Once a huge exchanger like Bitfinex fails, there will be a run on exchangers. Nowhere is safe. Never keep coins with an exchange, even if your uncle is the CEO.

Serious question (I wasn't paying attention at the time): What happened to other exchanges after MtGox collapsed? Did they also see "bank runs"?

Depends on your perspective. Prices dropped significantly because people started to prefer dollars to some extent. Several of the large exchanges that existed back then are still around, however, and others were acquired. Examples of those still around: Coinbase, Bitstamp, Bitfinex, Kraken. Sure I'm missing others.

I mention the above only to say it didn't feel like a true bank run to me at the time. People were still able to get in and out, but prices were certainly depressed. And several of the exchanges survived.

there was a huge spread between the price of bitcoin on the exchanges.

i also distinctly remember people sending money to mt gox LONG after every mention of them on the internet was followed by angry people calling them a scam.

Today's ecosystem is different in many ways. The next big exchange failure, especially it one in the US, will have a cascading effect.

Bitfinex was already hacked:

https://medium.com/@bitfinexed/bitfinex-never-repaid-their-t...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitfinex_hack

hacked != failed

Seems like exchanges should be fine as long as their books balance. Even in a “run” you would just have delays waiting for cash outs to process, they would go through eventually.

> as long as their books balance

This is a really strong assumption that I wouldn't bet on.

There is a certain irony to companies built to profit off a distributed public ledger having accounting problems.

I'd also be worried that any exchange that used tether, would realize their jig is up, and just run away with all the coin.

Binance is the best by a wide margin right now. Most stable, good tech, great job scaling, and lowest fees. The crypto market moves very fast though. “Standing the test of time” isn’t really a thing.

None of those things tell me Binance is safe. Binance is not even a year old! Low fees and the fact that their servers haven't crashed yet are hardly reassuring. Being based in China doesn't help me trust them either.

They are based in Hong Kong which has a different set of rules and legal system than mainland China.

Indeed, safety isn’t really a thing in the crypto market either.

I don't know about scaling, at least technology wise. Their trading web interface maxes out my CPU core at just 4-8 tx/s. And that's usually the time of big movements, exactly when you don't want trading interface to freeze up on you.

It also has an ERC20 token so you can become a stakeholder in its success.