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Topic: Where do so many bitcoin exchanges get the money to stay open? (Read 1847 times)

Q7
sr. member
Activity: 448
Merit: 250
Maybe you underestimated the trade volume. Sometimes just by sitting in front of the computer and looking at the screen you can just see how fast the numbers run every minute. Plus the money parked in exchangers could be used for other things. That's why insolvency is one issue.
full member
Activity: 196
Merit: 100
Some Bitcoin exchanges work more for fun, not for profit. Owners just like to be in BTC world  Wink
hahaha,,that's right if you want to profit, playing trading, not exchanger  Cheesy
legendary
Activity: 1316
Merit: 1481
I wouldn't be surprised if a couple of exchanges are running on fractional reserves. Proving their solvency is an important step for me.

No man! I'm sorry but I think that most of them use that system. The have this option and I think they use it.

Please refer to this thread: it is always good to know this kind of things.

 Wink

https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/dataexchanges-their-way-of-using-a-fractional-reserve-and-generate-inflation-945881
hero member
Activity: 854
Merit: 1009
JAYCE DESIGNS - http://bit.ly/1tmgIwK
Well even the smallest exchange has a daily volume of 50 BTC.

So that is a 0.2% fee on 50 BTC, so basically the exchange is earning at least 0.1 BTC/day, which is pretty good.
legendary
Activity: 896
Merit: 1000
The whole big fee with exchange thing wont change though. But maybe gemini will run things differently?

OR else how would the exchange stay afloat, it needs a certain amount of fees to cover overhead costs and then also provide fiat or bitcoin when people want it as well.

can't think of a reason of why gemini would run its exchange without fee. maybe only at the very beginning as a promotion for joining people. i find a fee between 0.1-0.2% reasonable and fair. 
legendary
Activity: 1134
Merit: 1000
Some Bitcoin exchanges work more for fun, not for profit. Owners just like to be in BTC world  Wink

Hahaha. You make me laugh. Very funny. You tell that some people invest money in a business only for fun? I don't know if you are joking or you believe in this but this sentence it is very strange. I can't believe this never.
hero member
Activity: 826
Merit: 1000
The whole big fee with exchange thing wont change though. But maybe gemini will run things differently?

OR else how would the exchange stay afloat, it needs a certain amount of fees to cover overhead costs and then also provide fiat or bitcoin when people want it as well.
legendary
Activity: 2590
Merit: 3014
Welt Am Draht
Big volume of bitcoin is give Big fee in trading
and he take profit from that way Roll Eyes

I assume the OP is referencing all the piddly exchanges out there, and there's no shortage of them.

legendary
Activity: 1120
Merit: 1000
Big volume of bitcoin is give Big fee in trading
and he take profit from that way Roll Eyes
legendary
Activity: 1988
Merit: 1012
Beyond Imagination
They must be paying employees out of their equity capital.
It is not uncommon for businesses to take a long time before they break even.

Exactly, in today's business environment where everything is over-produced, if you can't afford to continuously lose money for 5 years, you won't be able to get enough large market share so that you can have a chance to take customer from those established ones
hero member
Activity: 854
Merit: 1009
JAYCE DESIGNS - http://bit.ly/1tmgIwK
Some Bitcoin exchanges work more for fun, not for profit. Owners just like to be in BTC world  Wink

Many exchanges work to scam people. For example there are rumors that a well known exchange is rigging their orderbooks, and then scamming newbie traders with their own ICO shitcoins.

So if they get only 0.5% from trading comissions, they load the big bucks from their internal scams. And then once and a while a "hacking" scam happens, and they outright steal half of the money of their customers, then they apologize and say that "we will uppgrade our security".

Eventually if all things get too hot, then they pull their exit scam by disguising another "hacking" or "ddos" and running with all the money.

Then next time you see the site is down, domain sold, e-mail address closed, and the owner run to some carribean island with all the stolen money he robbed from newbies.
hero member
Activity: 658
Merit: 500
Some Bitcoin exchanges work more for fun, not for profit. Owners just like to be in BTC world  Wink
hero member
Activity: 910
Merit: 1000
I wouldn't be surprised if a couple of exchanges are running on fractional reserves. Proving their solvency is an important step for me.
legendary
Activity: 1134
Merit: 1000
I believe most exchanges have had a negative cash flow for most of their existence,

I don't believe this. It is a non sense. If this would be true then why those would exist? The major groups behind those can operate with lose without having any profit or the miners which wanted to change their coins cannot go in lost for to much time. In the begining maybe yes but then where is the sense? If they will continue to lose continuously money why remain open?
legendary
Activity: 1582
Merit: 1064
They must be paying employees out of their equity capital.
It is not uncommon for businesses to take a long time before they break even.
hero member
Activity: 854
Merit: 1009
JAYCE DESIGNS - http://bit.ly/1tmgIwK
There's so many bitcoin exchanges that have been open for months, if not years, that make so little in fees that they could barely afford to pay a single employee for a month.

What am I missing here? A lot of exchanges charge around 0.2-0.5% per trade, which, to even make $50k off of in a year, the exchange would need to do 10 million in trade volume. This instantly excludes all but the top exchanges. What about the majority of the other exchanges? I could see one computer software engineer alone setting up his/her own exchange with some hard work, but managing one with all the needed security, customer support requests, just seems implausible to do alone. I must be missing something.

Well think again, operating a few hosted SERVERS and a domain costs less than 200-300$/year for a startup exchange.

Yet you see whales trading there 10 btc in every small exchange, so thats like 0.05 whale trade, and I bet they earn atleast 30 btc/year, even if you have a few guys trading.

Not to mention they put a few more ads on the page, and its resolved.


You dont need millions of $ to operate an altcoin exchange. Just look at yobit, its a low budget exchange, yet whales there trade 10-20 btc.
legendary
Activity: 1988
Merit: 1012
Beyond Imagination
Because there are just too many fiat money out there, bitcoin is just a fun game in the eyes of rich people

Some rich kids with a pocket change could open an exchange and set a 100k bitcoin buy wall and forget about it and go for his vacation
legendary
Activity: 1456
Merit: 1023
These companies need a money to start the online site but after that if they get more traders then they will pay the fee for each transaction that will be big money for them. If they fail to attract many people then those will close.
hero member
Activity: 700
Merit: 501
a lot of early adopters have a lot of money to invest on infrastructure and marketing which results in a lot of people using their exchange which results in lots of fees per transaction = making a lot of money.
I have no idea how new people start new exchanges without being already well off.
legendary
Activity: 3066
Merit: 1047
Your country may be your worst enemy
I believe most exchanges have had a negative cash flow for most of their existence, but that's the case of many companies offering new services or technologies. Launching a start-up is tough, especially if they've written their business plan when BTC was over $1,000. I guess they've started with little capital though. They were miners and the first BTC they've sold were those they've mined.
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