> (and finance in general) users tend to leave their assets with the exchange At least in the normal exchanges that I'm familiar with, traders post collateral

> (and finance in general) users tend to leave their assets with the exchange At least in the normal exchanges that I'm familiar with, traders post collateral with brokers who then present it to the exchange. The assets themselves are held with depositories and trades are settled by clearing houses. Crypto exchanges subsume the roles of what should be independent entities. When temptation strikes, this makes misappropriation much easier.