Numbers and data are the lifeblood of financial markets, including the crypto market.

These numbers and data, there are companies who specialize in them and launch platforms to follow them, some of which are available for free and others are paid.

In traditional markets and stock exchanges, exchange houses hold countless amounts of market data and, as hubs of business, expect to get paid for access to it.

As such, stock market data is somewhat constrained in a way that differs markedly from the crypto market.

While in cryptocurrency exchanges most of the data is freely available (whether it is related to volumes or widths…), while the exchanges charge a fee for such data.

Read:Malaysia is building its first crypto city and aims to attract 3 million tourists

The question here and the focus of the article is:

Will cryptocurrency exchanges follow the path of stock exchanges?

This question popped up even more after a Twitter user was upset about not being able to access important data on FTX and Binance:

The dangerous trend continues with the two largest exchanges, Binance and FTX, restricting access to information.

First Binance is severely restricting OI and now liquidation data, and now FTX is restricting liquidation data as well. Rest assured that their home office doesn’t have to worry about this.

– XC (runtheirstops) 12 July 2021

Sam Bankman Fred, founder of the FTX platform, replied that this is not true, and that nothing has been modified.

Pretty sure we didn’t just change anything

What are you referring to?

– SBF (SBF_Alameda) 12 July 2021

In the cryptocurrency market, trading platforms such as FTX, Coinbase, and Binance have many ways to make money outside of data, while stock exchanges such as Nasdaq and New York Stock Exchange earn a small portion of stock trading.

Read:Indonesia bans cryptocurrency related to financial firms

As a result, exchanges like Coinbase generate more than 90% of their revenue from trading, while stock exchanges like ICE make more than 50% of their money from data.

In addition, the business of trading platforms is much broader compared to their counterparts in the stock market.

Bankman talked about the revenues of the trading platforms, and said that they clearly outperform the traditional exchanges, as he said:

We have a graphical user interface, custodial, warehousing, clearing, and retail facing business.

At the end of the day, our revenue-taking rate is much higher than stock exchanges in the business of matching sellers with buyers.

We’re doing a lot without having to go out of the way to profit from the data.

He added that a 10% increase in the cost of data would result in a customer loss.

Of course, FTX is not the only trading platform in the cryptocurrency market that has a similar business model, as Coinbase, Gemini and Kraken operate in very similar ways.

Read:Blockport officially closes its doors and declares bankruptcy

So:

When will trading platforms start charging for access to crypto market data?

Answer:

It will probably happen at some point, but before that happens, the competition has to increase and the competition is limited to a few trading platforms.

Until the cryptocurrency market is dominated by fewer platforms and the crypto market environment becomes similar to the stock market, then that may happen.

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Bank of America agrees to trade bitcoin futures contracts for some customers, according to informed sources