With declining fortunes from a very depressed market, cryptocurrency exchanges are employing every trick in the book to attract and retain customers.
The market is now just a third of its value in January and volumes are low. Right now, zero commission exchanges are the in-thing. Robinhood was the first such business to entice customers with the offer.
Voyager, is the latest to dangle this option as the competition for new customers gets tough.
Trading fees form the major if not the only source of revenue for such platforms. So, how does Voyager, a start up at that intend to make its money?
For a start, it will display average cryptocurrency prices from about 10 exchanges worldwide offering customers some of the best prices. As to how it will make its money, Voyager believes it can get better prices for every buy and sell orders a customer places.
Voyager is backed by some early Uber investors like Oscar Salazar, the founding CTO at Uber and entrepreneurs like Gaspard de Dreuzy who is now the chief product officer at Voyager and Philip Eytan, another Uber investor serving as the chairman.
If all goes well, the mobile app is expected to go live around October. Right now, the platform is undergoing beta testing.
No minimum deposit
CEO Ehrlich told Fortune the company has raised capital from only friends and family. When it launches, the app will be funded both with fiat and cryptocurrencies. There will be no minimum deposit. It will also come with additional features such as news feeds and alerts to “help users make smarter and informed decisions.”
The platform will offer 15 cryptocurrencies for trading although the list is yet to be finalised. However, it will include major ones like Bitcoin, Ethereum, ethereum classic and Litecoin.
While Voyager is already licensed in states such as California and Missouri, it yet to get the green light from states such as New York. The ultimate goal is to have it registered in at least 40 state
Fragmented ecosystem
“Our multi-exchange platform will help aggregate and unify a largely fragmented ecosystem, offering retail investors fast execution and better pricing. Additionally, we have developed and adopted best-in-class security practices in line with banking, brokerage and healthcare standards offering investors a safe and secure environment to invest in this new asset class,” Ehrlich said.
Robinhood was the first platform to offer zero commission trading earlier this year but only offers five crytoassets. Voyager is obviously looking to gain some advantage with a wider selection as it also seeks to claw back the lead from players such as Coinbase.
It is also banking on better customer service, a serious issue in the industry.
There is still indeed a huge base of potential customers who are yet to get into cryptocurrencies. Whether they translate into real customers will largely depend on how the market develops in the coming months.