They derive their value from a few key points:
- They use revenues to buy and burn tokens on the open market
- Holders of the token on the exchange get discounts on fees
- The exchange offers a variety of other benefits involving using/holding the token
The top exchange tokens in the market are:
- BNB - Exchange Token of Binance
- FTT - Exchange Token of FTX Exchange
- OKB - Exchange Token of OKEx
- HT - Exchange Token of Huobi
- LEO - Exchange Token of Bitfinex
- BTSE - Exchange Token of BTSE Exchange
They offer a variety of benefits but one thing has been interesting in this year when BTC has had significant volatility and crashes: their value is rather stable in the general crypto volatility.
The best part of holding exchange tokens is that even if markets are crashing the exchanges usually have high revenues because people are more actively trading when there is volatility in the prices. This way you benefit on down moves and up moves.
Are you hesitant to make exchange tokens part of your crypto portfolio? Reconsider this because you get an exposure to the crypto markets without having to be expecting a bull market. Derivatives exchange tokens especially, like FTT and BTSE and OKB -- tend to get good revenues from down markets too because you can short and make money. The more revenues they make, the more tokens they buy from the open market and burn -- which means more demand and less supply for the tokens you hold, i.e., more value!