Customer Acquisition Cost for a new exchange

[maurobiasolo]

Hello guys,
I was reading a recent article claiming that Coinbase CAC is around 5$ (raising from last year 4.x$). Frankly speaking, I was thinking of much higher costs.

By the way, I'm doing research to launch a new crypto exchange but can't find accurate (or even not accurate) data related to the crypto industry CAC. Obviously, figures will be higher than Coinbase but I can't really estimate how much.
If I use forex platform numbers, they claim around 1000$ per customer, but I don't really believe that brand new exchanges are paying that much.

Can anybody help me?

[SFR10]

By the way, I'm doing research to launch a new crypto exchange but can't find accurate (or even not accurate) data related to the crypto industry CAC. Obviously, figures will be higher than Coinbase but I can't really estimate how much.
If I use forex platform numbers, they claim around 1000$ per customer, but I don't really believe that brand new exchanges are paying that much.

I managed to find one that shows the average for various industries ^{[I do know you mentioned crypto industry but this is the closest one that I could find]}: Average Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) By Industry

• Surprisingly, their numbers ^{[for financial services]} almost match with what you've got from Forex:
  
  • $644 ^[organic]
  • $1,202^[inorganic]

Even though those numbers heavily depend on how each of the exchanges tries to acquire customers, I strongly believe that when it comes to most of the new exchanges, it should be within the following lines:

Customer Acquisition Cost
Considering OkCoin is really small in the US, I’d assume that the biggest acquisition channel would be paid marketing and will include CAC into my revenue calculation. From what I’ve seen in the industry you can acquire User for roughly $50. Over a period of time I am assuming non-paid channels will come up (like referral) and acquisition will start reducing by 4% Month Over Month.

[Theb]

You won't really find Customer Acquisition Cost being given in any data not unless you go to those big financial companies like Bloomberg where they calculate one for you these data is something computed manually by investors/traders looking for the fundamentals and if you can find the financial statements of each company you can use this formula.

Code:

Cost of Sale + Marketing Expenses
_____________________________
Total number of Customers this Year - Total number of Customers last Year

Also don't expect to get the exact terminology you see in the screen as companies might use a different term such as advertising expense or you might even see Cost of Sale and Marketing expenses being combined into 1 line item.  Also one of the reasons why you won't see this data available for the crypto industry is that exchanges don't really release their yearly financial statements as most of them are not public companies yet.

[LeGaulois]

Frankly speaking, I was thinking of much higher costs.

The company is now 'old' and one of the first wallets still alive, it makes a difference.

With the passing years, it's not something so surprising and I find the CAC quite relevant when you look at its reputation and the coverage in the media, etc. They have much more organic traffic than other companies, and mouth-to-mouth certainly works better than elsewhere. Not to mention the affiliate program with the $10 bonus offer (if it still exists) which helps (or has helped) a lot


Personally, I would rather estimate the cost compared to a neo-bank rather than a forex platform.
$1,000 for a brand new company is near out of mind

[maurobiasolo]

I did some more research and asked a connection of mine working in Binance (marketing dept - EU): he couldn't share exact figures but said to focus on the 100-200$ range

I also checked Newbanks and their CAC is around 40$ (at least, in Europe). [https://irp-cdn.multiscreensite.com/91156662/files/uploaded/NeoBanks%20Performance%20and%20New%20Ideas%20Finnovate_v7_10_11_2018.pdf]


I also find this whitepaper

https://morfin.io/wp-content/uploads/whitepaper-v5.1-1.pdf

pretty detailed and they estimated a 14$ CAC (too low)

Overall, for my analysis I'll take the 100$: I know that numbers can be improved with SEO and good affiliation but this would take too long for the investors I'm talking with.

Now I need to focus on the average return (which seems very hard to compute)