It took MintPal quite a long time to figure out what Bittrex was doing to their market share.
For most it should have been completely apparent that new coin listings are the WHOLE GAME when it comes to altcoins.
There is no such thing as ‘long-term success‘ when it comes to trading altcoins. When all is said and done, the most trading volume goes to cryptocoins that are in favor at that moment.
Bittrex seized on this fact to build their volume, seemingly at the expense of MintPal. At one point people got listed on Bittrex in order to show ‘proof of concept‘ that their coin could generate sufficient trading volume, which in turn would generate trading fees to keep the exchange in business. Once they had that proof they used it to abandon Bittrex and go to the other exchange!
Now new coins aren’t in such a rush to get on ‘bigger exchanges.’ They are content with the new List/Trade/Delist scenario that Bittrex has introduced. The traders and miners pretty much all realize that all altcoins are essentially scams so they’ve all taken off their masks and started playing the game in a somewhat realistic fashion.
EVERYBODY and their uncle knows that the ‘next big thing‘ is going to be hot for approximately 14 to 30 days before losing altitude. After that it gets replaced by the ‘next, next big thing.’
If you peruse the listings at any altcoin exchange you’ll quickly notice that trade volume tends to be coagulated around 3 to 8 symbols with the rest of the listings fighting over the remaining crumbs.
Altcoin Exchanges Are Engaged In A Hardcore Fight For The Eyeballs
It’s a real fight for eyeballs and Bitcoin among altcoin exchanges. Right now there are over 40 alternative cryptocurrency exchanges. This is probably only the tip of the proverbial iceberg as more people will decide to enter the vertical as opportunities in other sectors continues to dry up. All these exchanges are fighting for traders, yet very few cryptocoins are really popular at any given time.
Bittrex correctly spotted this trend and geared their exchange around this fact. At a time when listings on MintPal became almost impossible to get, Bittrex made it easy to quickly list nearly any new coin that could provide adequate trading volume. As time wore on, they also developed the habit of quickly delisting websites in order to keep their fixed expenses reasonable and their maintenance requirements at a doable level.
MintPal took a different, more ‘exclusive‘ approach to their exchange additions.
MintPal long used a ‘paid voting system,’ but that gravy train has now officially derailed.
“The general feedback that we’ve had recently is that we have been slow in adding new coins. While this has been our way of vetting coins for quality, we appreciate that our users want to trade the most popular new coins at our exchange as soon as possible. We intend to add at least one brand new coin a week which we believe has potential and will give it fair time to prove itself.”
At first glance the idea of adding only one new coin at a time seems misguided. If their competitors continue to add multiple new coins in the same timeframe, they’ll still have the same problem they do now. Time will tell if they stick to this moderate schedule of if they become more aggressive.
Paid Voting Sucks
Voting for coins to be listed on an exchange sucks. It robs coin projects of needed funds and it creates an elitist system that is the opposite of what open source should stand for. Open source projects should give everyone a chance at success, based on merit. Instead we have a system where the ‘trading elite‘ of 1%’ers of the altcoin industry can buy their way onto exchanges.
In any event, the new way of fast-listing coins has caught on and is one of the current trends in altcoins.
Since MintPal plans on leaving their current voting method running through September, it’s too early to see exactly what benefits the alterations bring their exchange.
Bittrex has been leading the way with the current tactic, and competitors are beginning to take notice. C-Cex.com is now quick-adding coins with little to no prompting. The idea is obvious. If they can capture a good amount of volume early on and traders are happy enough with the exchange, they can get the lion’s share of trading fees prior to the decline, death, and delisting phase which is an inevitable part of the altcoin life cycle.
It seems likely that more exchanges will begin to go after the ‘freshly launched‘ altcoin market, since it’s the one niche in altcoins that is really showing any growth at all. It also seems likely that old timers like MintPal (hey, they’ve been around since February or so) make changes based on rapid changes in the market.
Thanks for stopping by and reading! Feel free to leave any comments you have below.
