Buy vs Exchange

The act of exchanging traditional currency (fiat) or other cryptocurrencies for a specific cryptocurrency, resulting in ownership of digital assets that are stored in your wallet and can increase or decrease in value based on market conditions.

A platform facilitating cryptocurrency buying, selling, and trading, either through centralized services managing transactions and custody (like Coinbase or Binance) or decentralized protocols enabling peer-to-peer trading through smart contracts without intermediaries (like Uniswap or dYdX).