Can Trans-Fee Mining Boost Exchange’s Reputation?

BITBOX Integrity Case

There can never be too many crypto exchanges but there seems to always be a lack of authentic ones. Between 2017-18, more than 100 exchanges were launched, all with their own unique goals and values. Some were only focused on making profits, others have to make an effort to deliver revolutionized technologies and build strong communities. BITBOX was launched in Singapore in July and in a couple of months, it has already proved to be a fair player in the crypto market, especially considering the tendency of modern exchanges to make money using various Ponzi schemes. The exchange took down volume manipulations encouraged by a trans-fee mining model to ensure fair market conditions and equal opportunities for all its users.

Basic Information about Bitbox

BITBOX was established by LINE, the largest Japanese messaging app with around 200 million active monthly users. The platform which offers crypto-to-crypto trading for around 30 coins began its operations on 17th July, five months after the initial announcement of LINE’ plans to launch its own crypto exchange. Despite the US and Japanese citizens making up nearly half of LINE’s user base, the exchange’s services are not available to them due to regulatory hurdles. For the same reason, the legal entity was registered in the jurisdiction of Singapore.

BITBOX is a great example of an exchange that does its best to satisfy users and improve their experience. The exchange has its own LINK token and provides a number of benefits to its customers such as trade fee discounts, participation rights, rewards on holdings, and different user contributions and activities, including trading trans-fee mining model.

Trans-Fee Mining Success

In one of our previous articles, we have already explained why trans-fee mining is a controversial model that encourages trade volume manipulations. On 18th September, BITBOX appeared in CMC’s Top 3 with a reported 24h volume of nearly $1.2 bln, apparently created by trans-fee mining activity. The CER team couldn’ help but notice this huge success for such a new exchange.

Measures Taken

However, while we were deciding on the best way to notify users about this foul activity, the exchange had already taken the necessary steps to clean up its reputation. On 19th September, BITBOX reacted to the volume pump and made an announcement stating that it would call off all LINK issued in the result of wash trading.

Although any kind of trade manipulations including wash trade had been prohibited and listed in the exchange’s terms of service from the inception, someone had intentionally inflated the volume in order to get their trade fees reimbursed (really, who bothers to read that long boring legal document anyway?).

By taking such stringent measures BITBOX showed the whole crypto world how the exchanges should restrict market manipulations and punish unfair traders.

The exchange didn’ seem tempted to remain unfairly in the CMC top 10 to play on its newfound fame as its sanctions led to its trade volume slumping right back to the 134th position in the ranking table.

Summing Up

The platform’s managers decided to play fair and earn users and attention organically by attracting them via quality marketing, the platform’s features such as UX, and building a loyal community of users. These are the values Crypto Exchange Ranks promotes and is exactly the kind of attitude that the whole crypto industry, especially exchanges, should adopt to attract new investment and attention from traditional markets along with users trust.

Getting back to the question we raised in the title: Can trans-fee mining boost Exchange’s reputation? Yes, it can, if you regulate it!

The case of BITBOX is a great example of a fair crypto exchange that is not chasing quick profits but instead showing its integrity and working on a gradual yet organic growth pattern.

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