Analysis
90% of Monero and Dash’s volumes in South Korea are being wash-traded, claims BTI research
Blockchain Transparency Institute (BTI), a blockchain and crypto-market analyst firm, recently released a report on wash trading on different crypto-exchanges around the world. Among many observations, the report suggests that wash trading on the top-40 exchanges in the world has fallen by 35.7% over the last 6 months.
BTI had recently launched a verified program to record accurate reporting of cryptocurrency exchange volumes, with various top exchanges in the world coordinating with the firm to reduce cases of wash trading on these exchanges.
According to the report, Kraken, Poloniex, Coinbase, and Upbit were among the cleanest exchanges in the world, with the least trading volume generated through wash trading. OKEx and Bibox were among the exchanges with the highest percentage of wash trading in the top-40 exchange list. Interestingly, 75% of the total volume on these two exchanges was generated through wash-trading. The study also notes that even if we neglect the high fake volume on these exchanges, they still feature in the list of top-20 exchanges across the world, on account of their real trading volume.
Japan and the US were the top countries with the largest number of clean exchanges, understandable given the strict regulatory policies put in place. However, strict regulations are not necessarily a driving factor for exchanges to not generate fake volumes, something evident from South Korean exchanges. South Korea also boasts of sophisticated regulatory policies. However, exchanges in the country top the list for wash trading Dash and Monero. The report suggests that more than 90% of the volumes for these two tokens are fake.
Source: Bitcoin Transparency Insititute
New entrants on the list
BTI has also added several new exchanges under its surveillance program, including Binance, Gemini, Bitflyer, and Indodax. The firm is verifying any exchange whose wash trading volumes are less than 10% and the exchange is willing to provide input. Currently, Binance’s wash trading volume is below 10%, down from more than 20% in the first few months of 2019.
Bitflyer’s wash trading volume is below 5%, while Gemini’s fake volume has also fallen significantly from 12-15% in the first few months to the current wash trading volume being less than 10%.
The report also found out that 73 crypto-exchanges in the top-100 on CoinMarketCap have more than 90% of their volume being generated through wash trading.
The percentage of wash trading on the list of top-10 exchanges with adjusted volume goes even higher, ranging from 96.9% up to 99.7%. These top 10 exchanges include LBank, BW.com, Bit-Z, Coinbene, and OEX, The following data shows the percentage of wash trading on these exchanges.
