In the world of investing, cryptocurrencies have been causing something of a stir lately. Popular coins like Bitcoin, for example, have enjoyed some exciting price action in recent years and the entire crypto market has grown immensely in the last decade or so.
Although investors themselves are key to this, the choice of safe online exchanges to trade at has also helped. The OKX cryptocurrency exchange is a great example and shows just what the best exchanges can offer to investors. Of course, running a successful exchange can also be a great way of making money from this market.
Due to this, many people are starting to wonder about setting up their own exchange. Although it is not easy, it can be done if you have the knowledge and the money. But how do you build a crypto exchange?
Get the legal paperwork in order
Although it might not be the most exciting part of starting your own crypto exchange, this first step is essential. Without looking into this and getting the right paperwork completed to open up, you are dead in the water.
It’s critical to fully research the regulatory demands of running an exchange where you propose operating and take steps to gain all the approvals and licenses you need. It is also important to hire a qualified legal professional (such as an attorney) at this stage to offer expert guidance.
Look for funding
As with any new venture, starting up your own crypto exchange will cause you to incur significant costs. It is key to fully research these costs (including those such as legal advice, tech costs and marketing) and write out a coherent business plan based on them.
From this, you can then look into how you will fund your new exchange. Whether it is by bank loan, a loan from a venture capital firm or money from elsewhere, you must have enough capital behind you, to begin with.
Track down a top-level tech provider
It goes without saying that an online venture such as a crypto exchange lives or dies on the latest technology that powers it. It is therefore important to look for the right tech provider for your new exchange.
Key things to look at here include the provider’s fees, their reputation, how good their customer support is and what features their exchange platform comes with. At this stage, you may also want to think about exactly which coins your exchange will support and whether the provider you pick has your preferences covered.
Find a secure payment processor
The next part of your journey to setting up a crypto exchange should be deciding which payment processor to use on-site. When deciding which to use, you should look at aspects like how secure they are, what fees they charge, how well known they are within the sector and how easy their solution is to implement on-site.
Focus on high-end customer support and online security
When setting up an exchange, it is important to build high-end security to keep users safe. Features such as two-factor account authentication, encrypted databases and robust firewalls are all aspects to consider.
It is also worth paying attention to customer support, as this can really help you build up a stellar reputation online. 24/7 live chat support can help with this, as can including a comprehensive FAQ section on your site.
Go live with a period of beta testing
The above steps should now leave you with a fully formed crypto exchange. Before you go live, though, it is wise to engage in a period of beta testing. This entails letting a select group of people have access to the platform, so they can report any issue they come across. By doing this, you can fix any problems before it goes fully live.
Launch fully and start the PR push
Once you have finished beta testing and ironed out any issues, the time has come to launch to market properly. This will, of course, involves a carefully planned marketing campaign, which will let the world know you exist and why they should trade with you. Many exchanges will focus on social media platforms to do this but there are also other methods like PPC advertising and sending out press releases to consider.
Steps to creating your own crypto exchange
There is no doubt that the global cryptocurrency market has really taken off in the last few years. While this has seen many people come into it as investors, others have decided to enter the market with their own trading exchanges. If you fancy doing this but don’t know-how, the points discussed here make a great starting point.