Why do exchanges get away with faking trade volume?

[Twinkledoe]

That's because crypto market is not really that heavily regulated. You wont need any permits  or wont really be that necessary for someone to create their own platform.

Yeah and like what OP have mentioned, You just need to form a team and buy 3rd party
system, with decent fund you are good to go.

This is why people should really be careful on because we know that once transactions had been done like depositing then it cant be reverted nor can be traced

Research and find more information about exchange that you'll going to use, it's frustrating
losing your money in such kind of act.

when the owners of such exchange tends out to ran all of the investors money and that's one of the few main reasons.

Pain in the ass once the owner run away and bring all the money with them, no regulation
and no trace, they will just disappear.

Setting-up is easy but earning trust from users is hard so if you just want to set-up a fly-by-night exchange, you can always do so but don't expect that many users will just deposit blindly. And most crypto users are now smarter than before because of these hacking incidents as well as crypto exchanges shutting down their business, so they are really careful in using exchanges especially those small and low volume exchanges. Wash trading is common among them but you will know if they are doing it once you are familiar with the trading patterns and background of the coin.

[eaLiTy]

Does anyone else agree that it's way too easy to open an exchange nowadays, you just assemble a team and buy some trading platform software from a third party and set up your site, compliance be damned. And then some of them do things like listing scamcoins that can be predicted to become worthless, ripping off investors. If a stock were to do this, their owners would go to jail.

The only solution is strict regulation for exchanges to operate and taking a bank guarantee while listing the coins so that the developers will not dump the coins and run away. It is not that hard to start an exchange and anyone with basic knowledge of coding can come up with an exchange.

And then other exchanges blatantly misreport their trading volume as much higher than it actually is. If a regulated forex platform would to do this, they would be heavily fined.

Almost all of the exchanges in the cryptocurrency market shows fake volumes to attract the user base and as long as there is no regulation there is nothing you can do about it. There should be strict regulations for exchanges and for new projects that are raising money and there should be strict monitoring on how they are making use of that money.

[buwaytress]

That's the limbo we're all facing. Many crypto sectors could get away without complying to any regulations because there's no requirement but then we users should know better right? And that's why forums like these exist.

This is not to say that all platforms are meddling with numbers and such but the prevalence is high. Consumer protection and licensing might unravel a new hole shite pile of trouble at least when done traditionally, but this is something many finance sectors are dealing with - its not easy.

The bottom line is to always be protective over your money no matter in which platform it goes into. Oh yeah, and read the small prints!

We users should definitely know better and I know from my own personal experience that it is possible to be educated. I spent about THREE whole years being misinformed about Bitcoin before an accident and recovery gave me all the time in the world to actually sit down, read and understand it better. I felt like an idiot, but you know, we learn. And hopefully I've made the difference for a lot of people also (not by telling them about Bitcoin, but helping those seeking answers find them).

Always take responsibility, that is 100% the key!

[CryptopreneurBrainboss]

but in my opinion it is way too easy to set up an crypto exchange without worrying about the legal aspects. There should be more scrutiny and regulation around exchanges.

Not just your opinion but that's the truth, we're not in an industry dominate by the government and few big power houses that detect how the industry should be operated or is that want you were hoping the crypto industry.would be? Sorry to disappoint but we're in a free market, although weren't seeing much of decentralization thesw days but that's what the industry was built for. The scammers are taking advantage of this feature to scam gullible Investors off their capital but that's all on them and if I was to fall victim that's also on my for not doing proper research.

The OG in the industry foresaw all these distractions coming that's why they advocated for the abstaince of patronizing any garbage advertising themselves as some world class problem solvers using blockchain technology so if you fall for scam project using scam exchanges that's your problems. Why use new exchange you have no idea about when the current is serving you right?

[spike420211]

Wait. Who makes investors invest their money in fraudulent projects and exchanges of this kind?
Answer - Nobody.

You yourself decide where to invest your money. Nobody can deceive you if you yourself do not believe in deception.
There are hundreds of such exchanges with varying degrees of truthfulness, but it depends only on you whether you get into this ass or not.

If investors were smarter, these kinds of exchanges would never stand a chance.

[Insanerman]

The question is who will regulate them ? Many of this exchange are new exchange platform that exchange listing of shitcoin for new traders but get stuck in continuous listing of bad project. They also fake volume to rank higher in coinmarketcap and other crypto trading monitoring sites. Unless people stop patronizing them, they will never stop this. Some of them don't even have physical address which make it difficult to even sue or get then regulated

I think they do not care eve if the coin is shit or not. What matters to them is that they are getting payments from the owners of those coins or tokens.
The more tokens that will be listed on their exchange, the more money they can get.
Fake volumes are used by them to attract traders to invest on that particular coin.

It's illegal but it's hard to regulate them these days...

[Mpamaegbu]

I have wondered this too myself on why exchanges playing this deceit of falseness with trading volume are left unpunished. It's a burden on the entire crypto space. Yes, I know the industry isn't regulated yet (as it should be, apart from the KYC stuff), however I think something critical should be done in stopping exchanges from displaying fake trading volume by exposing and sanctioning defaulters. If this is done, it will go a long way in restoring investors' and traders' confidence in the industry like we have with Forex Trading.

[carlisle1]

I have wondered this too myself on why exchanges playing this deceit of falseness with trading volume are left unpunished. It's a burden on the entire crypto space.

Exchange are doing this to attract traders to use their platforms, you will only realized this once you are already being trapped, there's a big need of doing your research about both the projects and the exchange that you'll going to use before you take your chance to avoid losing your money.

Yes, I know the industry isn't regulated yet (as it should be, apart from the KYC stuff), however I think something critical should be done in stopping exchanges from displaying fake trading volume by exposing and sanctioning defaulters.

It's a good call for every traders and investors to avoid this kind of activities around exchange who are actively faking their volumes, without any takers this exchange will start to realized if they want to stay in the business they need to work with what traders and investors needs.

If this is done, it will go a long way in restoring investors' and traders' confidence in the industry like we have with Forex Trading.

Correct, exchange that being tag doing this will be avoided by traders, it will be a big damage to their service.

[MFahad]

Wait. Who makes investors invest their money in fraudulent projects and exchanges of this kind?
Answer - Nobody.

You yourself decide where to invest your money. Nobody can deceive you if you yourself do not believe in deception.
There are hundreds of such exchanges with varying degrees of truthfulness, but it depends only on you whether you get into this ass or not.

If investors were smarter, these kinds of exchanges would never stand a chance.

But sadly people still invest in these scam exchanges. People are so greedy that if those exchanges offer some bonus etc, people will rush and invest in those exchanges. Offering zero trading fee is another reason people trade at those exchanges. 

[cryptoperkele]

This will change in some time. Right now regulators are just catching up with this wild west and we really don't care about wash trading enough to even avoid such exchanges. It's like an open secret, almost everyone has been doing all along it but we have focused on exit scams / ico scams and stuff like that.

[Twentyonepaylots]

Does anyone else agree that it's way too easy to open an exchange nowadays,

It is not easy to open a safe and reputed exchange, but can be easy for scammers to set up a fake exchange.

Scammers these days are skilled and wise, they are ready to fake an exchange though it is hard that one, hard to get a client but that's they thing, if they fail they'll just have to move on and yes they got a lot of fund, they just keep upgrading and upgrading their schemes out of the money they got from the past scams. It ain't easy to open an exchange nowadays, I must say.

And then some of them do things like listing scamcoins that can be predicted to become worthless, ripping off investors. If a stock were to do this, their owners would go to jail.

There are scam in forex too but no opportunity to create new fiat money as all are centralized and owned by countries. Unlike, cryptocurrencies, they are decentrlaized and can be created by anybody, that is why some are subjected to pump and dump.

This is why investors have quit investing, this is true actually and I pity those projects that is legitimate but lacks of support coz most of investors think that it is a another scam project.

And then other exchanges blatantly misreport their trading volume as much higher than it actually is. If a regulated forex platform would to do this, they would be heavily fined.

That does not mean it is not happening in forex, a lot of scams that happen in crypto is occuring in forex too

Sure forex has their own share of scam platforms but in my opinion it is way too easy to set up an crypto exchange without worrying about the legal aspects. There should be more scrutiny and regulation around exchanges.

Imo, if you are talking about centralized crypto exchanges, they are also well regulated but there are some ways scam can be legit, a good example is the puming and dumping of coin. Aside forex, let me use a well reguated organization for you, have service sim provider scammed you before? They can scam people with as little as $0.1 dollar, why government never done anything?

Imo, not that crypto exchanges are not regulated, there are shady scam in forex too and it is everywhere like that. It is we that should be careful.

Scams are everywhere and we all should be wary of that, not just in forex, not just in crypto, even in real life, so it is better to have an actual knowledge than just knowing what a scam is.

[Mpamaegbu]

I have wondered this too myself on why exchanges playing this deceit of falseness with trading volume are left unpunished. It's a burden on the entire crypto space.

Exchange are doing this to attract traders to use their platforms.

But of course, it's obvious. But my concern is why can't these defaulting exchanges be punished and exposed?

...there's a big need of doing your research about both the projects and the exchange that you'll going to use before you take your chance to avoid losing your money.

Honestly, this DYOR thing people keep hammering here is not that easy as they paint the picture. It takes an experienced person to carry out, not just any person. Otherwise, all one's efforts attempting the DYOR thing would be one merely staring at websites. We shouldn't also be in a hurry to forget that even veteran members here also get caught in this web of deceit while in research too.

[MCobian]

Many people choose exchanges based on trading volume, but not all trading volume are real. You should not choose exchanges
based on trading volume, because it is easy to manipulate trading volume. It is true that it is very easy to open new exchanges,
But for the exchanges you have a lot of users it is very difficult. Because a good promotion is needed and also must a listing of
profitable coins. Regarding the legality of being able to choose centralized exchanges, usually already regulated by the government.
It is true that centralized exchanges are safer, but we are obliged to provide KYC procedures.

[DevilSlayer]

Many people choose exchanges based on trading volume, but not all trading volume are real. You should not choose exchanges
based on trading volume, because it is easy to manipulate trading volume. It is true that it is very easy to open new exchanges,
But for the exchanges you have a lot of users it is very difficult. Because a good promotion is needed and also must a listing of
profitable coins. Regarding the legality of being able to choose centralized exchanges, usually already regulated by the government.
It is true that centralized exchanges are safer, but we are obliged to provide KYC procedures.

Actually it is easy to identify if a certain exchanges are saying the truth or they keep making illusion in order to create fake volume by looking at the bids and asks board where there should be no gap and the tick should be close to each other, the reason why some exchanges are creating fake volume is simply because they want to create hype where they want many traders to use their exchange. Fake volume is a threat especially if we have large capital because we can be stuck if there is low liquidity.

[Akiko]

Actually it is easy to identify if a certain exchanges are saying the truth or they keep making illusion in order to create fake volume by looking at the bids and asks board where there should be no gap and the tick should be close to each other, the reason why some exchanges are creating fake volume is simply because they want to create hype where they want many traders to use their exchange. Fake volume is a threat especially if we have large capital because we can be stuck if there is low liquidity.

there is also other reason like many project here is looking to be listed in exchange that have a high daily  volume  .they make it to have more potential customer from a project that looking for an exchange that they will  list a project and asked only small fees for listing .,And newly project can easily fall in that since that is what they are looking .


Its easy to identify however not all is willing to take some time to check it.

[tvplus006]

I have already thought about this question before and the only correct solution to this problem is that Coinmarketcap must have its own bot on each exchange to correctly enter data about volumes in the rating. But given that the rating is owned by Binance, it may look like espionage.

[Harlot]

I do think you are talking about unlicensed exchanges here since they can easily get away with it without any authorities noticing it. For licensed and legally operating exchanges it will be harder for them to cheat and mislead their users as their data is always monitored by their country's SEC. I know that if they have produced fake volume on their exchanges they will be investigated right away since users will also report/complain about it. For unlicensed exchanges where they will barely have any customers will really get away with this since they aren't part of any surveillance like what a legal company is always is.

[Mahanton]

I do think you are talking about unlicensed exchanges here since they can easily get away with it without any authorities noticing it. For licensed and legally operating exchanges it will be harder for them to cheat and mislead their users as their data is always monitored by their country's SEC. I know that if they have produced fake volume on their exchanges they will be investigated right away since users will also report/complain about it. For unlicensed exchanges where they will barely have any customers will really get away with this since they aren't part of any surveillance like what a legal company is always is.

Centralized exchangers do really abide with some laws and regulations which the thing you said was actually right but they arent really that strict compared to forex/stocks
market which manipulation isnt really that too obvious but its surely there its surely does exist.The thing here on crypto is that it cant really be that  detected since
we do have huge volume plus having lots of coins that had been traded on where each user wont really bothering that much when it comes to an exchange liquidity
or volume.Back in the past where there are reports about wash trading which isnt really that surprising to happen into this market.

[BALIK]

Because they set up their companies in countries that don't give a flying fuck about what they do.

If this was a traditional trading platform, these wash trading exchange would be shut down immediately and the founders and participants would be charged with market manipulation. But because cryptocurrencies aren't regulated in most places, the government just doesn't care.

Plus, people continue to trade on these platforms, either because they're not aware that they are wash trading or because they somehow think it doesn't affect them.

I personally think CoinMarketCap, CoinGecko, and similar platforms are largely to blame for the continued success of exchanges that fake their volume. They should have a big bold stamp next to any exchange that has been proven to boost its volumes with dubious practices like wash trading. They are one of the main sources newbies use to find trading pairs and new exchanges, it is their duty to provide this information.

[Harlot]

I do think you are talking about unlicensed exchanges here since they can easily get away with it without any authorities noticing it. For licensed and legally operating exchanges it will be harder for them to cheat and mislead their users as their data is always monitored by their country's SEC. I know that if they have produced fake volume on their exchanges they will be investigated right away since users will also report/complain about it. For unlicensed exchanges where they will barely have any customers will really get away with this since they aren't part of any surveillance like what a legal company is always is.

Centralized exchangers do really abide with some laws and regulations which the thing you said was actually right but they arent really that strict compared to forex/stocks
market which manipulation isnt really that too obvious but its surely there its surely does exist.The thing here on crypto is that it cant really be that  detected since
we do have huge volume plus having lots of coins that had been traded on where each user wont really bothering that much when it comes to an exchange liquidity
or volume.Back in the past where there are reports about wash trading which isnt really that surprising to happen into this market.

Having "huge volumes" in an exchange isn't really a factor here if it is this will make it easier for the authorities to track them down as faking larger volumes of traders will be make it easier for them to catch the manipulation going on. Take US for example a bunch of analysis companies are helping them like Chainalysis this company has help them a lot on not only tracking down criminals but also anomalies and discrepancies happening in registered exchanges. With crypto exchanges being more regulated I doubt that they can even do large scale of data manipulation knowing that they are always someone's  radar.