WhiteBIT Coin WBT

The token of the WhiteBIT trading venue, issued as a contract on Ethereum. Like other exchange tokens it does not power a chain of its own: its purpose is defined entirely by one company's rules and can be changed by them.

Holding it brings reduced fees, higher limits and access to platform programmes, with the tier of privileges scaling to the balance held rather than to activity. Supply is reduced by periodic destruction of part of the issue — a mechanism that has become standard for exchange coins — while the original amount was set by the issuer in advance and is not replenished by mining.

The economics of such an asset differ fundamentally from a network coin's: demand is created not by the need to pay for network work but by the advantage of trading on one specific exchange, and it disappears along with that advantage. Valuing it means looking at the operator's business, not at protocol usage.

The risk in an exchange token is concentrated: it hangs on a single operator, its licences and the availability of its service to customers.