Token burns provide insights into exchange profitability; down nearly 70% from Q2

All major cryptocurrency exchanges are owned privately, which means any financial insights into the business are hard to come by. In fact, none of the exchanges publish financial statements. Running a cryptocurrency exchange is a highly profitable business; especially in a bull market. What was never quite known is exactly how profitable. According to a document reviewed by Bloomberg in October, Coinbase had projected $456 million of profits in 2018, though whether they hit their target remains uncertain.

Some exchanges have issued their own token, which is then destroyed on a quarterly basis depending on how much profit the exchange brings in. The most prominent example is Binance, which uses 20 percent of its profits to buy back BNB, eventually destroying half of the total issue supplied. The other two exchanges that have a similar mechanism is place are KuCoin and Bibox - KuCoin burns 10 percent of the quarterly profits in KuCoin Shares (KCS) while Bibox burns 25 percent of profits in Bibox Token (BIX).