All terms
A centralized exchange, where a company holds your funds and matches trades.
A centralized exchange runs an order book internally and custodies your assets. You get a familiar account, customer support, fiat deposits and fast trading, in return for trusting the operator.
That trust has been broken before, spectacularly. The phrase not your keys, not your coins came from exchanges failing while holding customer funds.
Coinbase, Binance.US and Kraken are centralized exchanges. They are the sensible place to convert dollars, and a poor place to store long term holdings.
That an exchange balance is your crypto. It is a database entry and a claim on a company. That can be perfectly fine and it is a different asset from a coin you hold the keys to, as the customers of several exchanges discovered.
Common questions
Is my money safe on an exchange?
Why do exchanges ask for identity documents?
Where to go next
More defi terms
Want this explained out loud?
Some of these land faster in conversation than in writing. Sessions are one to one and you can ask anything, including the things that feel too obvious to ask.