To the Bottom: Cryptocurrency Exchanges Seem Locked in Fee Rat Race
March 3, 2018 by William Peaster 0 Comment 2046 Views
A strong reputation can be the difference in millions of dollars worth of daily trading volume for cryptocurrency exchanges. And one of the biggest reputational factors for these exchanges at present is their withdrawal fees. Now it seems that some of the biggest operations in the space are racing to the bottom, and certainly users aren’t complaining.
Also see: SEC’s Broad Swoop on ICOs Has Regulation-Ready tZERO in Its Sights. But Why?
Subscribe to the Bitsonline YouTube channel for more great interviews featuring industry insiders & experts
Binance, Bitfinex, Kraken, Oh My
For everyday traders in the cryptoverse, one of the most common gripes you’ll hear is that withdrawal fees are generally painful on some of the space’s top exchanges.
And these exchanges have taken note because — well, how could they not — traders are incredibly vocal on social media. It seems as if the tide is finally tilting toward the users, as a slew of major cryptocurrency exchanges have recently announced fee adjustments.
For instance, Binance just halved their bitcoin withdrawal fees to 0.0005 BTC:
#Binance is happy to announce a 50% reduction in $BTC withdrawal fees. Effective immediately, BTC withdrawal fees are only 0.0005 BTC!
— Binance (@binance) March 1, 2018
Coincidentally or not, San Francisco-based exchange Kraken also announced their bitcoin withdrawal fees would be dropped to 0.0005 BTC just a few hours later:
Effective immediately, withdrawal fees on Bitcoin (XBT) are reduced to 0.0005, and withdrawal fees on Bitcoin Cash (BCH) are reduced to 0.0001.
— Kraken Exchange (@krakenfx) March 1, 2018
And with a trend seemingly begin to form, powerhouse exchange Bitfinex announced its own 33 percent decrease in bitcoin withdrawal fees the next morning:
We are excited to announce an additional 33.3% decrease in BTC withdrawal fees.
BTC withdrawal fees are now only 0.0004 BTC on Bitfinex. #SegWit
— Bitfinex (@bitfinex) March 2, 2018
The effects will be felt immediately, as Binance, Bitfinex, and Kraken all recently hover within the top 10 cryptocurrency exchanges by 24-hour volume, meaning they collectively facilitate a tremendous amount of trading throughput in the cryptoverse.
Look for more fee adjustments in the weeks and months ahead as more exchanges try to flex against one another.
Did Robinhood Put Some Pep in the Competition’s Step?
Mobile trading application play Robinhood made waves in January 2018 when they announced they’d start offering commission-less cryptocurrency trading alongside their already popular stock trading services.
The murmurs quickly grew that Robinhood was positioning itself as a “Coinbase-killer,” as Coinbase is a major fiat on-ramp for American traders but charges relatively high fees.
Now that Robinhood’s fee-less trading has begun for the app’s first batch of allotted users, it seems that top players like Binance, Bitfinex, and Kraken are feeling the heat too.
Nothing is black and white, and there are probably plenty of factors that have gone into fees’ downward trend as of late in the space. But there’s no question that Robinhood has caught their new competitors’ attention, to say the very least, as more than 1 million users to date have registered for Robinhood’s pilot crypto service.
What’s your take? Do you you base your trades around which exchanges have low fees? Sound off in the comments below.
Images via NerdWallet, Fort Erie Race Track
