OKCoin achieved higher bitcoin trade volumes than other exchanges, including leaders Bitstamp and Bitfinex.
International bitcoin exchange OKCoin had higher BTC-USD activity today than other exchanges. In a 24-hour period the company transacted about 16.000 BTC.
In comparison, Bitstamp’s trade volume totaled 14,463.93 BTC, while those of BTC-e and Bitfinex amounted to 6,556.18 BTC and 15,552.2 BTC respectively.
This is the first time when OKCoin surpassed Bitstamp and Bitfinex, the world’s major exchanges, in trade volumes.
In an interview to CNN, OKCoin CTO, Changpeng Zhao, told that the upturn was rather unexpected. He said: “Honestly, we never know exactly what attracts the volume to our site. We have a few guesses. We just launched the Maker-Taker fee model.
Mr Zhao continued: “Now the volume contributor gets paid to trade on our exchange. This obviously will attract volume to OKCoin. But our volumes have been on a steady increase even before that.”
“OKCoin.com just came out of Beta a week ago. We have increased our marketing push since then. That helps too. Overall, we simply focus on making the products better. And the users (and volume) will follow,” he added.
Chinese exchanges admit that CNY trade volumes are often higher than those of their counterparts abroad. This is due to the fee-free trading platform that attracts traders not only from China, but from other countries.
OKCoin has been China’s leading exchange during some time, but entered international USD market only two months ago.
Over the last months, China-based exchanges have been integrating features that already exist on forex market platforms and that are developed to attract more international traders. Such features could also have an impact on escalated trade volumes.
Last week, OKCoin launched new ‘maker-taker’ system that is expected to raise the liquidity. OKCoin buyers and sellers usually pay fees for trading on the BTC/USD market. Under the model, those who set prices on the order book will earn some of the fees paid by the current traders.
Market makers currently earn 0.05% of a taker’s fee for buy and sell orders. For futures trading, makers will earn 0.005% of the taker’s fee. Market takers fees total 0.20% for entry level accounts, 0.10% for the ‘gold level’ accounts and 0.015% for futures traders.
If two orders are placed at the same time, the first will be a ‘maker’, while the second one will be a ‘taker’. This in turn urges traders to make faster orders and thus lead to higher liquidity.
Zhao noted the system could have possibly provoked the increase: “This obviously attracts volume to OKCoin. But our volumes have been steadily increasing even before that.”
“It’s usually a combination of factors,” he added. “Like any new business, you need to get everything right to succeed. There is no one specific thing what will guarantee you success, at least, we haven’t found it yet.”
Polina is an undergraduate student at Belarusian State Economic University (BSEU) where she is studying at the faculty of International Business Communication for a degree specializing in Intercultural Communication. In her spare time she enjoys drawing, music and travelling.