A Crypto CEO has revealed to his twitter audience that the project has been asked to pay 400 Bitcoin to have their token listed on the Binance exchange.
It has long been rumoured that the top exchanges ask for ridiculous sums to feature on their platform, but today’s revelation is possibly the first public evidence.
Even in today’s extremely reduced bear market, 400 Bitcoins is worth 2.6m USD and 2.2m Euro. At the peak of the bull market when Bitcoin hit $20,000, the figure represented a staggering 8m USD (6.9m Euro).
https://twitter.com/FrankoCurrency/status/1027191274682638336?s=19
The announcement came from Christopher Franko, Co-Founder of Expanse, a hard-fork of Ethereum that claims to be stable.
Binance’s exorbitant listing fees are likely a driving factor behind the company’s astronomical profits – the company is on track to make $1b USD in 2018. Alongside listing fees, the exchange profits from exchange fees and its native token BNB, which has soared to a market valuation of $1.1b, making it the 16th most valuable cryptocurrency according to market cap.
It has also been speculated by a Reddit user that the company uses the massive listing fee to make further profit, buying up the newly listed token and controlling the market:
As Jeff Goldblum would say,
“Community wants listing, community gives Binance 400 BTC. Binance buys shitcoin with 400 BTC, allows hype to rise in community. Binance sells shitcoin and now has 800 BTC. Binance inherits the Earth.”
Whether this practice is widespread, or even accurate is not verifiable and pure speculation, and one would imagine there must be some regulatory oversight to prevent such market manipulation.
True or not, the user does raise legitimate concerns regarding the extreme amounts of power being gathered by the leading cryptocurrency service providers, with Binance leading the pack.
As long as the service continues to provide an easy, affordable and seemingly secure experience however, it seems unlikely cryptocurrency traders will move elsewhere.
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