Crypto exchanges used to compete on fairly simple things. Lower fees, broader token listings, rewards programs, and cleaner user interfaces were usually enough to attract users during earlier market cycles.

At the time, the industry was smaller, traders were less demanding, and almost every major platform was experiencing rapid growth regardless of execution quality. Today, the environment looks very different.

The market has become far more fragmented, while both institutional and professional traders have become significantly more selective about where they execute trades. Exchanges are no longer judged only by marketing or token variety.

Increasingly, traders care about spread stability, order book depth, execution quality, and whether…