Coinbase hit with $300M token listing allegations by Sun, Cronje

From cointelegraph by Zoltan Vardai

Some of the biggest cryptocurrency exchanges allegedly ask for hundreds of millions of dollars for new token listings.

According to Tron founder Justin Sun, Coinbase asked for $330 million in total fees to list Tron TRX$0.1622. Sun posted on X on Nov. 4 saying that while Binance did not charge any fees, Coinbase requested 500 million TRX tokens (valued at around $80 million) and a $250 million Bitcoin deposit to be held in Coinbase Custody.

Coinbase listing fee allegations. Source: Justin Sun

While Sun’s comments may lack evidence, they come as a surprising development, considering that Coinbase claims to charge no fees for listing new cryptocurrencies.

“Asset listings on Coinbase are free,” Coinbase co-founder and CEO Brian Armstrong wrote in a Nov. 2 X post.

Asset listings are free. Source: Brian Armstrong

Binance and Coinbase are among the world’s most popular centralized crypto exchanges (CEXs). Binance is the world’s largest crypto exchange, controlling over 39.5% of the total spot crypto trading volume. Coinbase is the world’s sixth-largest exchange, controlling over 6.1% of the market share, CoinGecko data shows.

Cointelegraph has approached Coinbase and Binance for comment but received no replies by time of publishing.

Fantom token listing allegedly costs up to $300 million — Andre Cronje

Tron founder Sun was not the only crypto personality who made claims about token listing fees.

Andre Cronje, founder of the Fantom Network, posted that Coinbase had proposed various listing fees for Fantom FTM$0.569, ranging from $30 million to as high as $300 million. Cronje responded to Armstrong’s post, “Binance charged us $0. Coinbase has asked us for; $300 million, $50 million, $30 million, and more recently $60 million.”

Cronje listing fee allegations. Source: Andre Cronje

Andre Cronje is among the most respected founders in decentralized finance. Cronje’s Sonic blockchain claims to be the fastest Ethereum Virtual Machine chain that reached a “true” 720-ms finality in a testnet environment.

Previously, Cronje founded Yearn.finance and the Keep3r Network.

Binance was hit by similar allegations, and co-founder Yi He clarified that the company screens projects for listings, but does not charge a percentage of their tokens or a fixed amount.

Since 2018, Binance’s listing policy stipulates that all listing fees will be “transparent,” and 100% of the fees are donated to charity.

Are CEX listing fees setting the stage for a DEX takeover?

Following Sun and Cronje’s initial replies, hundreds of others have voiced their concerns over the sustainability of current CEXs.

Other exchanges are also asking for tens of millions in listing fees, wrote Simon Dedic, the CEO and partner at Moonrock Capital. This could set the stage fora departures to decentralized exchanges (DEXs), added Dedic in an Oct. 31 X post:

“I think it’s inevitable that DEXs will take over at some point.”

If confirmed, these rumors could set the stage for an expanding DEX landscape, responded crypto trader, analyst and entrepreneur Michaël van de Poppe in an Oct. 31 X post:

“I think that the DEXes are going to be way bigger as people are completely fed up with this structure. Exchanges have the power to literally kill your project.”

Over the past year, DEX trading volumes grew “significantly larger,” surpassing the monthly $250 billion mark in March and June for the first time since December 2021, accordingao an 0XScope research report shared with Cointelegraph.

As of Oct. 17, the DEX spot trading volume in relation to CEXs was at 13.6%, meaning that for every $1 billion traded on centralized exchanges, there is $136 million being traded on decentralized platforms.

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