The Curious Case of Crypto-Exchanges

Hacker Noon contributors evaluated the industry as a whole and we curated them for you. Crypto-Exchanges are your gateway to buying your first cryptocurrency and are the watering hole of crypto-veterans as well, for them to trade their sats and alts all day (and night).

The sheer volume of money through these crypto-exchanges makes it a very attractive target for hackers. The hackers target the "hot" wallets of the crypto-exchanges where the cryptocurrency stays for a short duration of time. The more decentralized of the crypto-exchanges store very little to none cryptocurrencies in "hot wallets".

This translates into lower liquidity, slower transaction times, and everybody knows that people will sacrifice security at the alter of making a quick buck.

Read below our curated list of stories on crypto-exchanges to understand the much misunderstood aspects of the industry that has begun to move millions of dollars daily.

Crypto Baby Talk: First 50 Terms That You Should Know About

There are some specific terms that we use and people who are not acquainted with blockchain, bitcoin, and other stuff may think that we’re a little bit crazy dreaming about the Moon and Lambo, being afraid of an ICO scam (wtf is that?), and always murmuring about bears and bulls (how come? They don’t even live together). Well, sit comfortably and prepare for a short trip into the cryptocurrency (and a bit of blockchain) world.

Read full article by ROKKEX

Why are Peer-to-Peer Exchanges Easier to Use?

In reality, a DEX can be the perfect solution for every trader. A DEX is very hard to hack because it’s as secure as the blockchain it runs on. Unlike centralized exchanges, all funds belong to the trader, staying on his/her account. To steal them, you’d have to find a way to bruteforce the private key, but so far such technologies don’t exist yet.

Read full article by Kirill

Why Unveiling Fake Volume is Essential for Market Growth

A brief look into how volume was faked reveals a manipulation tactic called ‘wash trading’. Wash trading is a known evil, especially in crypto. It is when a single account or entity simultaneously issues buy and sell orders on an exchange. They sell their cryptocurrency (minor market downturn occurs) and then buy it back (at the lower price; creates a tiny surge). This volume shouldn’t be considered as it doesn’t represent real demand, supply, or trading. It is simply selling and buying back crypto at the same time in order to create the illusion of liquidity.

Read full article by reverseacid

Security in the language of crypto exchange: providing traders with peace of mind

Even top exchanges are losing millions. The perennial problem is that the attack is always ahead of the defense due to its unpredictability and non-systematic nature. It is difficult to anticipate the next step intruders will take. Companies go through trial and error — they react to precedent. Sometimes companies themselves hire specialists who must find weak spots in the system.

Read full article by Viktor Kochetov

Can Crypto Bots Be Hacked on Exchanges?

One of the modern approaches is related to manipulations with crypto bots and APIs. Fraudsters can compromise automated trading software on exchanges and place any orders, or get access to users’ sensitive data. If you consider using bots, make sure to read more about their features, vulnerabilities, and safety measures.

Read full article by Julia Beyers

Disrupting the Centralized Crypto Exchange via Global Liquidity Pools

One of the problems with the present exchange model is it offers minimal liquidity, which is not viable for traders looking to trade across exchanges, and it requires depositing and blocking of capital on each trade. Another problem is the unavailability of cryptocurrencies other than Bitcoin and Ethereum, which again limits a token’s liquidity.

The global and regional pools are liquidated for each digital asset to provide a trading ecosystem best suited for institutional traders and a real-time settlement system backed with advanced security that the existing centralized exchanges lack.

Read full article by ICTE

Binance Launchpad: Toxic, but Smart

Binance, without any hesitation. Most investors, actually speculators, will lose a lot of money. Most projects launched on Binance will have a bad community which will be mainly focused on profit and not on the project in itself. But Binance gains in exposure, credibility, customers, and also from the price rise of BNB. Binance is definitely the winner in this system…

Read full article by Max

The Depths it Takes To Make A Thriving Cryptocurrency Exchange

"The banks, they were kind of agnostic about it. They said, “Oh, we don’t know what it is. We cannot be doing that.” Because they don’t recognize it as a means of monetary remittance. And so eventually we had to get out of there, and we moved to credit card processing. And again the market was still in its diapers. We tried to partner up with Simplex, but they were too busy, and it didn’t work out. We ended up working with the Chinese aggregator result, without an own MID (merchant ID)."

Read full article by David Smooke

The REAL Lessons from the QuadrigaCX Fiasco!

Before you dismiss this commentary as only applying to fringe exchanges, that is sadly not the case. To my knowledge none of the exchanges that dominate the market for retail investors, incorporate data from their competitors. In extreme cases, this can lead to huge potential losses for their customers, as happened late last summer on a “regulated” exchange based in NY.

Read full article by David Weisberger

The Killer Feature for New Cryptocurrency Exchanges Isn’t What You Think

One of the modern approaches is related to manipulations with crypto bots and APIs. Fraudsters can compromise automated trading software on exchanges and place any orders, or get access to users’ sensitive data. If you consider using bots, make sure to read more about their features, vulnerabilities, and safety measures.

Read full article by Andrey Sergeenkov

Have a great weekend,
Utsav from Hacker Noon 👨‍💻

(Photo by Bryan Goff on Unsplash)