Today we will be talking about 3 different top Cryptocurrency exchanges that all offer essentially the same thing in slightly different models. We can break it up into 3 main components.

1. Relevant information pertaining to the exchanges and their native tokens.

2. Advantages to holding each of the exchanges tokens.

3. Basics of past and future Initial Exchange Offerings (IEO) and platform information.

As a bonus we will have a look at a newly released exchange that holds a lot of promise moving forward.

*All figures are accurate as of the 3rd of April 2019

1.Binance

Binance was launched in July of 2017 and is probably the exchange that has recently become the most synonymous with cryptocurrency trading. They have a 24 hour adjusted volume of $2,467,274,433 and currently offer 460 markets. Their native token is called Binance coin (BNB) and it is currently trading at $19.28 USD or 0.00391796 BTC. BNB is the 6th largest Cryptocurrency by market cap.

The main advantages to holding BNB is it’s effect on your trading fees. Without holding BNB your trading fees are 0.1%, with BNB your fees are 0.075%. It doesn’t sounds like a lot but any and every edge you can get with a trade is worth taking advantage of. I have my bag of BNB that i use for the discount on trading fees and just as a means of digital asset holdings as I believe in the Binance exchange and what they are trying to do. The next fascinating thing that your BNB holdings can give you access to is the Binance Launchpad. Binance Launchpad is an IEO (Initial Exchange Offering) platform which is essentially an ICO (Initial Coin Offering) that is conducted on a Cryptocurrency exchange. Because the offering is conducted by the exchange there is a much larger amount of perceived trust in transaction. The exchange screens every project that seeks to launch an IEO on it’s platform. This is one of the many ways that an IEO has a huge advantage in the crypto marketplace in relation to the traditional ICO model. Ultimately an IEO is the evolution of the ICO, creating a situation where scams will find it increasingly difficult if not impossible to get any traction or sales. This will in turn help the IEO’s with real use cases and actual development projects move forward and prosper.

Recently Binance Launchpad IEO’s have included:

BitTorrent (BTT) which is a Tron-affiliated blockchain project for peer-to-peer file sharing, empowering a new generation of content creators with the tools to distribute their content directly to others on the web. BitTorrent’s new BTT token will allow BitTorrent peers to incentivize activities that lead to better file sharing, like using faster networks and enabling longer seeding periods. BitTorrent currently has 100 million monthly active users (MAU) across 138 countries. BNB and TRX were used to purchase BTT in two separate sales and it was completed in under 15 minutes selling 26,670,000,000 BTT raising $7,200,000.

Fetch.ai (FET) brings together machine learning (“ML”), artificial intelligence (“AI”), multi-agent systems, and decentralized ledger technology to create an economic internet — an environment where digital representatives of the economy’s moving parts (such as data, hardware, services, people and infrastructure) can get useful work done through effective introductions and predictions. This sale was completed in under 12 minutes selling 69,204,152 FET raising $6,000.000.

Celer (CELR) is a layer-2 scaling platform that enables fast, easy and secure off-chain transactions for not only payment transactions, but also generalized off-chain smart contracts. This sale was completed in under 18 minutes selling 597,014,925 CELR raising $4,000,000.

The next Binance Launchpad which starts on the 24th of April is for Matic (MATIC) which is a layer 2 scaling solution that achieves scale by utilizing side-chains for off-chain computation, while ensuring asset security using the Plasma framework and a decentralized network of Proof-of-Stake (PoS) validators.

Note: the next Binance launchpad project is being offered on a lottery based system for participants instead of a first come first serve basis like previous Launchpad sales.

Binance has also developed its own DEX (Decentralized Exchange) which will allow users to trade cryptocurrencies while retaining full custody of their own funds. This is a big deal and it will be interesting to see what happens with it moving forward. Binance has really impressed me with it’s forward thinking developments and new and exciting side projects. It’s really more than just a cryptocurrency exchange and incorporates an academy for crypto education, a blockchain based charity, a cryptocurrency information platform, a funding incubator for top blockchain projects and a research arm that provides institutional grade analysis and reports.

Join Binance to buy BNB or start trading cryptocurrency pairs here

2. KuCoin

KuCoin was launched in August of 2017 and as of recently has quite a bit of hype surrounding it’s offerings. They have a 24 hour adjusted volume of $45,448,000 USD and currently offer 396 markets. Their native token is called KuCoin Shares (KCS) and it’s currently trading at $2.09 USD or 0.00042683 BTC. KCS is the 44th largest Cryptocurrency by market cap.

The advantages of holding KCS like BNB is a discount on trading fees. The discount structure is different and depends on how many KCS you hold but averages out to somewhere close to 0.09% among traders. The other lovely thing about holding KCS is taking advantage of a dividend paid out on a daily basis. Over a year it works out to about 4%.

Kucoin is also getting in on the IEO action with KuCoin Spotlight. Their first offering is scheduled to go on sale on the 3rd of April. The Project is called Multivac (MTV) which is developing the world’s first quick, efficient, and fully sharded blockchain. Sharding is not only used for computation, but also transmission and storage, maximizing throughput while maintaining decentralization, all without sacrificing security.

KuCoin is in my mind one of the up and comers in the exchange space, they seem to adopt and implement a lot of the most successful features from other exchanges very quickly and they listen to the feedback offered by their users and implement changes efficiently.

Join KuCoin to buy KCS or start trading cryptocurrency pairs on KuCoin by clicking here

3. Huobi Global

Huobi Global was launched in September 2013 and is one of the oldest Cryptocurrency exchanges. They have a 24 hour adjusted volume of $1,966,512,023 and currently offer 417 markets. Their native token is called Huobi token (HT) and is currently trading at $2.89 USD or 0.00058945 BTC. HT is the 52nd largest cryptocurrency by market cap.

Like Binance BNB and KuCoin KCS holding Huobi HT offers discounted trading fees. Again their discount structure is slightly more complex and offers those with purchasing and trading power more discount. In this exchange you purchase your discount by buying the HT token. This starts at 120 HT to receive a 10% discount, all the way up to 12,000 HT to receive a 50% discount, these are on a monthly basis. With no trading discount the standard fees are 0.2%.

Unsurprisingly Huobi is launching it’s own IEO platform called Huobi Prime. Their initial launch offering was on the 27th of March and was a project called Top Network (TOP). TOP aims to build a business-friendly blockchain platform that handles real-word business of any type, size or volume on the blockchain. This was an IEO based on a first come first serve basis and was sold out in less than 20 seconds selling 1,500,000,000 TOP raising $15,000,000.

Join Huobi to buy KCS or start trading cryptocurrency pairs on Huobi by clicking here

Bonus:

Bitmax is one of the newer exchanges in operation by has been gathering a huge following since it’s release in July of 2018. They have a 24 hour adjusted volume of $167,672,998 USD and currently offer 91 markets. Their native token is known at Bitmax Token (BTMX) and is currently trading at $0.11 or 0.00002219 BTC. BTMX is the 1805th largest cryptocurrency by market cap.

The major difference of this exchange is the way that it charges it’s fees. It has come up with something called Trans-fee mining. We have a good understanding of how Binance, KuCoin and Huobi charge trading fees, Bitmax differs in the fact that they rebate your trading fees back into your account in the form of BTMX tokens.

Here is an example:

So if a trader executes a trade of $25.00 and has to pay 0.05% of $25.00 (which is $1.25) as a trading fee, this 0.05% or $1.25 (9.61 BTMX) will be credited to trader’s account in the form of BitMax tokens.

Join BitMax to buy KCS or start trading cryptocurrency to earn KCS on Bitmax by clicking here

Conclusion: A lot of alt coins are coupled with Bitcoin when it comes to price. It’s a longstanding relationship that a majority of cryptocurrencies and assets have, but for how long? Unfortunately, a majority of the public are still not aware that cryptocurrencies other than Bitcoin exist. It is really important that we come to the realization that these alternative coins including exchange tokens/coins have use cases that far surpass what an exchange is meant to accomplish and what Bitcoin was initially designed to achieve. What you may think Bitcoins ultimate use case depends on how you look at it, a digital store of value is high on my list of where it will end up. I don’t think you can ignore the value that the exchanges possess in relation to the adoption of cryptocurrencies and the legitimacy of new offerings of blockchain and crypto assets projects. I hope this article has brought a small amount of clarity to you in regards to what is happening within the Cryptocurrency space in relation to the evolution of the Cryptocurrency exchange.

*Disclaimer*

I am not a financial advisor nor am I giving financial advice. I am sharing my biased opinion based off speculation. You should not take my opinion as financial advice. You should always do your research before making any investment. You should also understand the risks of investing. This is all speculative based investing.

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In some cases by signing up for websites and purchasing digital assets after clicking on links through this page I will receive commissions and compensation. I make every endeavour to do as much research as possible before posting any products/platforms on this page to ensure they meet my high standard relating to positive use cases.

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