An exchange without depth is a landing page with a chart on it.
The first thing any serious trader does on a new venue is check the spread and the size behind it. That check takes four seconds and decides everything. A beautiful interface over an empty book converts nobody.
What market makers actually do
A market maker quotes continuously on both sides of the book. They post a bid and an ask, earn the spread, and manage the inventory risk of holding assets they did not choose to hold.
They are independent firms. You contract them directly — we make introductions and build the integrations, but the commercial relationship is yours and the liquidity is theirs.
The value is not that they generate volume. It is that any trader arriving at your venue finds something to trade against at a sensible price, which is the difference between a market and a listing.
Arranging it before launch
This gets sequenced wrong constantly.
Teams build the venue, plan the launch campaign, and treat liquidity as something to sort out once users arrive. The result is a launch day where the first cohort of traders — the ones who came because of the campaign you paid for — find a book they cannot use.
They do not come back. First impressions on a trading venue are close to permanent, because there is no shortage of alternatives.
Start these conversations while the engine is still being built. The integration work is not trivial and the commercial negotiation takes time.
The obligations matter more than the fee
An arrangement without obligations buys you a name to put in a press release.
What a real agreement specifies:
- Uptime — what percentage of the time they are quoting.
- Maximum spread — how wide they are allowed to go.
- Minimum depth — how much size sits at defined distances from mid.
- Which pairs, and what happens when you add more.
These are what you actually manage against. A firm quoting two hours a day at a wide spread is technically providing liquidity and practically providing nothing.
Fee structures that make quoting worthwhile
Market makers are running a business with thin margins and real inventory risk. The fee structure has to leave room for that or they will quote wider to compensate.
Maker rebates are the standard mechanism — paying firms that add liquidity and charging those that take it. Getting the ratio right is a genuine design problem: too generous and you subsidise a book nobody trades against, too thin and your spreads widen until traders leave.
This is worth modelling properly against your expected volume rather than copying another venue’s schedule.
Use more than one
A single market maker is a single point of failure with a commercial relationship attached.
Their risk limits change. Their appetite for your pairs changes. They have outages. And with one firm quoting, there is nothing competing your spreads tighter.
Two or three firms, with overlapping obligations on your main pairs, produces a visibly better book and removes the dependency.
Depth and volume are different things
Worth being precise, because the industry conflates them deliberately.
Volume is how much has traded. It can be manufactured, and in this industry frequently is.
Depth is how much can trade near the current price without moving it. It is much harder to fake, which is why experienced participants look at the book rather than the ticker.
Optimise for depth. Volume that arrives on a thin book produces slippage complaints and tells serious traders the venue is not ready.
What we do
Introductions to firms we have worked with, the API integration on your side, fee structure design, and testing the connection under realistic conditions before go-live so the book is genuinely live on day one.
The market makers remain independent vendors you contract directly. We build the plumbing and make sure it works.
Common questions
How does a new crypto exchange get liquidity?
Through market makers, who are independent firms that quote continuously on both sides of the book in return for fee arrangements and sometimes inventory support. You contract them directly. A new venue arranges these relationships before launch rather than after, because a launch day with empty books is the impression traders keep. Corum8 makes introductions and builds the API integrations; we do not provide liquidity ourselves.
What does a market maker cost an exchange?
Arrangements vary and are negotiated directly between you and the firm. Common structures include reduced or rebated fees, a monthly arrangement, inventory or loan facilities, and sometimes token allocations on a token listing. What matters more than the headline number is the obligation attached: uptime commitments, maximum spread and minimum depth at defined levels. An arrangement without obligations buys you a logo rather than a book.
How many market makers does an exchange need?
More than one, for the same reason you want more than one of anything critical. A single firm means your entire book depends on their appetite, their risk limits and their uptime. Two or three creates genuine competition on spread and removes the single point of failure. Most established venues run several with different obligations across different pairs.
What is the difference between liquidity and volume?
Depth is how much can be traded near the current price without moving it. Volume is how much has been traded. Volume can be manufactured and depth is much harder to fake, which is why serious traders check the book rather than the ticker. A venue reporting large volume with a thin book is describing activity rather than a market, and experienced participants read that immediately.
Does Corum8 provide liquidity?
No. Market makers are independent third-party firms that you contract directly. What we do is make introductions, build the API integrations, design the fee structures that make quoting worthwhile, and make sure the book is connected and tested before go-live. We do not provide liquidity or operate market making ourselves.
