2025’s Top 15 Crypto Exchanges Revealed: Mid-October Fee Wars & Security Showdown

Crypto's biggest trading platforms just got a brutal reality check. Here's who's winning—and who's bleeding users.

Fee structures slashed, security audits flaunted, and liquidity wars raging. The October shakeup reveals which exchanges still deserve your coins...and which might vanish by 2026.

Remember: 'Low fees' often mean 'selling your order flow'—but hey, Wall Street does it too.

Disagreements between IOG and Cardano foundation

The conflict between IOG and the Cardano Foundation is not a new one. Tensions have mounted over the years, especially regarding the allocation of treasury funds. A recent example is the proposal by the Cardano Foundation to reduce 31 million ADA from the 2025 ecosystem budget. The cuts mainly targeted the Core development funding allocated to IOG, which Hoskinson believes was an attempt to undermine his company’s efforts.

The conflicts have been further intensified by Hoskinson’s criticism of the Cardano Foundation’s unelected board, which he believes lacks accountability. He stated that last year, the board had planned to vote against the budget for the ecosystem, which he considered detrimental to Cardano’s development. Despite this tension, a few community members still call for a resolution to the rift and for both sides to work together for the sake of the project.

Midnight project, a bright spot for Cardano

Despite internal conflicts, Hoskinson has remained steadfast in promoting Cardano’s future, with a particular emphasis on the potential of the Midnight project. Speaking recently to the crypto Crow show, he called Midnight the “Most transformational project in Cardano’s history.” This privacy-oriented blockchain has been playing a key role in building vital partnerships for the ecosystem.

Hoskinson emphasized that Midnight’s partnerships, including its major collaborations with companies such as Brave, Blockchain.com, Bitcoin.com, and Google Cloud, are not only beneficial to Midnight but also to Cardano. He added that those partnerships are important because Midnight is a Cardano-native token, so whoever embraces it is essentially tapping into the Cardano ecosystem as well. 

Furthermore, the IOG CEO pointed out that Midnight will remedy some of the major Cardano setbacks, including the oracle and stablecoin issues. Additionally, Hoskinson revealed that Midnight WOULD be the first Cardano native token to be listed on all of the major exchanges.

Cardano has also been struggling in the wider cryptocurrency market due to the internal strife the company has been experiencing. The token recently lost key support levels, with ADA dropping below the $0.66 mark. The asset is currently down over 9% in the latest analysis.

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