How do you guys buy your Bitcoin? What exchange do you use?
Do you use Coinbase? Or do you have an offline wallet?
Do you use Coinbase? Or do you have an offline wallet?
In terms of exchanges, there are many alternatives to Coinbase which you should look into. Coinbase has some sketchy history like insider trading, blocking Wikileaks without giving reasonable explanation, several times they've turned off their markets when conditions aren't favorable to them (sudden price drops). They're also not able to keep up with the technology as they've lagged way behind many of the other exchanges when it comes to implementing technical updates like segwit, bech32 addresses, transaction batching. God only knows how long it will take them (if ever) to be ready for the Lightning Network.
If someone only wants to buy, say, $100 worth of bitcoin just to get their foot in the door and they don't put in the time to research how to keep their local wallet secure and make sure their computer/phone has not been hacked, they're very likely better off keeping that small amount of bitcoin with a service like Coinbase (and set up 2fa!)
Of course if you play with bigger amounts, and you take the time to educate yourself further about taking custody of your own funds, then I completely agree with what you've said.
I also used Kraken in the past but now I actively avoid any exchange which deals in Tether, as they've repeatedly failed to produce an audit to show that the money actually exists.
Honestly if you don't buy a huge amount of Bitcoin, the exchange is just fine, since you can trade readily without much hassle. It's always good to have your own secure offline wallet though.