Crypto-to-crypto exchange Binance has attained the number one spot in global crypto exchange rankings released by the . The ranking chart provides interesting insights into the number of Binance users and trading volumes. Moreover, it also gives a glimpse into the performance of other exchanges over Binance.
As we can see, Binance has surpassed giants like OKEx and Huobi in terms of trading volume, number of active users, web visitors and also API volume. The 24-hour volume at Binance tops over $1 billion with more than 160,000 24-hour web users. The immediate competitor OKEx is still far behind with just $700 million daily volume and just 30,000 daily users.
Leveraging Low Market Cap Crypto Tokens
In the last two years, a number of ICO projects and crypto tokens have made way to the crypto market. Although the success/failure rate of these projects is a different issue, Blockchain Transparency Institute (BTI) notes that exchanges favoring new token listings come to the limelight quite early.
However, extremely high transactions volumes and opaque listing fees of these exchanges is a controversial issue. The BTI researcher team notes that exchanges are still keen on coins with low market cap. This helps them pull huge volumes while providing irresistible offers and creating hype around the crypto token.
“We also found many of these exchanges to be preying on low market cap coins which are desperate for the recognition and volume of a top 10 or 25 exchange. In many of the crypto projects we spoke with, this also involves supplying the exchange with a large amount of tokens which are then used to massively inflate volume numbers on CMC, luring in prospective traders from other exchanges with much lower, but real volume,” the BTI team said.
However, in an effort to legitimize the crypto market, top exchanges like are requesting for high listing fees anywhere between 5 BTC to 60 BTC. Such steps can possibly lead to a decline in the number of suspicious steps taken in the crypto space.
“Our initial report on exchange volumes revealed many top 100 exchanges on Coinmarketcap using wash trading to gain a marketing advantage over their competitors. We found many of these exchanges gaining 80-90% of their referral web traffic from CMC alone. In our recent token project interviews, we have found this allows these exchanges to ask from 5 BTC all the way up to 60 BTC for listing fees.”
Several Good Initiatives from Binance
After its ouster from China following the crypto ban in 2017, Binance established its safe haven in the crypto-friendly state of Malta. The crypto exchange is making consistent efforts to foster crypto adoption. The Binance exchange is largely open to list new crypto tokens to its platform. Last month, Binance towards adding new stablecoins to source further liquidity in the crypto market.
Moreover, Binance has also launched its own Blockchain Charity Foundation to promote blockchain-related activities. The foundation is working to reduce the anomalies of listing fees for new crypto tokens. Last month itself, the exchange started all of its listing fees to its charity division.
Malta’s Pilatus Bank has been shut down by the European Central Bank (ECB). Its banking license was revoked after its chairman was charged in the U.S. with money laundering and organizing a scheme to evade U.S. sanctions. The bank had also been accused by a murdered journalist of processing corrupt payments. EU authorities now want new powers to crack down on money laundering.
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Pilatus Bank’s License Revoked
Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA) announced on Monday that the ECB has withdrawn the banking license of Pilatus Bank which has been operating in Malta for four years.
The Financial Times elaborated:
The move comes several months after U.S. authorities charged the bank’s Iranian-born owner and former chairman Seyed Ali Sadr Hasheminejad with organising a scheme to evade U.S. sanctions against Iran by illegally funnelling more than $115 million from Venezuela to Iranian-controlled companies.
“The bank was charged in the United States over money laundering and bank fraud,” Reuters added.
Although Seyed Ali Sadr Hasheminejad pleaded not guilty and has been released on bail, MFSA removed him from his roles at the bank and froze the bank’s assets. In June, the regulator recommended revoking the bank’s license but faced numerous legal hurdles. On Monday, MFSA said that “the ECB had acted on its request to close the bank,” the Guardian wrote.
Pilatus Bank, which caters to wealthy clients, reported 308 million euros ($351.64 million) of assets in 2016, according to the bank’s annual report. Last year, it opened a branch in London after obtaining a U.K. banking license. The bank “was known to have held accounts for a senior official in the government of the Maltese prime minister, Joseph Muscat, and members of Azerbaijan’s ruling family,” the Financial Times detailed.
Murdered Journalist’s Case
Daphne Caruana Galizia.
Pilatus Bank had also been accused of “processing corrupt payments for senior Azeri and Maltese figures” by Maltese investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, Reuters described.
Caruana Galizia was killed by a car bomb in Malta a year ago. However, there has been no proven link between her murder and her story about the bank, the publication conveyed. Nonetheless, the event prompted the EU to begin investigating the bank in October last year.
“Three men suspected of killing her – brothers George and Alfred Degiorgio and their friend Vince Muscat – were arrested during a police operation in December 2017,” the BBC added.
Maltese Authorities Investigated
The ECB launched two investigations of how Malta dealt with Pilatus Bank last year, Reuters detailed. The first focused on MFSA but the case was closed in September “in part due to the vagueness of EU regulation,” European Banking Authority Chairman Andrea Enria told EU lawmakers.
The second investigation focused on the Maltese Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit (FIAU), the country’s anti-money laundering agency. Enria emphasized that this investigation has uncovered “serious shortcomings that the body did not remedy,” the publication noted. A senior EU official explained:
The European Commission reached preliminary agreement on Monday on new actions against the FIAU over its handling of the Pilatus case, which will force Malta to improve the way its anti-money laundering body operates.
Citing that U.S. authorities played a big role in uncovering alleged illicit banking activities in several European cases, the Guardian reported that “EU authorities want new powers to crack down on money laundering after a string of scandals in Estonia, Latvia and Malta.”
What do you think of the ECB shutting down Pilatus Bank? Let us know in the comments section below.
Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Lovin Malta, FIAU, MFSA, and Pilatus Bank.
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