Cryptocurrency Exchange Option Is Among One of the Most Promising Areas (Figure 1)
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BDCENTER.DIGITAL CONTENTS Introduction 3 1. Jurisdictions 6 2. Exchanges possessing their own tokens 11 3. Profitability 17 4. Website versions (language and additional versions, landings) 23 5. Analysis of Fiat Gateways Capabilities 27 6. PR 34 7. Analysis of traffic sources 37 8. Social Networks 48 9. Social network activity shown by managers of the Exchanges 54 10. Forums activity 59 11. SEO, link mass, mentioning 60 12. Email marketing 73 13. Referral and affiliate programs 75 14. Visual style 79 15. Target Audiences 83 16. Opinion leaders 88 17. Brokers at Forex who work with cryptocurrency 90 Conclusion 99 2 BDCENTER.DIGITAL INTRODUCTION Nowadays, the Initial Coin Offering (ICO market) is experiencing a fundraising decline, that’s why many key market players have started to look for other high-yield cryptocurrency projects. Cryptocurrency exchange option is among one of the most promising areas (figure 1). Raised funds & Number of ICOs Check the amount of funds raised and number of ICOs finished by month for the past 12 months. Source: websites icobench.com/stats 3 BDCENTER.DIGITAL Figure 1. ICO funding has been declining from a record of 1.7 billion dollars in March to under 0.2 billion in October 2018. Binance Exchange turned out to be a huge success. Experts note that this exchange is the most successful unicorn startup in the history of cryptoprojects. In the last six months, Binance estimation of the market size was close to $ 2 billion. Moreover, the project is profitable. In a short period of time, the income of all cryptocurrency exchanges has grown rapidly. There is a huge number of cryptocurrency projects. Their investors expect to go to exchanges to receive profit or increase it. Cryptocurrency trading is still a highly profitable area for both freshmen and mature Forex traders. The latter are actively engaging in cryptocurrency, since its volatility is higher and could bring higher profit accordingly. There are 204 exchanges at coinmarketcap. According to research data, however, the real number of exchanges has long exceeded 500. Currently, Coinmarketcap is not eager to list exchanges. According to our data, the queue to add an exchange to the list is now longer than to add a coin. Some players have been waiting to get enlisted to this most trusted platform in the cryptosphere for months. Before, the cost of a cryptocurrency exchange could reach $ 1 million, now the ready-made exchange can be bought for $ 100 thousand. More and more companies offer packaged solutions. The sphere resembles the e-commerce at the dawn of its formation. The e-commerce companies were developing the websites on their own. Later on, the packaged versions started to emerge. Modern cryptocurrency exchanges are going through similar stages. In the area of cryptocurrency, the marketing component of the project plays the biggest role. Taking into consideration the high competition, marketing is all what we need. That is why we decided to find out what marketing activities are carried out by modern exchanges to retain the users and attract new ones. Since 2011, BDCenter, a digital marketing & consulting agency has helped to find scalable business models for dozens of partners. We do not only launch advertising campaigns, but also build long-term images of products and introduce 4 BDCENTER.DIGITAL them into everyday use. Being a full-fledged marketing department, we have been working on cryptocurrency projects. Among them there are 5 successful ICOs. We have been lucky to work with 4 cryptocurrency exchanges as well. We have analyzed 30 most popular exchanges including; Binance, Okex, Huobi, Bitfinex, Upbit, Zb.com, Hitbtc, Coinbase, Kraken, Coinex, Ibank, Bitforex, Bibox, Bit-z, Bitstamp, Bittrex, Bcex, Digifinex, Coinbene, Bitbank, Simex, Exx, Gate, Oex, Coinsuper, Topbtc, Poloniex, Wex, Gemini, Coinsbank. Sometimes, to get the complete picture, we considered the analysis of additional exchanges - Wcex, Radarrelay, Exmo, Ethfinex, latoken and others. We took into consideration various indicators such as: geographical location of sites, documentation, social network activity and forums, activity of the exchange management in public space, information channels and significant news sites, target audiences and their opinion leaders, website versions, SEO promotion. We compared the real turnover of exchanges with the positioned one. To understand the development of the cryptocurrency market, we also discussed the history of Forex market and its features. 5 BDCENTER.DIGITAL 1. JURISDICTIONS We analyzed the location of the exchanges registration and the list of documents regulating their activities. The data was taken from the official sites of the exchanges. The analysis is presented in the following table: Analysis of exchange official documentation Legal documents Country of (list of documents regulating the legal Exchange City Address Registration field. They are available on the website of the exchange) Terms binance.com China Hong Kong - Privacy Fees Fee 255 Gloucester Terms of Service China Hong Kong Road, Causeway okex.com Disclosures Bay Privacy Policy Terms of User Privacy Policy Singapore - - huobi.com Legal Statement Fee Terms of Service API Terms of Service RRT Token Terms 17F-1, No. 266, CST Token Terms Sec. 1, Wenhua Risk Disclosure Statement Taiwan Taipei bitfinex.com Rd., Banqiao Privacy Policy Dist. Cookies Policy Law Enforcement Request Policy Trademark Notices Anti-Spam Policy Notifications Gangnam-gu, Terms of Use South Korea Seoul Tehranro 4th upbit.com Open API Terms of Use 14th floor Politics Legal Statement Privacy Plicy zb.com Samoa - - User Agreement OTC Term Of Services Lending Transaction Agreement 6 BDCENTER.DIGITAL Legal documents Country of (list of documents regulating the legal Exchange City Address Registration field. They are available on the website of the exchange) Legal Information Term of Service Privacy Policy Unit 19, 7/F., One AIA Policy hitbtc.com China Hong Kong Midtown No.11 API License Agreement Hoi Shing Road Cookie Policy End User License Agreement Transparency policy GDPR User Agreement Privacy Policy Cookie Policy San 548 Market St pro.coinbase. USA Licenses Francisco #23008 com Insurance Market Data Trading Rules Terms of Service San USA - Security kraken.com Francisco Privacy Notice Terms of Service coinex.com China Hong Kong - Privacy Policy Fees lbank.info China - - - Trading Fees User Agreement Singapore - - bitforex.com Withdrawal Fees Deposit Fees bibox.com China - - - Terms of Use China Hong Kong - bit-z.com Fees 5 New Street Fee Schedule Terms of Use Privacy Great Britain London bitstamp.net Square Policy AML Policy About Seafirst Fifth Privacy Avenue Plaza USA Seattle Terms bittrex.com 800 Fifth Ave Fees Suite 4100 Cookies Agreement China Beijing - bcex.ca Privacy Policy Terms of Use Privacy Policy Singapore - - digifinex.com Anti Money Laundering Fees 7 BDCENTER.DIGITAL Legal documents Country of (list of documents regulating the legal Exchange City Address Registration field. They are available on the website of the exchange) coinbene.com Singapore - - Term of Service Terms of User bitbank.cc Japan Tokyo Privacy Policy Legal Statement License agreement Personal Data Processing Policy Agreement on the use of HSA 2770 S Maryland Loan agreement USA Las Vegas simex.global Pkw, Suite 300 Investment agreement Agency contract Agent Report Contract of Assignment of Claims 1350 East exx.com USA Las Vegas Flamingo Road - Suite 689 PO Box 2804, gate.io Cayman Islands - Grand Cayman USER AGREEMENT KY1-1112 oex.com China - - Legal Notices Terms of Service Registration Privacy Policy coinsuper.com China Hong Kong No.68324638- AML Policy 000-10-17-4 Security Disclaimer topbtc.com Australia - - Rate description White Collar Privacy Policy Great Britain London Factory, 1 Old poloniex.com Terms of Use Street wex.nz Singapore - - Terms of use | AML | Fees Trading Fee Schedule Transfer Fee Schedule Market Data Fee Schedule Connectivity Fee Schedule gemini.com USA New York - User Agreement API Agreement Market Data Agreement Privacy Policy BSA/AML Policy Privacy Policy Great Britain Edinburgh - coinsbank.com Terms of Service Source: official websites of the introduced exchanges 8 BDCENTER.DIGITAL The analysis showed that, most of the exchange companies have offices in several countries. It is connected with the laws of these countries. The legal documents published on the site could vary. For example, the head office and company registration may be located in the United States, but the rules on how to use this resource could indicate that the laws of the Seychelles are used as a regulator. One third of the exchanges has offices in China. It is connected with the country’s requirements for the financial activities. In order to conduct the activities on the territory of this country, any financial company must be registered there. Headquarters of some exchanges are located in Singapore or Samoa. It could be explained by the fact that the legislation of these countries is more loyal to the companies from this field. Dividing analyzed exchanges by country Based on the «Analysis of exchange official documentation» sheet 9 BDCENTER.DIGITAL Dividing the HQ of analyzed exchanges by city Based on the «Analysis of exchange official documentation» sheet Not all exchanges openly share their documentation. Document screenshots by Simex have only been found. If the exchange company conducts business inside the EU, applying the General Data Protection Regulation(GDPR) regulations becomes necessarily. If the