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Thanks to the blockchain technology that makes them possible, crypto-assets are becoming massively successful. As with any successful industry, a multitude of security questions arise: What risks should cryptocurrency users be aware of? How can they protect themselves? What security controls should operators put in place?

Experts have identified crypto-asset exchanges as a major pain point of crypto security. Exchanges are platforms that mediate crypto-asset transactions between entities. There are several types of attacks that are successful against exchanges. In this document, we give an overview of these attacks, describe an exchange security reference architecture, and then provide a detailed list of crypto-asset exchange security best practices, administrative controls, and physical controls. This is part of an ongoing project by the Blockchain/Distributed Ledger Working Group.

Key Takeaways:

• The types of attacks that threaten crypto-asset exchanges
• The details of a centralized exchange reference architecture that applies to a broad spectrum of crypto-asset exchanges
• Crypto-asset exchange security best practices for end-users, exchange operators, and auditors
• Crypto-asset exchange administrative and physical security control measures including: legal considerations, risk management, information access management, security awareness and training, workstation security, and more

This publication is part of a larger series on Securing DLT Frameworks for Financial Institutes. If you’re interested in learning more, you can find all the papers in the series here.