Former Bitget Listing Head WhiteForest Questions Underlying Rules
WhiteForest, who managed Bitget's spot listing business for three years, publicly stated that exchanges (CEX), intermediaries, and project parties together form a complete listing industry chain, with each part being indispensable.
He mentioned that during his three years managing Bitget's spot listings, he had not heard of any intermediaries that could assist in facilitating listings on Bitget; however, he observed that other exchanges, especially smaller platforms, often have similar channels for assisting listings.
He then questioned his own judgment, asking, "Am I in an information bubble?"—expressing uncertainty about whether his experience of not encountering such intermediary channels during his three years at Bitget represents the true situation of the entire industry.
He also commented that whether a person is guilty can be seen from their manner of speaking; he specifically noted that "Old Xu" and "Sister Yi" appeared very calm in their responses to related topics, interpreting this calmness as evidence that the two "definitely did not receive money."
From this statement, the industry mechanism can be inferred: in the listing industry chain, intermediaries play a role in facilitating information and resources between project parties and exchanges. Project parties are willing to pay fees for faster and more certain listing results, while the personnel responsible for listing reviews within the exchange hold the final decision-making power. WhiteForest's remarks suggest that the smaller the exchange, the greater the potential for intermediaries to play a role—often because larger exchanges have stronger decision-making processes and external supervisory pressures, making it more difficult for intermediaries to infiltrate and manipulate a single link; whereas smaller exchanges, due to a more urgent need for traffic and listing fee income, may have a higher tolerance or dependence on intermediary channels. It should be noted that WhiteForest's statements did not provide specific exchange names or amounts and are based on his personal observations, which do not constitute verifiable specific accusations.
Source: Public Information
ABAB AI Insight
The issue of listing fees/intermediaries at cryptocurrency exchanges is not new—over the past few years, several leading exchanges, including Binance and Huobi, have been publicly accused by former employees or industry insiders of engaging in gray operations regarding listing fees. There have also been multiple public denials from exchanges regarding the collection of listing fees, leading to a recurring tug-of-war of "insider revelations vs. official denials" in the industry, and WhiteForest's recent comments continue this long-standing controversy.
If intermediary channels for listings do exist, the typical funding path is: project parties pay fees to intermediaries to obtain listing qualifications, and intermediaries then pass part of the fees to decision-making personnel or teams within the exchange. The motivation for project parties is that successfully listing on an exchange often directly leads to trading volume and liquidity for the token, indirectly affecting token valuation and financing narratives. This makes some project parties with limited financial strength but eager to create liquidity narratives willing to pay extra fees to expedite the listing process.
Similar "gray industry chain" controversies regarding listings have previously been discussed in several centralized exchanges, with the general understanding in the industry being that the lower the tier of the exchange, the greater the pressure for traffic and income, leading to a higher degree of reliance on listing fees and related intermediary channels. This phenomenon bears structural similarities to the higher reliance on "market maker rebates" and "listing advisory fees" seen in some smaller exchanges or over-the-counter markets in traditional finance. Currently, the entire CEX industry is under strong regulatory trends, and compliance in listings is becoming a sensitive topic for reputation management among exchanges.
Structurally, this is essentially a transfer of pricing power: when the decision-making power for listings at exchanges is concentrated in the hands of a few internal review personnel and lacks sufficient external oversight, this decision-making power itself becomes a scarce resource that can be priced and rented. The role of intermediaries is to discover and facilitate transactions involving this pricing power; leading exchanges, through more robust internal processes and external reputational pressures, integrate this pricing power into the overall decision-making mechanism of the platform, while smaller exchanges, under traffic anxiety, are more likely to allow individual decision-making powers to flow back into the rent-seeking gray area.
ABAB News · Cognitive Laws
- The more concentrated the decision-making power, the easier it is to price it.
- Calmness is evidence, and so is guilt.
- The smaller the platform, the more valuable the intermediaries.