Note that the native tokens of centralised cryptocurrency exchanges were the least affected coin category during the second quarter of 2022. They sagged by around 35 per cent over the period. Bitcoin lost just over 50 percent of its price, while decentralised finance was the most vulnerable.

Q2 2022 results for cryptocurrencies from different categories

Despite this, things are not going well for some exchanges. This is causing them to make some rather strange moves.

Cryptocurrency exchanges innovations

In general, we are talking about a commission of €10 per month for people whose balance does not exceed $200 and who have not traded, funded or stacked coins for at least a year. Bitstamp’s fee will not apply to users from the United States or those whose account balance exceeds $200.

Exchange representatives said that the innovation will bypass most of their customers altogether. In order to avoid paying the fee, everyone else needs to at least occasionally conduct transactions from their account, open transactions or participate in the staking procedure, CryptoSlate reported.

Here’s a quote from platform representatives with which they explained the decision.

Maintaining inactive accounts requires funding. In order for us to continue to serve our customers, we had to make the tough decision to introduce a new type of commission.

In other words, the main reason for the innovation was the cost of maintaining the accounts. Why traders with accounts over $200 were not affected by this commission is unclear. Obviously, their liquidity is necessary for the platform, and periodic transactions of owners of such accounts also bring profit to the company.

Explanation of the fee from Bitstamp

Bitstamp’s decision has sparked a negative reaction in the cryptocurrency community. Many on Twitter said that such a policy would force a notable number of users to switch to other exchanges. Here’s a rejoinder from one of the critics.

Bitstamp will charge you for lack of activity when they can’t even organise normal trading commissions. Very clever, a great way to attract new users… to other exchanges.

By the way, Bitstamp is not the only exchange where such innovation appeared. No-activity commission was also introduced on Crypto.com and eToro trading platforms. However, the latter only removes the fee if the user has not logged into their account at all for more than a year.

It should be noted that the criticism did have an effect on the exchange representatives. Tonight they announced that they are cancelling the decision on the commissions. Accordingly, nothing of the kind will be introduced. An explanation for this was published on Twitter.

We will not be introducing a €10 commission for inactivity. Thank you for voicing your opinion – we have heard it and changed the course.

After Bitcoin’s fall not only entire companies, but also individual investors have to “get out of it”. A telling example is the story of cryptocurrency enthusiast Isaiah from Ohio. After BTC collapsed to $20,000, he started moonlighting as a courier at DoorDash, a US food delivery service, to save up more money to buy coins. He is quoted by Cointelegraph.

I joined DoorDash two years ago. However, I only recently went back to work when the price of Bitcoin dropped to $20,000.

In other words, the crypto investor decided to find additional sources of income to put towards buying coins. Which means his power in digital assets is clearly very strong, since he is willing to spend his time solely for the sake of buying bitcoins.

Initially, Isaiah only got into DoorDash because of the extra income, but now he is purposefully willing to spend that money on BTCs. On his Twitter, he even counts his income from orders in satoshi, which is the smallest indivisible part of bitcoin.

I earn about 36 thousand satoshis, or about $7 per order. The delivery path after the main job will continue until Bitcoin is above its 200-week moving average!

The crypto-enthusiast believes that right now Bitcoin's price is simply "too attractive" not to buy the cryptocurrency. Once it rises slightly above the line he mentioned on the chart, Isaiah is likely to stop working as a courier and focus on his main job. You can see that very line in the chart below.

The line mentioned by the crypto-enthusiast on the Bitcoin chart

A strategy like this sounds about right. Still, right now the cryptocurrency is most likely in the accumulation phase and is worth considerably less than its peak, so market players have no choice but to regularly buy coins in anticipation of the next big bull run. If the upside phase does come, then those who like to accumulate crypto at low prices will clearly be at a big profit.

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