[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"safety-exchanges":3,"safety-incidents":101,"safety-coin-guides":152},[4,26,42,58,73,87],{"slug":5,"name":6,"grade":7,"summary":8,"factors":9},"exchange-alpha","Exchange Alpha","A-","Sets the bar most exchanges don't reach: verifiable reserves, disclosed custody, and real licensing instead of a registration filing.",[10,14,17,20,23],{"key":11,"status":12,"note":13},"por","pass","Independently attested proof-of-reserves, refreshed quarterly",{"key":15,"status":12,"note":16},"custody","About 95% of customer assets in cold, multi-signature storage",{"key":18,"status":12,"note":19},"regulation","Licensed — not just registered — in three major jurisdictions",{"key":21,"status":12,"note":22},"insurance","Maintains a third-party-audited insurance fund",{"key":24,"status":12,"note":25},"incidents","No major security incidents on record",{"slug":27,"name":28,"grade":29,"summary":30,"factors":31},"exchange-beta","Exchange Beta","B","Good custody hygiene and a clean record, but stops short of full independent verification.",[32,35,37,39,41],{"key":11,"status":33,"note":34},"warn","Reserves published, but self-attested rather than independently audited",{"key":15,"status":12,"note":36},"Cold-storage majority disclosed with a public breakdown",{"key":18,"status":33,"note":38},"Registered as a money-services business, not licensed as an exchange",{"key":21,"status":12,"note":40},"Carries a disclosed insurance fund",{"key":24,"status":12,"note":25},{"slug":43,"name":44,"grade":45,"summary":46,"factors":47},"exchange-gamma","Exchange Gamma","C+","The grade an average exchange earns: reasonable marketing, thin disclosure. This is also the sample profile shown in our homepage safety-grade explainer.",[48,50,52,54,57],{"key":11,"status":33,"note":49},"Self-reported only — no independent attestation",{"key":15,"status":33,"note":51},"No public breakdown of hot vs. cold storage",{"key":18,"status":33,"note":53},"Registered, not licensed",{"key":21,"status":55,"note":56},"fail","No disclosed insurance fund",{"key":24,"status":12,"note":25},{"slug":59,"name":60,"grade":61,"summary":62,"factors":63},"exchange-delta","Exchange Delta","C-","Transparent about a past incident, but reserves remain a black box.",[64,66,68,70,71],{"key":11,"status":55,"note":65},"No reserves disclosure of any kind",{"key":15,"status":33,"note":67},"Claims a cold-storage majority with no supporting detail",{"key":18,"status":33,"note":69},"Registered in one market only",{"key":21,"status":55,"note":56},{"key":24,"status":33,"note":72},"One minor incident in the past 3 years, disclosed promptly and reimbursed",{"slug":74,"name":75,"grade":76,"summary":77,"factors":78},"exchange-epsilon","Exchange Epsilon","D","The profile of an exchange that's cutting corners on custody, not just disclosure.",[79,80,82,84,85],{"key":11,"status":55,"note":65},{"key":15,"status":55,"note":81},"Majority of funds reported as hot-wallet, no public breakdown",{"key":18,"status":55,"note":83},"Operating without registration in most markets it serves",{"key":21,"status":55,"note":56},{"key":24,"status":33,"note":86},"Unresolved user reports of delayed withdrawals",{"slug":88,"name":89,"grade":90,"summary":91,"factors":92},"exchange-zeta","Exchange Zeta","F","Multiple structural red flags at once — the profile we'd tell a reader to avoid.",[93,94,96,98,99],{"key":11,"status":55,"note":65},{"key":15,"status":55,"note":95},"No public custody information at all",{"key":18,"status":55,"note":97},"Unregulated in every market it serves",{"key":21,"status":55,"note":56},{"key":24,"status":55,"note":100},"A major security incident in the past 24 months with slow, incomplete user communication",[102,111,119,127,136,145],{"slug":103,"year":104,"date":105,"name":106,"category":107,"amount_label":108,"summary":109,"lesson":110},"mtgox-2014",2014,"February 2014","Mt. Gox","hack","~850,000 BTC reported missing (publicly reported estimate)","Once the exchange handling the large majority of the world's Bitcoin trades, Mt. Gox abruptly halted withdrawals and filed for bankruptcy in Japan after disclosing that hundreds of thousands of customer and company bitcoins were gone — later attributed to theft that went undetected for years.","Trading volume and market dominance are not safety signals. An exchange can look like the industry's center of gravity and still be hollowed out inside.",{"slug":112,"year":113,"date":114,"name":115,"category":107,"amount_label":116,"summary":117,"lesson":118},"bitfinex-2016",2016,"August 2016","Bitfinex","~120,000 BTC stolen (publicly reported estimate)","A security breach in Bitfinex's multi-signature wallet setup let attackers drain a large share of customer bitcoin in a single incident. The exchange spread the loss across all users' balances and later repaid affected customers over several years.","Even a widely used, multi-signature custody setup is only as strong as the systems and partners it depends on — 'multi-sig' alone isn't a safety guarantee.",{"slug":120,"year":121,"date":122,"name":123,"category":107,"amount_label":124,"summary":125,"lesson":126},"coincheck-2018",2018,"January 2018","Coincheck","~$530M in NEM (XEM) stolen (publicly reported estimate)","The Japanese exchange kept a large pool of a single token in an internet-connected hot wallet without a multi-signature setup. Attackers stole hundreds of millions of dollars' worth in one of the largest exchange hacks by value at the time.","Hot-wallet convenience has a price. The safest exchanges keep the large majority of customer funds offline, precisely so one breach can't drain everything.",{"slug":128,"year":129,"date":130,"name":131,"category":132,"amount_label":133,"summary":134,"lesson":135},"quadrigacx-2019",2019,"Early 2019","QuadrigaCX","fraud","~CA$190M in customer funds inaccessible (publicly reported estimate)","Canada's largest exchange at the time told customers it could no longer access roughly CA$190M in funds after its founder died while allegedly holding sole control of the cold-wallet keys. A later court-appointed investigation found many of the wallets had been empty long before his death, pointing to mismanagement and likely fraud rather than a pure accident.","Single-person key control is a structural failure waiting to happen — deliberate or not. A credible custodian never lets access depend on one individual.",{"slug":137,"year":138,"date":139,"name":140,"category":141,"amount_label":142,"summary":143,"lesson":144},"celsius-2022",2022,"June 2022","Celsius Network","insolvency","Withdrawals frozen for roughly $4.7B in customer assets (publicly reported estimate)","The crypto lending platform froze all customer withdrawals during a market downturn and filed for bankruptcy weeks later. Its founder was subsequently charged with, and later pleaded guilty to, fraud for misrepresenting the platform's risk to depositors.","A platform paying yield on deposits is taking risk with your money somewhere. 'Where' and 'how much' are the questions a safety review has to ask before the good times end.",{"slug":146,"year":138,"date":147,"name":148,"category":132,"amount_label":149,"summary":150,"lesson":151},"ftx-2022","November 2022","FTX","Billions of dollars in customer funds misused (publicly reported estimate)","One of the largest exchanges globally collapsed within days after reporting revealed customer deposits had been comingled with, and lent to, a sister trading firm. Its founder was later convicted on multiple counts of fraud.","Scale, celebrity endorsements and slick branding say nothing about whether customer funds are actually segregated from the company's own trading book.",[153,165,176,188,198,207],{"slug":154,"symbol":155,"name":156,"category":157,"risk_level":158,"summary":159,"reasons":160,"glossary_slug":164},"bitcoin","BTC","Bitcoin","Store of value","established","The original cryptocurrency and still the largest by market value, with over fifteen years of continuous operation and no successful attack on its core network.",[161,162,163],"Longest track record of any crypto asset by a wide margin","Most decentralized and battle-tested validator (miner) set","Still far more volatile than traditional stores of value like gold or bonds",null,{"slug":166,"symbol":167,"name":168,"category":169,"risk_level":158,"summary":170,"reasons":171,"glossary_slug":175},"ethereum","ETH","Ethereum","Smart-contract platform","The leading platform for smart contracts and decentralized apps — most of DeFi, NFTs and stablecoin activity runs on it or a network derived from it.",[172,173,174],"Large, active developer ecosystem and the deepest liquidity outside Bitcoin","Moved to proof-of-stake in 2022, cutting its energy use by well over 99%","Network fees can spike sharply during congestion, and smart-contract bugs are a real risk for anything built on top","defi",{"slug":177,"symbol":178,"name":179,"category":180,"risk_level":181,"summary":182,"reasons":183,"glossary_slug":187},"stablecoins","USDT\u002FUSDC","Stablecoins","Stablecoin","issuer-risk","Tokens designed to track the value of a fiat currency, usually the US dollar — useful for moving value without crypto's usual price swings, but you're trusting the issuer's reserves.",[184,185,186],"Value is only as solid as the issuer's reserve backing and how often it's audited","Major issuers publish reserve attestations at different frequencies and levels of detail — read them before relying on one","A stable price is not the same as a risk-free asset; issuer or regulatory problems can still break the peg","stablecoin",{"slug":189,"symbol":190,"name":191,"category":169,"risk_level":192,"summary":193,"reasons":194,"glossary_slug":164},"solana","SOL","Solana","volatile","A high-throughput blockchain built for speed and low transaction fees, popular for trading apps and consumer-facing crypto products.",[195,196,197],"Has suffered multiple network outages over its history, some lasting hours","Price has historically swung more sharply than Bitcoin or Ethereum across market cycles","Faster and growing, but with a more concentrated validator set than Ethereum today",{"slug":199,"symbol":200,"name":200,"category":201,"risk_level":192,"summary":202,"reasons":203,"glossary_slug":164},"xrp","XRP","Payments","Designed for fast, low-cost cross-border settlement, and closely tied to Ripple, the company most associated with promoting it.",[204,205,206],"Years of US regulatory uncertainty preceded a 2023 court ruling that clarified some — not all — aspects of its legal status","Price and trading volume are heavily influenced by the issuing company's own actions and announcements","Real-world payment adoption claims are easy to overstate — read past the headlines",{"slug":208,"symbol":209,"name":210,"category":211,"risk_level":212,"summary":213,"reasons":214,"glossary_slug":164},"dogecoin","DOGE","Dogecoin","Meme coin","speculative","Started in 2013 as a joke based on an internet meme, with no roadmap or scarcity mechanism comparable to Bitcoin's — its price is driven almost entirely by sentiment.",[215,216,217],"Unlimited supply — there is no maximum cap, unlike Bitcoin's fixed 21 million","Price history is dominated by social-media-driven spikes and crashes","Treat it as pure speculation on attention and sentiment, not an investment thesis"]