest. Has there ever been a time when an exchange like Binance for example, steals your funds or gets hacked and people lost money?

That is something that happens all the time, it is because of this that many users are so against leaving their coins under the control of centralized exchanges, now I understand you are obtaining some benefits out of this so you have to leave your coins at the exchange but there are ways to limit your exposure to that risk, the most obvious is to not have all your money at exchanges and keep the majority under your control, another good measure is if possible to keep your funds at several exchanges, that way even if one exchange is hacked then you are only partially affected and you do not lose all the capital that you destined to this kind of investment.

[adzino]

I have most of mine on an exchange because I'm getting paid interest. Has there ever been a time when an exchange like Binance for example, steals your funds or gets hacked and people lost money?

Because it is not safe. Google exchange hack or scam and you will find your answer. No matter how much they claim that they are very secure, there is still always chance of them getting hacked and you losing all your funds. There is also a chance that your account might get compromised and you might lose all your coins.
Oh and the main reason not to store your coins in an exchange - once you keep move your coins to a centralized exchange, you no longer own the funds.  The coins belong to the exchange since they control the keys and they can confiscate the funds and deny access whenever they want.

[rugrats]

Because you simply don't keep your keys, putting all your money on an exchange is like depositing it in a bank. They can freeze your assets at any time without notifying you. There have been many cases of user accounts being frozen on Binance, Huobi are the top exchanges today and making a claim will get you into a lot of trouble and even you will lose your entire property if you can't prove the claims they make.

[Darker45]

I have most of mine on an exchange because I'm getting paid interest. Has there ever been a time when an exchange like Binance for example, steals your funds or gets hacked and people lost money?

 I think it is safe and has more advantage if you store it in a most reputable exchange like binance and houbi or kucoin you know that there is a lot of new exchange and it is a big problem if you store it in new exchange because you dont know if the particular exchange is scam or not, so i suggest to store on proven and tested exchange. Storing your crypto on exchange for interest is good idea keep storing and goodluck.

It is safe to store your funds in Binance or Huobi or KuCoin if your only other option is to store it in exchanges like YoBit and HitBTC and other shady exchanges. But you have more than just these options. You can actually withdraw your funds from these centralized exchanges into non-custodial and open source and hardware wallets where the private keys are under your sole control. So don't settle for relatively safer options when you could actually keep them in much much safer storage. You actually don't own your funds stored in centralized exchanges.

[SpenserReed]

I have most of mine on an exchange because I'm getting paid interest. Has there ever been a time when an exchange like Binance for example, steals your funds or gets hacked and people lost money?

If you plan to sell or exchange your coins over the next few years, experience shows that storing coins in a cryptocurrency exchange account is no different from storing them in a wallet. And in many ways it's even more convenient.

[bittraffic]

I can understand that staking your coins on exchanges pays higher % which is enticing for someone who wants to make money out of their altcoins. Investors certainly wants to do that because of this offer and you can easily dump whenever the price goes ATH. They are however in danger when their accounts are going to be frozen by the exchange itself like what was said above. And it may just be a common practice in the coming years especially if you can;t provide where your funds come from.

[Kakmakr]

Never use an Exchange as a wallet for long-term storage, because there has been loads of incidents where Exchanges got hacked. Here are some of the biggest Crypto Exchanges that got hacked ==> https://crystalblockchain.com/articles/the-10-biggest-crypto-exchange-hacks-in-history/

Also, governments are still busy with legislation and laws regarding Crypto currencies and they might clamp down on Exchanges with changes in laws and regulations and that might cause a forfeit or blocking of coins on Exchanges. 

[pooya87]

If you plan to sell or exchange your coins over the next few years, experience shows that storing coins in a cryptocurrency exchange account is no different from storing them in a wallet. And in many ways it's even more convenient.

Wrong.
Only if you own shitcoins that you want to sell in the next few hours to days it makes sense to store them on the exchange so that you can act quickly considering how shitcoins pump and dump very quickly.
Otherwise if you own bitcoin and you want to keep it for years it makes no sense to store it on exchanges, they may not even exist in a couple of months let alone be around in years!

[aoluain]

If you plan to sell or exchange your coins over the next few years, experience shows that storing coins in a cryptocurrency exchange account is no different from storing them in a wallet. And in many ways it's even more convenient.

Wrong.
Only if you own shitcoins that you want to sell in the next few hours to days it makes sense to store them on the exchange so that you can act quickly considering how shitcoins pump and dump very quickly.
Otherwise if you own bitcoin and you want to keep it for years it makes no sense to store it on exchanges, they may not even exist in a couple of months let alone be around in years!

Exactly, Exchanges are for exchanging and their wallets which they provide to us
their customers should be used on a temporary basis.

"Convienient" how inconvienient is it to transfer coins which you want to exchange
from a hardware or smartphone wallet to the exchange?

@OP - for the sake of around $100 you can store your coin on a hardware wallet and
be at ease in the knowledge that your coin is secure and YOU control access to it at all times.

I understand the allure of earning interest but at least know the risk involved.

[doctor877]

its more risky to do because what if the exchange gets hacked or stop operation suddenly without any notice. anything could happen, that means you are ready to let go of your funds. but if its in your wallet (hardware) then you can be sure of saftey as long as you dont expose your keys. you can gain interest on reliable defi platform if you make research well enough.

[Despairo]

If you plan to sell or exchange your coins over the next few years, experience shows that storing coins in a cryptocurrency exchange account is no different from storing them in a wallet. And in many ways it's even more convenient.

You didn't get the point, the reason why you shouldn't leave your coins in exchanges because you can't know the exchanges is still operated or not in the future. If you have leave your coins on an exchanges which never got hacked until now, you're lucky since every year there's always an hack incident. I would rather spend some satoshis and times to secured my coins fully 100% on my wallet rather than leave them on exchanges to save some fees.

you can gain interest on reliable defi platform if you make research well enough.

That's a same case like leaving your coins to centralized party.