CryptoCompare, one of the leading cryptocurrency market data aggregators has published a new review looking at how exchanges have fared in July.
The CryptoCompare July 2018 Review achieves two main objectives: Firstly it evaluates exchanges by the trade data they provide through their APIs so that the aggregated data provided by CryptoCompare is as representative of the market as possible. It secondly provides an overview of the cryptocurrency exchange market including exchange rankings by 24h volumes, coins and pairs, as well as some insight into recent developments in trans-fee mining to exchange security analyses.
Futhermore, the CryptoCoin Comparison Aggregated Index (CCCAGG) provided by CryptoCompare, aggregates transaction data from over 100 exchanges. Data from these exchanges, however can often be unpredictable or erratic due to unstable technological and legal environments, broken APIs, hackings etc.
As a result, CryptoCompare conducts a regular exchange review process to evaluate the quality of these exchanges so that those who use this pricing and volume data receive the most representative market figures.
You can view the full exchange review here, but here is an executive summary of the key findings:
Executive Summary
Volume, Pairs and Coins
Top exchanges by average 24H volume are Binance OKEX and CoinBene. Exchanges with the highest number of coins are EtherDelta, Yobit, Cryptopia. Exchanges with the highest number of pairs are Yobit, Cryptopia and CCEX. Exchanges with the highest 24hvolume-to-coins are FCoin, Coinbase and bitFlyer.
Country Analysis
By legal jurisdiction, Maltese based exchanges (Binance and OKEX) generate the highest 24 volume (~2 billion USD), followed by those in China, Vanuatu and the United Kingdom (all ~500 million USD). The highest number of exchanges are legally based in the United Kingdom (13), followed by the United States and Japan (~9 each), whereas the lowest count of exchanges includes those in Vanuatu (1), British Virgin Islands (2), Malta (3).
Pair Offerings
Crypto-Crypto only exchanges produce the highest 24h volume (~2 billion USD), followed by those that offer both Crypto-Crypto and Fiat-Crypto (1.7 billion USD) and finally those that offer only Fiat-Crypto Pairs (200 million USD). Fiat-Crypto only exchanges constitute the lowest count of total exchanges (23) compared to those that offer only crypto-crypto (45) and both fiat and crypto pairings (47).
Decentralised Exchanges
Top exchanges including Binance, HuobiPro, OKEX have all stated plans to initiate a decentralised exchange on their own respective blockchains at some point in the future. Barriers to this include but are not limited to cross chain trading limitations, security risks of smart contracts, front running risks, inefficient orderbooks and relatively high fees due to blockchain bloat. Basic Exchange
Security Indicators
The most secure exchanges based on public cold wallet policies are itBit, Coinfloor, and Quoine (100% funds in cold storage). Out of all exchanges in our dataset (~115), approximately 10.5% have been hacked at some point since their existence. Approximately 14.5% of exchanges are missing either a basic terms & conditions or privacy policy pages on their sites.
Main Exchange News in July
Transfee mining takes off, major players include FCoin, CoinEx and CoinBene reaching the top of 24h volume ranking tables. Bitfinex announces partnership with Market Synergy. Binance and OKEx announce partnerships with the Malta Stock Exchange to build a security token exchange. Bithumb recovers 14 million USD from June 20th hack. FCoin voting system inundates the Ethereum Blockchain. Bancor hacked for 23.5 million USD worth of funds on July 9th.
Trans-Fee Mining
Trans-Fee Mining (TFM) is a recent phenomenon where an exchange rebates 100% of transaction fees in the equivalent value of their own native exchange token. FCoin, CoinEx and CoinBene are top TFM players with an average 24h volume in July of 524, 438, and 407 million USD, for CoinBene, CoinEx and FCoin respectively. Criticisms include the risk of inflated volumes, scope for price manipulation, the risk of runaway funds, and likeness to an ICO.
Native Exchange Tokens
Top exchanges with their own native exchange tokens include Binance (BNB), HuobiPro (HT) and OKEX (OKB), with their tokens trading at 50.8, 31.0, 29.7 million USD respectively across all pairs. Features of native exchange tokens in general appear similar to that of TFM tokens such as transaction-fee discounts, voting rights, and buy-backs. The major distinction is the means of token creation.
