user81044: So hear me out. I understand exchanges have hot/cold wallets and mostly use their hot wallets. But at some point they need to send crypto from their cold wallet to their hot wallet.
Who does this? The CEO & only the CEO? Technically whoever holds the password to these keys could send it to any address and it not be retrievable. The person would be in a lot of trouble but the crypto would probably be unobtainable.
Even if that crypto is "insured" the insurance company would probably only be able to payout in fiat.
Basically, how do exchanges keep your crypto secure?

user119697: Nice question. I assume the following:

Most of the funds are stored in "Cold wallets".
All the transactions are made from "Hot Wallets"
There is an automatic system that detects that the hot wallets need to be recharged.

I don't think such operations are made by a human. Maybe there is a human who checks such transactions. But everything is done automatically.
We can also assume that the CEO has access to the keys and funds. But we will never be 100% sure. It's crypto. That's why different decentralized platforms like UniSwap are popular right now.

81044: <p>So hear me out. I understand exchanges have hot/cold wallets and mostly use their hot wallets. But at some point they need to send crypto from their cold wallet to their hot wallet.</p>
<p>Who does this? The CEO &amp; only the CEO? Technically whoever holds the password to these keys could send it to any address and it not be retrievable. The person would be in a lot of trouble but the crypto would probably be unobtainable.</p>
<p>Even if that crypto is &quot;insured&quot; the insurance company would probably only be able to payout in fiat.</p>
<p>Basically, how do exchanges keep your crypto secure?</p>
 119697: <p>Nice question. I assume the following:</p>
<ul>
<li>Most of the funds are stored in &quot;Cold wallets&quot;.</li>
<li>All the transactions are made from &quot;Hot Wallets&quot;</li>
<li>There is an <strong>automatic</strong> system that detects that the hot wallets need to be recharged.</li>
</ul>
<p>I don't think such operations are made by a human. Maybe there is a human who checks such transactions. But everything is done automatically.</p>
<p>We can also assume that the CEO has access to the keys and funds. But we will never be 100% sure. It's crypto. That's why different decentralized platforms like UniSwap are popular right now.</p>
