Original | Odaily Planet Daily ( @OdailyChina )
Author: Wenser ( @wenser 2010 )
On November 3, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong retweeted a November 1 tweet from Simon, CEO of blockchain consulting and investment company Moonrock Capital, complaining about the high listing fees on centralized exchanges. He said : “Listing on Coinbase is free, and you can leave a message on Asset Hub for help. In addition, yes, DEX listing is also a good option (we also provide corresponding support in our products).”
This statement has caused a lot of controversy. Many industry insiders have expressed different opinions on this. Some think his attitude is sincere, while others think it is nonsense. Odaily Planet Daily will briefly analyze the mystery of exchange listing fees in this article.
The origin of the discussion on listing fees: excessive token share and abnormal listing fee model
The story begins with a tweet from Moonrock Capital CEO Simon, in which he mentioned:
I recently spoke with a Tier 1 project that raised nearly $100 million.
After wasting more than a year on Binance’s due diligence, they finally received a listing offer.
Binance is asking for 15% of its total token supply.
Imagine paying $50-100 million in fees just to list your coin on an exchange. Not only is this cost prohibitive for projects, but these distributed tokens are also the biggest cause of bleeding liquidity in the market. Something has to change.
As soon as the news came out, the market had mixed comments. Some people believed that the token allocation ratio of listing fees was understandable, and Binance needed to review token projects that might be worthless, and to distribute airdrops to Launchpool participants such as BNB holders, and the listing platform should pay fees. Others believed that they strongly agreed that DEX would surpass CEX to gain a larger market share. Others bluntly said : From our observation, Binance listing has harmed many projects. Simply put, it is not worth it at all.
In short, most project owners in the market have a negative view on the excessively high exchange listing fees, believing that centralized exchanges represented by Binance are sucking blood, but many retail investors believe that this move is necessary because it means that Binance will benefit the people. Many people also took this opportunity to discuss the listing fee, an industry model that is slightly deformed during the non-bull market, and believe that it has become the best tool for exchanges to squeeze market liquidity.
Later, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong “joined the battle” and published a post saying that “Coinbase has always listed coins for free.” After this statement came out, industry OGs could not sit still and spoke out one after another, even somewhat “denouncing him for his nonsense.”
Industry insiders all speak out: The facts are contrary to the claims, is Coinbase cheating?
Obviously, not everyone agrees with Brian’s statement. In the comment section of his tweet, people including Sonic Labs co-founder Andre Cronje, TRON founder Justin Sun, and Runestone founder Leonidas participated in the comment. The previous party involved Binance co-founder He Yi also expressed his views and explanations on this.
AC says “Coinbase charges too much”
According to AC Comments , “Binance did not charge us a listing fee, but Coinbase has repeatedly asked for a fee and has quoted $300 million, $50 million, $30 million, and the most recent offer is $60 million.”
Later, former Coinbase employees, Moonwell builders and others responded that they may have contacted fake Coinbase listing workers and suspected that Sonic Labs’ background check was not perfect. AC also responded again without hesitation, saying: “I did not sign a confidentiality agreement, so I am very happy to provide relevant evidence (the price was asked by multiple employees/departments of Coinbase over the years via email, Telegram and Slack). Now it is certain that Coinbase can argue that this is not a listing fee, but other fees, but this will still be converted into the listing cost of the project. I know that Coinbase may make some legal cuts, but I am happy to publish all the evidence and let the public identify it.”
Justin Sun says Coinbase is asking for too much
Around 2 p.m., Justin Sun, founder of TRON and member of Huobi HTX Global Advisory Committee, wrote a post regarding the Coinbase listing fee dispute: “Binance charged us $0, while Coinbase asked us to pay 500 million TRX (worth about $80 million) and deposit $250 million in BTC in Coinbase Custody to improve its performance. I have great respect for Coinbase and its CEO, but what they said is not true.”
It can be seen that Justin Sun also disagrees with Brian’s statement, believing that compared with Binance, Coinbase’s listing requirements are more outrageous and can be described as a huge mouthful.
He Yi said that the allocation of listing shares is for the benefit of users
After AC’s comment tweet was released, Binance co-founder He Yi immediately responded :
If a project does not pass the screening process, no matter how much money or what percentage of coins it has, it cannot be listed on Binance.
#DYOR——The projects that have been listed on Binance are clearly introduced in the token allocation column. Please analyze the percentages yourself to see if there is a so-called 20%, 15% or something like that.
#Airdrop——The airdrop rules of Binances launchpool and other listed coins are transparent and clear, but it does not mean that all projects willing to give airdrops can be listed on Binance. If you have 20% of tokens and want to cooperate with Binance for airdrops, you are welcome to cooperate with our Web3 wallet.
FUD will never disappear, but it makes us stronger. Gossip can easily gain traffic, and commercial competition is always full of dark sides; when you understand the rules of how the world works, you will no longer be easily swayed by rumors, and you will have the ability to think independently. People like AC who have the courage to tell the truth in the noise are the ones who are truly worthy of respect in the community.
Coinbase vs. Binance Coin Listing Documents: The former focuses on “free”, while the latter focuses on “charity + transparency”
In May 2022, Coinbase Chief Product Officer (CPO) Surojit Chatterjee released the Coinbase Listing Announcement . In comparison, Binance issued the Binance Token Listing Tips from CZ announcement on June 15, 2021, and updated it on January 2, 2024. In terms of importance, Binance is slightly better.
Specifically speaking of the details, the Coinbase announcement mentioned that the free asset evaluation and listing process mainly includes 4 steps, among which the focus is on free listing:
Application. Asset issuers first create an account in our Asset Center and then submit an application containing all relevant information about their asset.
Evaluation. Coinbase’s Digital Asset Listing Group (DALG) evaluates information submitted through Asset Hub using our standard listing evaluation framework to ensure that assets meet our eligibility requirements for legal, compliance, and technical security review.
Listing. Once approved by DALG and integrated with our platform, the asset can be listed on our exchange. Listing on an exchange does not mean that Coinbase endorses the asset, but rather that it meets Coinbases listing requirements.
Monitoring. We continuously monitor all assets on the exchange and may delist assets from the exchange if they no longer meet our requirements or if new information becomes available.
On the other hand, Binance divides the token listing announcement into application forms, bonus items, deduction items, contact with Binance, evaluation, handling fees, etc., with the focus on charity + transparency - although Binance Launchpool shares are well publicized in this regard, the specific listing fees have always been kept secret:
Fees
We donate all listing fees to the 100% transparent Binance Charity Foundation, and you can track the flow of funds on the blockchain.
Tip 25: There is no limit to the number of tokens you can submit. Please submit the number you think is appropriate. The number of tokens can show your willingness to bring positive impact to the industry.
Judging from the sophistication of the content description and various precautions, Binances token listing management regulations are undoubtedly more refined and procedural than Coinbases. As for the listing regulations of each project, there may be different implementation plans. At the same time, we also look forward to Binance giving a clearer explanation in the future.
Summary: The listing fee may gradually evolve into “project marketing fee + community user reward”
In general, the discussion on exchange listing fees in the market mainly focuses on:
1) Is the token share reasonable?
2) Is the listing fee standard affordable for the project owner?
3) Will the listing fees ultimately provide a certain return to project users and real users of the exchange?
At a time when exchange liquidity continues to face challenges and DEX trading volumes are hitting new highs, perhaps a better development direction would be to gradually evolve it from protection fees unilaterally collected by exchanges to project marketing fees + community user rewards.
As for the matter mentioned by AC in the previous article about considering providing relevant evidence to explain the listing fees of Coinbase, Odaily Planet Daily will continue to track subsequent developments so that readers can learn more effective information as soon as possible.
