**[Opinion: BitMEX and BitMart closures reflect fierce competition among CEXs under compliance trends, signaling proactive reshuffling]** BlockBeats News, July 26 — Regarding the recent closures of BitMEX and BitMart, crypto researcher Haotian shared his perspective, stating that this is not simply a case of CEX "implosions" brewing a bull market, but rather a result of fierce competition among CEXs driven by compliance trends, leading to proactive reshuffling. Haotian pointed out that the focus of CEX competition has shifted toward compliance requirements such as licensing, proof of reserves, and KYC/AML, while actively expanding into tokenized U.S. equities and other TradFi assets to open up new revenue streams. However, this also signifies the gradual erosion of traditional crypto trading pricing power. "Small and medium-sized exchanges must find a differentiated positioning to survive. They can either focus on specific regional licenses and localized services, exploiting regulatory arbitrage opportunities, or specialize in certain niche products, such as TradFi assets, perpetual contracts (Perps), or RWAFi. Alternatively, they can fully embrace crypto-native innovation narratives, including DeFi, Agentic Economy, MEMEs, and leverage the strength of crypto-native communities to weather market cycles. Regardless, continuing to engage in homogeneous competition will only accelerate the wave of eliminations. That said, clearing out some of the weaker competitors is not necessarily a bad thing." [Original Link]