Bitcoin you hold the private keys to is real Bitcoin.
Bitcoin held on centralized exchanges is paper Bitcoin.
There is no way to know how many of these exchanges are engaging in fractional reserve banking with Bitcoin, but I'd wager my whole stack that it's a non-zero number.
I'd wager it is 99% of them don't hold the whole stock, Binance included.
I also have a strong feeling that the exchanges are engaging in some serious fuckary. If that is true, I don't know how it's going to play out. But, I do push every newcoiner I know to get their BTC off of the exchanges as quickly as possible.
Charging high withdrawal fees is a red flag. If you're having to pay more than a standard network fee to withdraw your Bitcoin from the exchange, there is surely some fuckery afoot. I'd rather lose 2.5% on the spread buying from an exchange service like Moonpay that sends the Bitcoin directly to a wallet that I control. No custody needed.
That's an excellent point.
I mean, if someone is trading, I get charging a fee. That's what the service the exchange is providing. (I'm not a trader, but that's just my decision based on knowing my own risk tolerances and personal preferences). I don't have a problem with fees for buying. But, fees to remove and self custody your assets that aren't a function of the network itself seem pretty sketchy.
Some of these exchanges charge Bitcoin withdrawal fees that are around $50 worth of Bitcoin. It's as bad as or worse than a USD wire transfer. Bitcoin is not expensive to move. $1.50 is usually enough to get you into the next block.
Before the next bull run (I've found that during the FOMO of bull runs I have the best opportunities to talk with people about bitcoin) I need to assemble a good list of wallets and non-KYC avenues to buy.
Although it's a multi-coin wallet, Edge wallet is a great light self-custody wallet for noobs. It has multiple purchase integrations built into it and can even help them locate Bitcoin ATMs. It's a decent security model. Your private keys are in an encrypted file secured by a passphrase. There's one copy of it on your phone and one copy stored on the Edge servers. If the user needs to restore their wallet, their username downloads the key file and their passphrase decrypts it. The app has features like biometric lock on it too, unlike most of these crappy lightning wallet apps.
