According to the global cryptocurrency exchange rankings released by Blockchain Transparency Institute (BTI), Binance emerges as the top player. Binance leaves behind popular Asian cryptocurrency exchanges like OKEx and Huobi.
The rankings also provide a varied amount of information. It includes the trading volume, web visitors, the number of active users, and the API volume. Binance surpassed OKEx with a huge margin with its 24-hour trading volumes clocking over $1 billion and its 24-hour web users going above 160,000.
Questionable Exchange Practices on Low Market Cap Tokens
In the last two years, many cryptocurrency projects have released their digital tokens through Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs). However, there is also a simultaneous growth in other shady practices like hidden listing fees. Moreover, there is also an ongoing controversy regarding the questionable high-volumes of low market cap tokens.
To come clean on this matter, Binance announced last month that it will donate all of its listing fees to charity. As a result, all of the funds will flow through a non-profit Blockchain Charity Foundation established by Binance itself.
However, the researchers from the Blockchain Transparency Institute (BTI) mention that several exchanges are targeting tokens with a low market cap. These exchanges fake trading volumes to create hype around newly listed tokens.
“We also found many of these exchanges to be preying on low market cap coins which are desperate for the recognition and volume of a top 10 or 25 exchange. In many of the crypto projects we spoke with, this also involves supplying the exchange with a large amount of tokens which are then used to massively inflate volume numbers on CMC, luring in prospective traders from other exchanges with much lower, but real volume,” the BTI team said.
BTI Bringing Legitimacy Back Into the Market
However, as shown above, not all exchanges are involved in such foul play. Top exchanges like Binance are demanding high listing fees in the range of 5 BTC to 60 BTC.
Such high listing fee will help curb the questionable practices of hidden listing fees. The Blockchain Transparency Institute (BTI) presents details of several exchanges involved in such ignoble activity. The BTI surveyed the top 100 exchanges by trading volumes as listed on CoinMarketCap. BTI notes that several of them were “using wash trading to gain a marketing advantage over their competitors.”
“We found many of these exchanges gaining 80-90% of their referral web traffic from CMC alone. In our recent token project interviews, we have found this allows these exchanges to ask from 5 BTC all the way up to 60 BTC for listing fees.”
Risk Disclosure
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