Digital-asset exchanges are emerging as one of the biggest winners of the cryptocurrency boom.
The top 10 are generating as much $3 million in fees a day — or heading for more than $1 billion per year — according to estimates compiled by Bloomberg using trading volume reported on data tracker CoinMarketCap.com and fee information on the exchanges' websites. Fees in the lowest range of the exchanges' scales were used for the calculations.
The projections are a rough estimate as it's near impossible to know what exactly the closely held firms are charging, including discounts for their most active traders. Based on daily trading volume and fees listed, annual revenue for the top 10 goes into the billions of dollars. While the numbers aren't exact, the order of magnitude shows the boom in virtual currencies is generating some very real cash.