https://twitter.com/aergo_io/status/1966365713515634829
Crypto exchanges are no longer content with just being marketplaces. Increasingly, they are launching their own networks. On the surface, this appears to be a bid to reduce costs or capture transaction fees. But the real agenda is bigger: to become the gateway.
The Strategic Position of Exchanges
Exchanges already sit at the most valuable chokepoints in crypto:
- They own the user funnels.
- They aggregate liquidity.
- They provide fiat on/off ramps.
- They hold the keys to KYC and AML compliance, giving them regulatory leverage and privileged access to the intersection of traditional finance and crypto.
By creating their own blockchains, exchanges extend this power. They no longer just host trading. They design the rails on which trading, applications, and interactions take place. In doing so, they secure the single sign-on (SSO) layer for Web3 and dApps.
A Familiar Playbook: Enterprises and Stablecoins
This strategy mirrors what is happening in traditional finance. Top enterprises and financial institutions are increasingly launching their own stablecoins, not because they want to compete with Bitcoin or Ethereum directly, but because they see stablecoins as the gateway to the digital financial system. Whoever owns the stablecoin rails owns the access point to payments, settlements, and capital flows.
In both cases—exchanges with blockchains and enterprises with stablecoins—the logic is the same: secure the gateway, and you secure the market.
Lessons from the Internet
We’ve seen this dynamic before. In the early days of the web, Facebook dominated single sign-on (SSO) by making “Login with Facebook” the default across apps and websites. Today, that role has largely shifted to Google, which owns identity and access at internet scale.
Exchanges are now attempting to replicate this playbook for Web3. By pushing users and developers onto their own chains, they position themselves as the default login layer of the crypto economy. Meanwhile, enterprises aim to achieve the same goal in finance through stablecoins, thereby creating a default settlement layer for the digital economy.
The Bigger Picture
What looks like fragmented innovation is in fact the same strategic move: to own the gateway layer of the future.
Exchanges are building a crypto SSO for decentralized apps. Enterprises are building a financial SSO for digital payments.
Both are racing to become the indispensable entry point to their respective domains.
And yet, there is a third frontier emerging: the gateway for AI-native infrastructure. That story belongs to HPP, and it’s one we’ll explore in the next article.
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