When you deposit into a custodial CEX, the company controls the private keys for the addresses holding the assets. Your account displays a ledger balance administered under the platform's terms.
Custody, deposits, and withdrawals
- A deposit moves assets from an external address to the CEX infrastructure.
- The visible balance is an internal record, not a private key handed to the user.
- A trade inside the CEX may settle on its internal ledger.
- Withdrawal is a separate instruction to send the asset to an external wallet and may depend on network availability, reviews, or limits.
Illustrative example
- You send USDC from your wallet to the displayed deposit address.
- The CEX credits the balance after its required confirmations.
- To return to self-custody, you provide your address, network, and amount and request a withdrawal.
Counterparty risk
Depending on a company does not mean a problem will occur, but it adds risks that do not exist in the same form with self-custody: outages, reviews, restrictions, or operational failures can delay access or withdrawals.
Always check the destination address and network. A withdrawal to a wallet is a separate blockchain transaction from a trade made inside the CEX.