This episode is the first installment of our two-part series on the history of crypto exchanges. I’m joined by Nathaniel Whittemore, freelance crypto communications strategist and curator of Long-Reads Sundays on Twitter.

This conversation is part of a larger series we’re doing on crypto exchanges. As part of this series, we’ve already interviewed Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ), Ivan Poon from Switcheo, & John Jansen from Deribit, among others.

Nathaniel and I are teaming up to write an article about the history of cryptocurrency exchanges.

In this two-part series, we explore the main ideas from that article and share our understanding of how cryptocurrency exchanges and the crypto exchange ecosystem have evolved over time.

This conversation is broken up into 5 chapters:

- Chapter 1: The pre-history of Bitcoin and how regulation from that era still affects us today
- Chapter 2: An exploration of the first crypto exchange that launched only a year after Bitcoin went live
- Chapter 3: The Mt. Gox story and the fallout caused by that hack
- Chapter 4: The rise of ICOs and how that led to the ascendancy of Binance
- Chapter 5: Current trends in the crypto exchange ecosystem

In this episode, we cover chapters 1 through 3. In the next episode, we cover chapters 4 through 5.

In this episode we discuss:

Sponsors

Crypto Loans By Nexo

Nexo is the only lender offering INSTANT crypto credit lines, which let you use digital assets as collateral to get cash in 45 fiat currencies and stablecoins.

Nexo is also a strategic partner of exchanges, OTC desks, and crypto funds through its portfolio of structured financial products. Institutional counterparties can earn up to 8% annually on their idle stablecoins, enter into asset swap agreements, or directly borrow crypto.

Individuals can also park their cash and stablecoins at Nexo’s Interest-Earning account to get an annual return of 8%. What’s more - interest is paid out daily and you can add or withdraw funds at ANY time.

So if you are looking to borrow, lend, or swap digital assets, Nexo is your GO-TO PARTNER. Definitely explore nexo.io or reach them at [email protected].

Nomics’s Cryptocurrency Market Data API

If you found that you or your developer have to spend too much time cleaning up and maintaining datasets & ingesting market cap data, then check us out.

Welcome to this conversation with John Jansen, CEO of Deribit. 

Deribit launched in 2016 and is one of the first futures and options crypto exchanges. At the time of this recording, Deribit does half a billion dollars of (real) volume per day.

I should also note that Deribit has completed a “deep data integration” with Nomics.com. With this integration, Deribit receives an A+ crypto exchange rating.

This interview is part of a series of interviews I’m doing with exchange operators. As part of this series, we’ve already interviewed Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ), Binance CFO Wei Zhou, as well as Ivan Poon from Switcheo, Alex Wearn from IDEX, and Sam Bankman-Fried from FTX.

If you run a top 50 crypto exchange by volume, I want to speak with you as part of this series. Please reach out to set that up.

My conversation with John Jansen is broken up into 5 chapters:

- Chapter 1: What derivatives options and futures are
- Chapter 2: The current state of crypto derivatives exchanges
- Chapter 3: The current state of Deribit
- Chapter 4: Brand differentiation and growth hacking for crypto exchanges
- Chapter 5: An exploration of the future

In this episode we discuss:

Sponsor

Nomics’s Cryptocurrency Market Data API

The Nomics API offers squeaky clean and normalized primary source trade data offered through fast and modern endpoints. Instead of having to integrate with several crypto exchanges, you can get everything through one screaming fast fire hose. If you found that you or your developer have to spend too much time cleaning up and maintaining datasets & ingesting market cap data, instead of identifying opportunities or if you’re tired of interpolated data and want raw primary source trades delivered simply and consistently with top-notch support in SLAs, then check us out here. Or if you’d like to order historical cryptocurrency market data as CSV exports from top exchanges, email us at [email protected].

Welcome to part two of this series on crypto derivatives trading. Once again, I'm joined by Sam Bankman-Fried, CEO of FTX, one of the fastest-growing crypto derivatives exchanges in the space. FTX launched in April of 2019, and at the time of this recording, does around $100 million dollars in daily volume.

Sam is also CEO of Alameda Research, a quantitative trading firm that provides liquidity to crypto markets worldwide. Alameda manages over $100 million in digital assets and trades $600 million to $1.5 billion dollars per day across thousands of products. They are responsible for approximately 5% of all (legitimate) crypto exchange volume.

This deep-dive is broken up into 7 chapters:

- Chapter 1: Quantitative trading
- Chapter 2: The relationship between Alameda Research and FTX
- Chapter 3: The current state of crypto derivatives trading
- Chapter 4: The similarities and differences between leveraged volume and spot market volume
- Chapter 5: The current state of FTX
- Chapter 6: Growth hacking and brand differentiation in the crypto derivatives exchange space
- Chapter 7: An exploration of what the future might look like

Chapters 1 through 3 were covered in episode 54. In today’s episode, we focus on chapters 4 through 7.

In this episode we discuss:

Sponsor

Nomics’s Cryptocurrency Market Data API

The Nomics API offers squeaky clean and normalized primary source trade data offered through fast and modern endpoints. Instead of having to integrate with several crypto exchanges, you can get everything through one screaming fast fire hose. If you found that you or your developer have to spend too much time cleaning up and maintaining datasets & ingesting market cap data, instead of identifying opportunities or if you’re tired of interpolated data and want raw primary source trades delivered simply and consistently with top-notch support in SLAs, then check us out here. Or if you’d like to order historical cryptocurrency market data as CSV exports from top exchanges, email us at [email protected].

Welcome to part 1 of this series on crypto derivatives trading. I’m joined by Sam Bankman-Fried, the CEO of FTX, one of the fastest-growing crypto derivatives exchanges. FTX launched in April of 2019, and at the time of this recording, does around $100 million dollars in daily volume.

Sam is also CEO of Alameda Research, a quantitative trading firm that provides liquidity to crypto markets worldwide. Alameda manages over $100 million in digital assets and trades $600 million to $1.5 billion dollars per day across thousands of products. They are responsible for approximately 5% of all (legitimate) crypto exchange volume.

This conversation is broken up into 7 chapters:

- Chapter 1: Quantitative trading
- Chapter 2: The relationship between Alameda Research and FTX
- Chapter 3: The current state of crypto derivatives trading
- Chapter 4: The similarities and differences between leveraged volume and spot market volume
- Chapter 5: The current state of FTX
- Chapter 6: Growth hacking and brand differentiation in the crypto derivatives exchange space
- Chapter 7: The future

In this episode, we cover chapters 1 through 3. Next week, we'll close the conversation by covering chapters 4 through 7.

In this episode we discuss:

Sponsor

Nomics’s Cryptocurrency Market Data API

The Nomics API offers squeaky clean and normalized primary source trade data offered through fast and modern endpoints. Instead of having to integrate with several crypto exchanges, you can get everything through one screaming fast fire hose. If you found that you or your developer have to spend too much time cleaning up and maintaining datasets & ingesting market cap data, instead of identifying opportunities or if you’re tired of interpolated data and want raw primary source trades delivered simply and consistently with top-notch support in SLAs, then check us out here. Or if you’d like to order historical cryptocurrency market data as CSV exports from top exchanges, email us at [email protected].

Welcome to part 2 of our series on Binance, the world’s biggest crypto exchange based on real trading volume. Nomics has given Binance an A exchange transparency rating, which means that Binance provides highly audible and granular data about trading activities with complete history. On most days, they are the #1 ranked exchange on Nomics.com.

In the previous episode, I had the honor of interviewing CZ, CEO and founder of Binance. In that episode, CZ gives us a "behind the scenes" look at how Binance grew to become the #1 crypto exchange only a few months after launching.

In this episode, we continue our exploration of Binance by talking with Wei Zhou, CFO of Binance. Before joining Binance in 2018, Wei was CFO of several startups, including two companies that IPOed in the US. Wei was also instrumental in the 2018 Grindr acquisition.

This conversation is broken up into 8 chapters:

- Chapter 1: How Binance accounts for its revenue
- Chapter 2: Binance’s fiat businesses (like Binance US, Binance Jersey, etc.)
- Chapter 3: IEOs and the disruption of investment banking
- Chapter 4: How Binance generates revenue (other than collecting trading fees)
- Chapter 5: The burning schedule for Binance Coin / $BNB
- Chapter 6: Stablecoins and pegged tokens
- Chapter 7: Binance’s general operations
- Chapter 8: The future

In this episode we discuss:

Sponsors

Crypto Loans By Nexo

This episode is brought to you by Nexo, the only lender offering INSTANT crypto credit lines, which let you use digital assets as collateral to get cash in 45 fiat currencies and stablecoins.

As of recently, the company has integrated the Binance Chain so you can instantly access cash without selling your BNB. Nexo is also a strategic partner of exchanges, OTC desks, and crypto funds through its portfolio of structured financial products. Institutional counterparties can earn up to 8% annually on their idle stablecoins, enter into asset swap agreements, or directly borrow crypto.

So if you are looking to borrow, lend, or swap digital assets, Nexo is your GO-TO PARTNER. Definitely explore nexo.io or reach them on [email protected].

Nomics’s Cryptocurrency Market Data API

If you found that you or your developer have to spend too much time cleaning up and maintaining datasets & ingesting market cap data, instead of identifying opportunities and if you want raw primary source trades delivered simply and consistently with top-notch support in SLAs, then check us out. 

This conversation is with Binance CEO and founder, Changpeng Zhao (CZ). Binance is the world’s biggest crypto exchange based on (real) trading volume.  On most days they're #1 ranked exchange on Nomics.com; they're also our highest rated exchange.

Binance is one of the two most important crypto companies.  I believe they'll become one of the most important in all of finance.

This episode is in 5 chapters:

- Chapter 1: The state of Binance when it launched, and the pre-conditions that led to its rapid rise
- Chapter 2: The current state of Binance and Binance Coin / $BNB
- Chapter 3: What CZ would do if he were to start a company from scratch
- Chapter 4: Binance’s growth hacking strategies
- Chapter 5: An exploration of value-added custody

In this episode we discuss:

P.S. This is part of a series on exchange operations. As part of this series, we’ve already interviewed Alex Wearn from IDEX the largest decentralized exchange & Ivan Poon from Switcheo, the first multi-chain decentralized exchange.

Sponsors

Crypto Loans By Nexo

Nexo is the only lender offering instant crypto credit lines, which let you use digital assets as collateral to get cash in 45+ fiat currencies and stablecoins. As of this week, the company has integrated the Binance Chain so you can instantly access cash without selling your BNB.

Nexo is also a strategic partner of exchanges, OTC desks, and crypto funds through its portfolio of structured financial products. Institutional counterparties can earn up to 8% annually on their idle stablecoins, enter into asset swap agreements, or directly borrow crypto. If you are looking to borrow, lend, or swap digital assets, Nexo is your go-to partner. Explore nexo.io or reach them on [email protected]. 

Nomics’s Cryptocurrency Market Data API

If you found that you or your developer have to spend too much time cleaning up and maintaining datasets & ingesting market cap data, then check us out.

In this episode, I’m joined by Ivan Poon, co-founder and CEO of the Switcheo Crypto Exchange. Switcheo is the world’s first consumer-grade & multi-chain decentralized cryptocurrency exchange allowing users to trade across different blockchains.

We discuss Switcheo’s origin story, how to market a crypto exchange, and the future of decentralized exchanges.

This conversation is broken up into 7 chapters:

- Chapter 1: What Switcheo is and how it’s positioned in the market
- Chapter 2: Which parts of the Switcheo exchange are on-chain versus off-chain
- Chapter 3: Switcheo’s core user demographics
- Chapter 4: What it actually takes to grow an exchange
- Chapter 5: The regulatory environment for exchanges
- Chapter 6: Switcheo’s business operations
- Chapter 7: The future of decentralized exchanges

In this episode we discuss:

Sponsor

Nomics’s Cryptocurrency Market Data API

The Nomics API offers squeaky clean and normalized primary source trade data offered through fast and modern endpoints. Instead of having to integrate with several crypto exchanges, you can get everything through one screaming fast fire hose. If you found that you or your developer have to spend too much time cleaning up and maintaining datasets & ingesting market cap data, instead of identifying opportunities. Or if you’re tired of interpolated data and want raw primary source trades delivered simply and consistently with top-notch support in SLAs, then check us out here. Or if you’d like to order historical cryptocurrency market data as CSV exports from top exchanges, email us at [email protected].

Welcome to the second and final installment of our deep dive on high-frequency cryptoasset trading. Once again, I'm joined by Ed Tolson, founder of kbit. Kbit is a high-frequency trading firm that's responsible for about 0.5% of daily total crypto exchange volume. For example, in May of 2019, kbit did just shy of $1 billion of total volume.

This two-part deep dive is broken up into five chapters:

- Chapter One: What high-frequency trading is
- Chapter Two: What high-frequency traders actually do as well as the categories of high-frequency trading that exist in cryptoland
- Chapter Three: Data, fake volume, and toxic activity on exchanges
- Chapter Four: How kbit operates
- Chapter Five: What the future of high-frequency trading might look like

In the previous episode (#0049), we explored chapters one and two. In this episode, we conclude the conversation by covering chapters three through five.

We discuss:

Sponsor

Nomics’s Cryptocurrency Market Data API

The Nomics API offers squeaky clean and normalized primary source trade data offered through fast and modern endpoints. Instead of having to integrate with several crypto exchanges, you can get everything through one screaming fast fire hose. If you found that you or your developer have to spend too much time cleaning up and maintaining datasets & ingesting market cap data, instead of identifying opportunities. Or if you’re tired of interpolated data and want raw primary source trades delivered simply and consistently with top-notch support in SLAs, then check us out here. Or if you’d like to order historical cryptocurrency market data as CSV exports from top exchanges, email us at [email protected].

Welcome to this two-part deep dive on high-frequency cryptoasset trading. Our guest is Ed Tolson, founder of kbit. Kbit is a high-frequency trading firm that's responsible for about 0.5% of daily total crypto exchange volume. For example, in May of 2019, kbit did just shy of $1 billion of total volume.

This two-part deep dive is broken up into five chapters:

- Chapter One: What high-frequency trading is
- Chapter Two: What high-frequency traders actually do as well as the categories of high-frequency trading that exist in cryptoland
- Chapter Three: Data, fake volume, and toxic activity on exchanges
- Chapter Four: How kbit operates
- Chapter Five: What the future of high-frequency trading might look like

In this episode, we cover chapters one and two.

We discuss:

Sponsors

Crypto Loans By Nexo

Nexo is the world’s largest & most trusted crypto lender offering automated instant crypto credit lines, which allow you to use your crypto (e.g., Bitcoin, Ether, XRP) as collateral to get cash in 45+ fiat currencies & stablecoins without selling your cryptoassets. Nexo also offers interest earning accounts yielding up to 6.5% per year for stablecoins & Euros. Interest is paid out daily & you can add or withdraw funds at any time.

Nexo is also a strategic partner of exchanges, OTC desks, traditional & crypto funds helping them earn interest on idle stablecoins & fiat. The company's growing portfolio of structured institutional products includes fully collateralized continuously rebalanced swap agreements allowing counterparties to effectively manage their balance sheets. To learn more, check out Nexo.io.

Nomics’s Cryptocurrency Market Data API

The Nomics API offers squeaky clean and normalized primary source trade data offered through fast and modern endpoints. Instead of having to integrate with several crypto exchanges, you can get everything through one screaming fast fire hose. If you found that you or your developer have to spend too much time cleaning up and maintaining datasets & ingesting market cap data, instead of identifying opportunities. Or if you’re tired of interpolated data and want raw primary source trades delivered simply and consistently with top-notch support in SLAs, then check us out here. Or if you’d like to order historical cryptocurrency market data as CSV exports from top exchanges, email us at [email protected].

Today's episode is an exploration of crypto trading bots and algorithmic trading with Daniel Anderson. Daniel is a software engineer and a freelancer who builds tools for cryptocurrency traders. Before he got into the crypto space, Daniel was a software developer for IBM.

This conversation is broken up into 4 chapters:

- Chapter 1: What trading bots are, how they work, and why they’re useful
- Chapter 2: Approaches for setting up, testing, and executing algo trading strategies
- Chapter 3: Popular algo trading strategies
- Chapter 4: The future of algorithmic trading

In this episode we discuss:

Sponsors

Crypto Loans By Nexo

Nexo is the world’s largest & most trusted crypto lender offering automated instant crypto credit lines, which allow you to use your crypto (e.g., Bitcoin, Ether, XRP) as collateral to get cash in 45+ fiat currencies & stablecoins without selling your cryptoassets. Nexo also offers interest earning accounts yielding up to 6.5% per year for stablecoins & Euros. Interest is paid out daily & you can add or withdraw funds at any time.

Nexo is also a strategic partner of exchanges, OTC desks, traditional & crypto funds helping them earn interest on idle stablecoins & fiat. The company's growing portfolio of structured institutional products includes fully collateralized continuously rebalanced swap agreements allowing counterparties to effectively manage their balance sheets. To learn more, check out Nexo.io.

Nomics’s Cryptocurrency Market Data API

The Nomics API offers squeaky clean and normalized primary source trade data offered through fast and modern endpoints. Instead of having to integrate with several crypto exchanges, you can get everything through one screaming fast fire hose. If you found that you or your developer have to spend too much time cleaning up and maintaining datasets & ingesting market cap data, instead of identifying opportunities. Or if you’re tired of interpolated data and want raw primary source trades delivered simply and consistently with top-notch support in SLAs, then check us out here. Or if you’d like to order historical cryptocurrency market data as CSV exports from top exchanges, email us at [email protected].