Life is definitely tough for second- and third-tier exchanges, and it’s only going to get harder. On the spot trading side, Binance’s flagship product ALPHA has been dominating, coupled with U.S. stocks draining liquidity. There’s no moat overseas either—it’s all about compliance exchanges ruling the game. Smaller countries are the only places left to scrape up leftovers, and even then, they’ll still have to fight for compliance licenses. In high-purchasing-power countries like Europe, the U.S., and South Korea, there are compliant exchanges like UP and CB. If you dare to openly develop users in their territory, you’re just asking to get wrecked. As for derivatives, the competition is even fiercer. Exchanges are relying on this to make money, and every new rising exchange is ready to step over the corpses of its predecessors. The hype is getting stronger and stronger. If it’s all gambling anyway, wouldn’t it be better to bet on decentralized exchanges that seem less like a black box? In the future, if you lose, you might get a consolation prize {points, tokens}. If you win, you take the money. Could this model become the mainstream trend?