1. Can you tell us more about yourself?
My name is Anndy Lian. I have been active in the blockchain market since 2017. I had my first bitcoin in early 2010 when they are worth much lesser basically. Right now I spend most of my time advising governments and also acting as the Chairman (Asia) for Decent Foundation based in Switzerland and Chairman (Singapore) for I am also a book author for Blockchain Revolution 2030.
2. In your view, do second-tier crypto-exchanges do enough to differentiate themselves? Do they have unique selling points? What do they offer that bigger exchanges don’t?
Top few exchanges seem to have everything, not much left for the second-tier and small exchanges so they are working/ struggling especially hard, just to survive. The only advantage they have compared to the big brothers is they are too small to be on the radar so they can be more “wild”. You seldom see a coin goes 100X on big exchanges but it’s still happening on second-tier and small exchanges. However small exchanges close down every month so users who like to “gamble” will choose the second-tier exchange over the big ones.
3. What, if anything, can second-tier exchanges do to differentiate themselves? Do you expect such exchanges to succeed in introducing unique features in the future?
Yes, they need to have a new model, their own models, the first in the industry kind of model to succeed. However, the new model also means high uncertainty and risk. You do it well you become Bitmex, you do it wrong Fcoin is your example.
4. Does the cryptosystem really need smaller, second-tier exchanges? What role do they serve, if any?
Yes, smaller, second-tier exchanges are like the catfish in the sardines, more players mean more competition, more competition brings more innovation and better services. Those newcomers they are standing on the shoulders of giants, they can build their exchanges on the neatest and efficient manner, they can try new features more freely, respond and adjust to the market faster.
5. Do you expect to see consolidation in the cryptocurrency exchange sector in the future? How much consolidation?
It’s already happening:
1) Many exchanges are opening their branches abroad, sometimes they do it themselves but more times they collaborate with local exchange partners( eg. OKEx & OKEx Korea).
2) Small/New exchanges are opening/switching their businesses on/to big exchange’s cloud services so they can start easy and cheap, when they grow big they can even get investment from the big exchanges.
3) Big exchanges are also collaborating more and investing in other exchanges eg Binance investing into WazirX India.
6. What other observations do you see in the crypto exchange market?
New crypto exchanges will pop up now and then. Those who inspired to start an exchange will go to companies like ChainUp, HyrdaX, SHIFT etc. Some trends were possibly be revived such as DAPP Gaming Store and Decentralised Exchanges (DEX) in the mid of 2024 too. I am keeping a close lookout on these possibilities. In the nutshell, crypto exchanges are here to stay and here to make more noises for the crypto and blockchain communities.
To learn more about blockchain, you can visit Anndy Lian at his website (http://www.anndy.com) and follow him on Twitter (https://twitter.com/anndylian).
This interview is brought to you by KNNIT and Blockcast.
