The world’s largest equity markets, such as the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and the Nasdaq, are demanding $ 225,000 to $ 300,000 in initial public offerings and an annual fee of $ 70,000. Bitcoin exchanges charge $ 500,000 to $ 1 million to list digital assets, which is a much simpler process than stock ticking.

Crypto-currency exchange are king

In the cryptocurrency market, ICOs are considered a goldmine for entrepreneurs. High liquidity from the public market means that start-ups can raise millions to billions of dollars without having to restrict their tokens to approved investors.

But you have to bring the tokens on exchanges, so that they can be traded. A listing fee is required for a blockchain project to initiate a token sale and release of the digital asset. Often, trading platforms charge between $ 500,000 and $ 1 million, while others also accept token payments.

In an interview with Business Insider, Michael Jackson, partner at New York’s venture capital firm Mangrove Partners, revealed that he had previously led an ICO project. When he tried to trade his token, he was asked to pay listing fees ranging from $ 50,000 to $ 1 million, depending on the size and liquidity of the crypto market.

Based on the current structure of the cryptocurrency market, Jackson said the exchanges are having a significant impact on the market and projects are desperately trying to roll out their tokens to satisfy investors and generate big price gains.

“Basically there are a lot of people who want their coins listed. The exchanges are where the liquidity is — it’s where the money is — so that’s where the power is just at the moment. Investors are hoping to make money on it. They’ve got to be able to trade it and a lot of [ICOs] are almost promising their investors that, which is kind of dangerous.”

Problem with the structure

The problem with the current structure of the cryptocurrency market is, as Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao emphasized, that both investors and blockchain projects seek massive short-term gains that benefit early investors and the tokens of investors entering the project via public exchanges, unload.

To gain liquidity, projects are prepared to pay more than $ 100 million, as in the case of Ripple to Coinbase, creating a bubble-like ecosystem in the token market.

Oliver Bussmann, the former CIO of UBS, which currently runs a consulting firm, said most ICOs are willing to pay several million dollars in fees to be listed on major exchanges like Binance and Bithumb, which is usually short term a two to five-fold increase in value of the token leads.

“If you prepare for an ICO, you have to prepare for a listing. It’s important to get access to liquidity. That means the bigger the exchange is, the more effort and also more cost to get listed.”

Fake volumes for market manipulation

Roy Huang, co-founder of Fresco Network, the world’s first Blockchain Art Asset Network, recently announced that a Top 30 crypto exchange has offered Fresco bots to create fake volumes to artificially inflate the cryptocurrency.

The process of listing digital assets on exchanges may look similar to the NYSE and Nasdaq — but investors are willing to pay significantly more than conventional stocks in anticipation of an immediate payout. In addition, unlawful tactics such as falsifying volumes is at best an insincere method of generating new interest. The market is currently crying out for regulation.