Pretend that you believe storing btc in an exchange is better than a hard wallet

[el kaka22]

While a small one (does kraken really offer 0.15% per year? wow) is not worth it, there are better ones. I am not going to name any, but there is a place with 4% that can also go up to 4.4% if I am not wrong, so that is not really that terrible. I get that it wouldn't be great when it comes to dollars, because inflation is much higher and you need to make at least 10% or if possible more.

But at bitcoin 4-5% range is fine and definitely profitable enough, I make around that much on ETH and that is awesome, it gives you price increase AND more coins at the same time. Binance had 2% back in the day for bitcoin, but I haven't checked it in a long time, because I found that higher paying one, but if you want you can use bitcoin investment on binance too. The worst is stablecoins, they give less than interest rate at a bank, which makes no sense, it's the same thing, why would anyone want to make less using stablecoins which is basically like fiat, when they make more with fiat?

[Miles2006]

Exchange is beneficial in terms of trade, it offers free and suitable trade especially the reputable exchange. The reason I mentioned trade is because we can’t store our coin in an exchange. I understand op is trying to create a debate but aside selling I don’t see a valid feature an exchange can offer, for example an exchange is referred as a market space we buy and sell not store.
People who take much risk and decide to store their coin probably they feel exchange wallet is the best they end up getting scammed, a binance user shared a scam experience story linking with gmail hack and how it all happened it’s best we don’t create benefits we can’t handle.

[shield132]

For a change, since most of us here recommend not storing Bitcoin on an exchange because of the "not your keys, not your coins" principle, let's flip the script. Although using a hardware wallet is advised, it’s not 100% foolproof either—sometimes we make mistakes, like our devices getting compromised, often due to user errors.

So, let’s have a little debate to test everyone's knowledge here: defend why we should store our Bitcoin on an exchange instead of a hardware wallet. Enjoy!

At first, when I got into Bitcoin, I was using a local exchange and then I moved on Blockchain.info's wallet, which was definitely a very bad decision. By the way, I was using a local exchange for years despite the fact that I knew not your keys = not your coins. The pros of this was that local exchange was owned by one of the big local banks, I knew a team behind this project, and they were also partners of BitFury (buying Bitcoins from BitFury which mines coins locally) and overall, this was a very good option. I didn't have to worry about storing my keys and I knew that I was in safe hands.

[mirakal]

Trusting exchanges is the most important factor for why many of us consider storing Bitcoin there instead of using non-custodial wallets. But here's the real question: are there exchanges that will truly take full responsibility? If there were, I bet most people would choose that option. Unfortunately, it’s a tough call because it’s hard to believe them after hearing so many stories of lost funds and customers left empty-handed. It is a different story when you have control over your own wallet, where you can be confident that your assets are safe.

For regular traders, using an exchange wallet might be the way to go, but if you’re in it for long-term holding purposes, a hardware wallet is definitely the better choice.

[Forever101]

For short term investors, they want to cash out once the btc hits her all time high and then invest their money on business waiting gently for the fall of bitcoins when they will start buying again. So with cex, it is easier for them to sell from btc to fiat since they are short term investors who are ready to leave the scene.

Another reason is lack of proper education. When I started, I never knew the difference between DEX AND CEX, so I could use was CEX. But discouraging thing then was that the one I was using charge so high. There was a day a made profit as a new investor and I move my coins to another exchange thinking miracle will further happen there, 😂 but unfortunately the reverse was the case and when i tried to move my coins out, my former profit and my money now became the fee. It was a painful experience for a new investor like me as at then, after that I stopped using the exchange which I don't think the exchange even exist anymore.  So one reason to use exchange at times is due to lack of proper knowledge.

[terrific]

So, let’s have a little debate to test everyone's knowledge here: defend why we should store our Bitcoin on an exchange instead of a hardware wallet. Enjoy!

Keeping it on an exchange is easier to dump it instead of keeping it on a hardware, pulling out that from your drawer, connecting the USB to the device and so on.

I don't expect anyone in the forum to agree with you about storing Bitcoin on an exchange instead of a hardware wallet, here everyone loves decentralization and hates centralized exchanges.

You're right. Everyone is so serious and I understand that we all knew that keeping it on an exchange is risky. But OP is trying to twist the thing here for the sake of discussion.

[CryptoHeadlineNews]

For a change, since most of us here recommend not storing Bitcoin on an exchange because of the "not your keys, not your coins" principle, let's flip the script. Although using a hardware wallet is advised, it’s not 100% foolproof either—sometimes we make mistakes, like our devices getting compromised, often due to user errors.

So, let’s have a little debate to test everyone's knowledge here: defend why we should store our Bitcoin on an exchange instead of a hardware wallet. Enjoy!

There is nothing to debate about here, because the truth of the fact is that inasmuch as Hardware wallets are more safer than coins kept of an exchange wallet, been careless can cost you of losing all your coins, hence, it's advisable that you have a very huge sun of Bitcoin investment, you get an independent Hardware wallet such as Trezor or get a new separate mobile device for the only purpose of storing your coin in a non-custodial wallet.

[X-ray]

Maybe I can blame exchange if my BTC got stolen ? 

I think this is one of the reason why some people just stick with exchange, they can blame anyone but themselves since it's "not our privkey not our money" and the regulation might be in the favor of us the customer, even more so if the exchange is insured + the exchange have SAFU funds.

also, making sure storing 12 phrase word is a pain, what if our computer got infected by keylogger and it can steal our 12 phrase word at some point? this means we need to take care the security of our PC as well from virus, added more complexity.

[SilverCryptoBullet]

Maybe I can blame exchange if my BTC got stolen ?  

You are free to blame them but matter is will you get your money back. Your lost bitcoin, you called it as stolen BTC, can be from your personal account hack, or from an exchange hack.

If reason is your personal account hack, believe me, centralized exchange will not give you anything.
If reason is their exchange hack, they can compensate you, partially, fully or nothing. Many hacked exchanges died shortly after their hacks, filed bankruptcies and disappeared. It's very uncertain on what you will get after a centralized exchange hack.

Cryptocurrency exchange graveyard

I think this is one of the reason why some people just stick with exchange, they can blame anyone but themselves since it's "not our privkey not our money" and the regulation might be in the favor of us the customer, even more so if the exchange is insured + the exchange have SAFU funds.

Events made you scare about custodial wallets, centralized exchanges.
Reminder: do not keep your money in online accounts
How to back up a seed phrase?

[BALIK]

Maybe I can blame exchange if my BTC got stolen ? 

I think this is one of the reason why some people just stick with exchange, they can blame anyone but themselves since it's "not our privkey not our money" and the regulation might be in the favor of us the customer, even more so if the exchange is insured + the exchange have SAFU funds.

also, making sure storing 12 phrase word is a pain, what if our computer got infected by keylogger and it can steal our 12 phrase word at some point? this means we need to take care the security of our PC as well from virus, added more complexity.

You can complain, blame and even sue them to the authorities but the more important thing is will you get your property back and how long will it take? It took Mt.gox victims over 10 years to get their bitcoins back, FTX victims waited 3 years and although there was news that they were planning to be compensated, it was still just news. Do you want that to happen to you?

Yes, storing bitcoins in a non-custodial wallet also has certain risks, it is not completely safe. But we have complete control over our assets and our money is only at risk if we are careless, not because of the carelessness of others and we are the ones who have to suffer the consequences of their carelessness.

[Hispo]

The only sincere point I could make about storing ones Bitcoins on an exchange instead of using a hardware wallet would be the easy access to liquidity and the shift exchange between ones Satoshis to other alternative currencies and stablecoins, which it could come handy when one needs to sell some of the Satoshis for the sake of paying for real-world expenses.
It aso comes to my mind how exchanges like Binance offer the option to ask for loans from them, using our Bitcoin as collateral, in that case we would continue to have our Satoshis in the exchange (blocked) while we slowly pay for the loan we asked for in USDT.

There are several advantages which come to using exchanges instead of self-custody, but one cannot simply exchange security and full control over our assets for those benefits, after all, full control is what Bitcoin was supposed to give us since the first moment it was launched.

[Akbarkoe]

Maybe I can blame exchange if my BTC got stolen ? 

I think this is one of the reason why some people just stick with exchange, they can blame anyone but themselves since it's "not our privkey not our money" and the regulation might be in the favor of us the customer, even more so if the exchange is insured + the exchange have SAFU funds.

also, making sure storing 12 phrase word is a pain, what if our computer got infected by keylogger and it can steal our 12 phrase word at some point? this means we need to take care the security of our PC as well from virus, added more complexity.

Indeed, maintaining wealth is more difficult than getting it, so maintaining bitcoin ownership, there will be risks when choosing a third party as an alternative, as well as if we store it ourselves, memorizing 12 words is quite difficult, but it can still be tried by storing in other fields, try our minds not to be too extreme in things that might happen, surely you can keep it well, talking about PC is better you don't store it there, you store it in the bookcase in the safe is more than enough.

If on the exchange of course the blame is the exchange, anything but we ourselves are negligent in maintaining our accounts.

[pawanjain]

For a change, since most of us here recommend not storing Bitcoin on an exchange because of the "not your keys, not your coins" principle, let's flip the script. Although using a hardware wallet is advised, it’s not 100% foolproof either—sometimes we make mistakes, like our devices getting compromised, often due to user errors.

So, let’s have a little debate to test everyone's knowledge here: defend why we should store our Bitcoin on an exchange instead of a hardware wallet. Enjoy!

I won't call it a debate to defend crypto exchanges or to say that storing crypto on an exchange is better than on a hardware wallet but I would say we can call it some advantages of storing crypto on an exchange.

One of the advantages is that internal transfers are very fast and cheap. For example: We can transfer USDT internally for free on Binance.
Another advantge is that we don't have to pay hefty fees in exchanging the coins.
Crypto exchanges have an ease of access and an user friendly interface.
They also have passive income opportunities like staking, yielding etc...

These can be few reasons to hold cryptocurrencies on an exchange but it is always recommended to HODL the coins in a hardware wallet if you prefer to hold them for a long term.

[ChiBitCTy]

I mean as others have mentioned there really is no debate here.  I did see a recent interview with Bobby Lee (Charlie Lee, creator of Litecoin's brother) where he said "sure its 'Okay' to leave your coins on an exchange, but then he went in to the mountain of reasons why leaving coins on an exchange is not a good idea, and in fact it's the worst place one could possibly leave there coins.  I just wish more people understood this.

[Abu-Naim]

So, let’s have a little debate to test everyone's knowledge here: defend why we should store our Bitcoin on an exchange instead of a hardware wallet. Enjoy!

Is there any way storing Bitcoin on centralized exchanges can be defended? I think it is actually not bad to leave our Bitcoin in centralized exchanges especially if we are not going to hold for long period of time, we can leave them on exchanges for easy access because some of us do sell immediately after receiving payment, and sending out from wallets might take time and extra transaction fee.
For real investors that will hold Bitcoin for long period of time, leaving their Bitcoin in centralized exchanges will be risky because exchanges cannot be completely trusted and if the exchange got compromised, the exchange might not pay you your money, because of that reason, it is good to be your own bank by having full control over your Bitcoin.

[Yaunfitda]

For a change, since most of us here recommend not storing Bitcoin on an exchange because of the "not your keys, not your coins" principle, let's flip the script. Although using a hardware wallet is advised, it’s not 100% foolproof either—sometimes we make mistakes, like our devices getting compromised, often due to user errors.

So, let’s have a little debate to test everyone's knowledge here: defend why we should store our Bitcoin on an exchange instead of a hardware wallet. Enjoy!

Others say it's because you can earn by staking some of your coins, it's comparable to also like storing it in bank in time deposit as well. And I do agree that we can't really defend why we should store our Bitcoin on exchanges because it has precedence already. As early crypto exchanges existence, there has been a lot of hacks already, and the biggest example is Mt. Gox, the ghost of it still haunts us up to this day. And it's not that easy to store our Bitcoin in exchanges as well, you have to pass KYC and then you also have to be technically inclined, like setting 2FA or having a hardware like Yubikey to bind to your account. So I'm sorry, there are not debates or arguments here, it's really a bad practice to store our Bitcoin on exchanges, period.

[Stable090]

So, let’s have a little debate to test everyone's knowledge here: defend why we should store our Bitcoin on an exchange instead of a hardware wallet. Enjoy!

I am not in support of Storing bitcoin on exchange because I know the risk involved in it, but I already asked a few people to know why they prefer to keep their coin on exchange, and they gave me some reasons that I don’t really think make sense.
 
Most of them do decide to leave their bitcoin on exchange just because they believe they can easily sell it whenever they want, they don’t have to start sending from wallet to exchange.
 
Some of them do complain about the gas fee that they will spend, they think it’s just a waste of money.
 
Some of them do claim that if a coin is being stored in a hardware wallet and they lose access to their seed phrase, then they won’t be able to get access to the bitcoin again, but if they leave it on exchange, if they forget their password, they can easily click on forget password, and they will be able to recover their password back, but they don’t know that if an exchange gets compromised, they might be losing access to the coin that they leave on the exchange also, the coin left on exchange doesn’t completely belong to them, because they are not in control of the coin.
 
The risk involved in leaving coin on exchange is just too high, which I will recommend people doing that to just stop it, most people who are doing that haven’t lost their coin to exchange before, that’s why they believe exchange are safe for them to leave their coin.

[taufik123]

I mean as others have mentioned there really is no debate here.  I did see a recent interview with Bobby Lee (Charlie Lee, creator of Litecoin's brother) where he said "sure its 'Okay' to leave your coins on an exchange, but then he went in to the mountain of reasons why leaving coins on an exchange is not a good idea, and in fact it's the worst place one could possibly leave there coins.  I just wish more people understood this.

This is the actual fact that must be emphasized, not only discussing the myriad of reasons why coins are abandoned on the Exchange.

More hacks happen to Exchange not because of security errors, but because of the greed of the Exchange owners themselves.
We can see in the FTX incident that has made everyone suffer over the past few years,
until finally they will refund their users but it is also still unclear how much they will receive, due to the price difference then and now.

There are so many problems on the Exchange that it becomes the worst place to store your assets.
I'd rather spend $200 to buy a Hadrware wallet than store $1000 worth of assets on Exchange.

The exchange is a place for trading and is only used temporarily when trading, there will be periodic withdrawals that need to be made to minimize the risk of loss.
Although there is now Secure Asset Fund for Users of a hack (SAFU), it will not guarantee completely.


I also found some facts that happened to the Bingx Exchange hack some time ago, on September 20, 2024 to be precise.

Hackers have hacked 360 Altcoins on the Bingx exchange including many memecoins and of course I have one memecoin, namely $KOKO, KoalaAI.
The hacker then sold everything into ETH and BNB.


https://x.com/wiseadvicesumit/status/1836952370909172050

In some announcements on Bingx, they said that all the assets affected by the hackers have been returned,
but in fact there is no return of anything and they ignore it.


$KOKO lost $300k worth of coins in the hack, but there was no return whatsoever to recover its price back.
It may also happen to other affected coins, but they seem to have solved the problem, yet they open up a new problem.


https://x.com/KoalaAIvip/status/1843200758285533267

So, there is already a strong reason not to store the Coin on a centralized exchange,
even though there are some SAFU guarantees that in the end it will not work for every CEX and BingX as the CEX is already committing a lie.

[Kemarit]

For a change, since most of us here recommend not storing Bitcoin on an exchange because of the "not your keys, not your coins" principle, let's flip the script. Although using a hardware wallet is advised, it’s not 100% foolproof either—sometimes we make mistakes, like our devices getting compromised, often due to user errors.

So, let’s have a little debate to test everyone's knowledge here: defend why we should store our Bitcoin on an exchange instead of a hardware wallet. Enjoy!

Still boils down to trust, do you think that our Bitcoin is 1:1 from exchanges, SAFU? We even have a practice proof of reserves to try to get out our crypto, not just Bitcoin. And others say that they will make money like in a year? But can you sleep well at night knowing that it's not really a good practice to keep it, regardless of what argument we have for exchanges to hold our coins.

And proof of reserves doesn't mean nothing, and it's a bad practice as it has already a lot of exchanges has been hack and their customers suffering. So for me, The risk/reward ratio of leaving any amount of crypto (maybe for trading) on exchanges are too high.

[Sketchytum]

To me both exchange storage and hardware wallets have their pros and cons. Exchanges offer convenience and access to features like instant trades, staking, and especially those seeking liquidity and quick trading access. However, they also comes with it own disadvantages with breaches but BingX handled it better with the recent event, The exchange promised that no users will face loss and they have been doing all the necessary things to fulfil those promises.

However, hardware wallets provide greater security, particularly against online threats, by keeping private keys offline. That said, they can be complex to set up and may not suit everyone.

It’s all about balancing security and convenience, Diversifying between both options and depending on personal convenience which might be the safest route to protect your BTC in the long run.