I can send money from a cold wallet to any address I want. An exchange is merely a full node with a user interface. To operate as an exchange there are certai

I can send money from a cold wallet to any address I want. An exchange is merely a full node with a user interface. To operate as an exchange there are certain KYC/AML rules they must follow. Setting up a node takes about 20 minutes and then letting it sync for a couple hours to a day depending on your internet. You can send crypto with as high or low as a fee as you want...it's just a manipulation of the queueing metric and which transactions miners add to the chain. With exchanges they set that for you.