Can I receive bitcoin to a cold storage device without an exchange being involved? Do I have to use for example &quot;coinbase&quot; or another exchange to receive bitcoin to a &quot;Ledger&quot; device?
Answer to the title question

Can I receive bitcoin to a cold storage device without an exchange being involved?

Yes, you can.

Do I have to use for example &quot;coinbase&quot; or another exchange to receive bitcoin to a &quot;Ledger&quot; device?

No, there is no requirement of using any centralized exchange. If you want to acquire bitcoin you can do it in P2P fashion. You can buy it on P2P exchange (bisq, hodlhodl) or at your local bitcoin community meetings. Or you can ask friend who already have bitcoin to either gift you some or sell it to you. Or you can earn it. So no, you don't have to use exchange, but it's the most frictionless option for most people, due to KYC process that you have to go through, stamping your identity on the coins you want to acquire.
It doesn't matter if the address is in cold storage or &quot;hot&quot; storage to be able to receive bitcoin into it. Addresses don't have to be &quot;hosted&quot; to be able to receive bitcoin.