Are Cryptocurrency Exchanges The Real Winners Here?

A report has suggested that the most popular cryptocurrency exchanges are bringing in as much profit as $3 million per day. When you think that the whole market is still a relatively new one, only starting in 2009, this is very impressive. The exchanges make their money by charging fees to those who buy, sell and withdraw cryptocurrencies; so, with this in mind, why are some more profitable than others? It appears that Asian based cryptocurrency exchanges see the most profits. Binance, based in Tokyo, and OKEx, in Hong Kong, are seeing more than $1.7 billion being traded each day. They are closely followed by Huobi, Bitfinex, Upbit and Bithumb. When you consider that over 50% of the worlds daily crypto trading is done on Asia-based exchanges, it really is no surprise that these are the most profitable. There are reasons other than popularity that mean that Asian exchanges see the most profit. They have very low energy costs, which mean mining is far cheaper than in other countries; they already have a well-established economy that has been based on mobile payments, and finally, they have a very large gaming culture, which has made tokens more acceptable. There is nothing to say that the most popular ones will stay that way in the future. As with everything, newer exchanges are hitting the market, that is taking the good points from the best performing ones, and improving them some more. For example, Robinhood, a US based cryptocurrency exchange aims to become the top exchange by offering zero fees; but top performing ones like Binance are biting back and introducing other ways to stay relevant, including decentralisation, fiat-to-crypto exchanges and incentivising investments. It is too early to tell how the high volatility will affect crypto trading volumes in 2018; however, it has been predicted that the combination of innovative strategies and an increase in the number of cryptos that are listed, the top performing exchanges will stay up there among the best. Featured Image Source: Pixabay