Cryptocurrency Exchange Tokens: Binance Coin, Huobi Token, LEO

Many cryptocurrency exchanges already have their tokens. We at Mining-Cryptocurrency.ru decided to study the most popular coinscrypto-exchange and understand their device.

Binance coin

The first to issue its coin was the now well-knowncrypto exchange Binance. For this purpose, an ICO campaign was organized, which took place from July 1 to July 21, 2017 and attracted $15 million, and the total emission amounted to 200 million Binance Coin (BNB). This ERC20 token was released on the Ethereum blockchain.

The exchange pledged to provide discounts on commissionsfor BNB tokens. In the first year, they amounted to 50%, and then each year they are halved: 25% in the second, 12.5% in the third and 6.75% in the fourth.

Every quarter, Binance pledged to invest.20% of the profit to buy tokens and burn them until the platform redeems 50% of its own issue. The development of the Binance ecosystem did not stop there, the exchange released not only its token, but also created its own Binance Chain blockchain, to which BNB and other assets were transferred. In 2019, its price ranged from $ 6 to $ 38, and at the time of writing, is $ 15.

KuCoin Shares

KuCoin exchange is one of the first after Binancereleased its ERC20 tokens KuCoin Shares (KCS). The ICO of the site took place from August 13 to September 1, 2017, the total emission of tokens amounted to 200 million KCS. In total, the exchange raised about $27.5 million through the ICO.

The KCS economic model is also based onjoint distribution of the trading commission of the exchange with its users. So, in addition to discounts on commission, KuCoin Shares owners receive daily payments for holding tokens on deposit.

The amount of payments depends on the profit of the exchange per day andfrom the number of KCS users in proportion to other users. The KuCoin exchange also committed to direct at least 10% of its quarterly profit on the buyback of tokens. At the time of writing, the cost of KCS is $ 0.87.

Huobi token

Huobi Token (HT) was launched in January 2018 andwas sold to users for purchasing a special package of services from the Huobi.Pro exchange. It gives a discount of up to 50% on trading fees, and 20% of Huobi's quarterly profits goes towards the HT buyback.

The token was released on the Ethereum blockchain, totalthe emission amounted to 500 million HT. In the third quarter of 2019, the exchange reported that 11 million of its tokens were burned, and in total, during the existence of the token, 13.4% of its emission was burned - 33 million tokens.

As part of the development of the Huobi ecosystem, together withBlockchain platform Nervos in July 2019 presented its own blockchain, Huobi Chain, which will be used to develop various financial services and should increase the transparency of the ecosystem for regulators. There are plans to make Huobi Chain a public blockchain, with the mainnet launch scheduled for the second quarter of 2020.

Bithumb Coin

The appearance of the BT coin is associated with the development of BithumbGlobal of its Bithumb Family ecosystem, which is based on the Bithumb Chain blockchain. The exchange plans to create a digital financial ecosystem that will include blockchain companies, traditional financial sector players and individuals.

Bithumb Global spokesman Anton Gulin explained:

“Bithumb Family will unite absolutely all brandsBithumb, partner brands and everyone in one financial ecosystem. The system will be built on the Bithumb Chain blockchain, which is designed to increase the liquidity available to ecosystem participants.”

The entire ecosystem will be deployed in the second 2 quarter of 2020.

It is assumed that to the platform, in particular,decentralized financial services (DeFi) and decentralized applications (dApps) will be connected. The ecosystem will include Korean and Singaporean trading floors Bithumb, Bithumb Global, custodial service Bithumb, decentralized exchange Bithumb DEX and other divisions. Ecosystem members will be able to create their own exchanges using the functionality of the Bithumb Dapps service.

BT will be a coin for calculations within the ecosystemBithumb, it will also be a means of payment for Bithumb Family services and transaction fees. In addition, the coin will be used to vote and motivate ecosystem participants. The exact number of coins, their value and other details of the launch of the Bithumb Family are still kept secret.

Bitfinex LEO

Crypto exchange owned by the creators of TetherBitfinex started issuing its token quite late and only held its IEO in June of this year. The LEO token offers users a discount on trading fees for withdrawals/deposits and iFinex lending products.

In total, 1 billion LEO tokens were issued on the Ethereum blockchain, all of them were sold for $ 1.

It differs from BNB and analogs in that it hasdebt nature, the cryptocurrency exchange committed to redeem and burn LEO 27% of its monthly profit. So far, the launch of this token turned out to be rather a failure - it is trading below the IEO price, which is primarily due to an investigation by law enforcement agencies regarding the exchange and its iFinex.

OKB from OKEx

OKEx Crypto Exchange also launched its OKB tokenbeginning of 2018. In total, 1 billion OKBs were issued, of which only 50% was planned to be distributed among OKEx users, and 10% among early investors.

OKB is released on the Ethereum blockchain, in thismoment he is trading at $ 1.8. OKEx also follows the path of its colleagues: developing its own cryptocurrency ecosystem, the exchange plans to switch to its OKChain blockchain.

The ecosystem also includes the OKEx Pool mining pool, special nodes for creating their own OK Nodes crypto exchanges and a service for finding venture investors.

BEST by Bitpanda

Bitpanda Exchange Ecosystem Token (BEST) is a Bitpanda cryptocurrency exchange token that positions itself as one of the largest in Europe.

In the summer of 2019, in several stages, she conducted the IEO of her new Bitpanda Global site, where she sold BEST for $ 43 million.

This coin should give users a 25% discounton commissions, facilitate access to the Bitpanda Launchpad service and a number of other discounts, bonuses and rewards. BEST is a utility token in the ERC20 format with a total emission of 1 billion BEST.

What's next? Prospects for the development of the exchange token market

Issuing crypto-exchanges of their own coins and creating their own ecosystems is an important trend for the crypto industry, where trading floors are today key players.

Crypto-economist Vasily Sumanov emphasized that“Creating your own blockchain ecosystem of exchanges” is an important trend that “was set by Binance with the release of the Binance Chain”. Now other crypto exchanges have taken the trend, and in 2020 there will be even more exchanges with their own blockchain ecosystems.

Speaking about the functionality of tokens, the expert notedthat in 2019 exchange tokens, in addition to “classic” discounts on commissions, have a number of other functions: direct and indirect dividends (buybacks), voting, holding to receive bonuses or the right to participate in IEO, transaction mining and debt token (LEO, Bitfinex).

Bithumb Global spokesman Anton Gulin notedthat having your own token should be “economically justified and expedient,” since today there is a huge amount of utility tokens on the cryptocurrency market that are “hanging dead by speculative cargo,” and “having your own coin at the exchange should bring benefits for users when using it, storing or trading” so that it is in demand.

Today, exchanges are the heart of the cryptocurrency market, and the marketexchange coins continues to develop rapidly. It is noteworthy that out of several hundred exchanges, most market participants have not issued their tokens. At the same time, the largest exchanges are actively promoting their coins. For large sites this is an important competitive factor and the ability to raise funds.

In fact, today cryptocurrency exchanges and walletsrender the most popular services in the industry, which means they have every opportunity to promote their coins, create ecosystems and blockchains, since it is they who have daily and direct contact with an audience actively using cryptocurrencies. And this means that in the medium term, more and more exchanges will issue their coins, create blockchains and try to make them popular and in demand.