I don't know about your brokerage, but my fidelity cash management account sweeps money into a set of FDIC insured bank accounts, which is a hell of a lot more than can be said for your coins. And anything that is parked in a security is protected by SIPC from the brokerage going insolvent.

What will happen to your assets if coinbase's systems become inoperable or if customers try to withdraw more coins than coinbase has on hand? Ask Mtgox customers how they feel about where to park coins.

If I could withdraw thousands of dollars in cash from IB instantly and put them in a secure hardware wallet where they take no space, you bet I would do it every time I was done trading.

In many cases it is probably goood choice to keep the coins in custodial, but the fact that you have a possibility for self-custody is great.

It’s not a trope. It’s being realistic about the problems and advantages of crypto. Problem: Counterparty risk from crypto exchanges is much, much higher than that of traditional banking. Advantage: Self-custody of crypto is much more secure than stuffing stock certificates under your mattress. Solution: Exchange crypto on crypto exchanges. But, don’t rely on them for custody any longer than necessary.

The amount of bitcoin on exchanges - including Coinbase - is at an all time low.

People are learning the paradigm of self-custody, which the blockchain supports.

You can stick with DTCC freezing markets, we arent.

I trust Vanguard.

I don't trust the exchanges in the cryptocurrency world, coinbase maybe excepted.

I'm not sure how you can pull stocks from an exchange once you're done trading.

Personally, I deposit coins into an exchange, do my trade and withdraw it as soon as possible. Not just because I think there's a risk they might get hacked, etc, I also don't want them to hold my funds later on for reason x,y,z.

It's great that you _can_ do this, but... a lot of times it does not make sense.

Still, the option to do so is very important and valuable.

Would you ever want a paper stock certificate? https://www.giveashare.com/stock.asp?buy=google-stock

Obligatory: https://notyourkeys.org