I thought the idea of crypto was to get away from this.
Ripple is already working with banks to use their payment system, NODE will be playing catchup.
The key difference here is distribution. Ripple holds I believe 95% of coins in one hand, correct me if I'm wrong.
NODE is distributed more evenly, way more.
Devs put 5 Million NODE bounty for an exchange and you will see Poloniex adding NODE. we need big exchange with more volume.
With a more general idea released of what NODE team is trying to do, personally I rather see Poloniex and Bittrex exchanges add NODE on their own without being bought out.
These exchanges are usually meant for P&D coins, hence a lot of the volume on there is from pumpers not actual people invested in the project. One look at their trollbox and you can tell what kind of mentality runs those exchanges.
There is no reason why Alcurex couldn't hold large volume, the difference here is that what Alcurex brings to the table is also long term stability and not just a P&D scheme exchange (from what I can gather on the info).
NODE is more of a "let's see where we're at in 6 months to 1+ year", not a "I want to hedge profits and move on to the next thing" coin.
The bounties should be reserved for those that help out the project advance.