Author: Mason Nystrom, Partner at Pantera Capital; Translated by: 0xjs@Golden Finance
There are several common crypto business models: exchanges and marketplaces, trade ordering, asset management. Let’s dive into some examples.
Exchange Model
Subset 1. Market Model – Transaction Fees
Creating new assets and markets (e.g. Polymarket, Perps)
Expanding access to emerging assets (Coinbase and BTC)
Convenience fee (Swap in wallet)
SaaS-enabled Marketplaces - Proven Marketplaces
Subset 2): Liquidity Services
Build valuable professional liquidity pools and charge terminal applications access fees (such as hooks) or market making fees (such as Swap)
DEX
Borrowing
MEV / Transaction Ordering: Owning and Monetizing Valuable Order Flow
App PFOF (e.g. TG Bots)
Sequencer mode - have your own sequencer and MEV (e.g. L2)
SaaS-powered transaction sequencing and monitoring — RaaS, RPC providers, security providers, oracles, etc.
Asset management: Fees are charged based on asset management scale or income
Custodian - earns fees based on assets
Staking providers, LST, LRT — earning part of the profits
Stablecoin issuers