Key takeaways:
Starting a crypto exchange business is now free due to open-source crypto technology and exchange software
Crypto technology is getting exponentially better for builders
Building with the technology is getting easier as more blockchains become standardized and widely adopted
People are building a preference for crypto exchanges as their personal bank
DeFi is also challenging this notion of a bank
HollaEx Kit is a white label solution to deploy a crypto exchange developed by bitHolla. This software has 2 main options: the open source “DIY” option which is completely free or the cloud service that assists with hosting and server management for a small fee.
The first version of the kit was launched in January 2020 and the second version has been released earlier this year and is a service provided by South Korean company bitHolla.
Indeed the company gained popularity through their first product, the trading platform XRayTrade (https://xray.trade/) and continued developing other boutique crypto solutions aimed at the Fintech sector and crypto enthusiasts.
Let’s deploy a crypto exchange
The whole experience of deploying a crypto exchange seemed surprisingly easy and understandable compared to other white label solutions out there which often sit behind a ‘contact us’ button to even get a look at the software.
Going through the HollaEx Kit setup is like setting up a currency exchange franchise like TravelEx but without the bureaucracy that money services typically come with.
Creating and deploying the exchange
Once you have signed up and created your account, the “First-Time Exchange Operator” page will load then you will be able to create your exchange.
The creation of the exchange is rythmed by the wizard that asks you the name for the exchange, the location and the logo. Note, all these steps can be changed later so you need not worry about getting everything exactly right straight away.
HollaEx offers the possibility to create your own token and this will be possible while creating the exchange in the Assets section.
Once the pair trading is defined and the cloud hosting option chosen, “go live” on the dashboard will deploy the exchange. It can take between 30 min to an hour – although it was written 30 minutes, the exchange actually took about an hour and a half to be fully deployed.
After you see the ‘completed’ text then your exchange website will be now accessible.
Setting up the exchange
When you finally visit the exchange domain for the first time you will be promoted to complete a few additional steps before the exchange can publicly operational: languages, time zone and assets.
Once you are in, there you can customize the theme and begin adding all the little details to make your platform special like an icon and changing the text to say exactly what you want.
Here is the review of the HollaEx kit 2.0 from bitHolla.
Pros
Automation: Having everything done for you without having to code is a big pro here. Once you sign to the dashboard all is explained. All you have to do is to set up the cloud option you want and the exchange deploys by itself by clicking on the “go live” button. It takes between 30 min to an hour.
Price: DIY Option for the cloud: you can deploy a crypto exchange for free avoiding many cost challenges.
Liquidity network: one of the main concerns for beginners in crypto when starting their own crypto exchange is the lack of liquidity. Therefore bitHolla took care of install a liquidity network in their kit.
UI/UX: clear and neat. Full customization is available.
Vault: integrated wallet with high level of security
Cons.
Some tech knowledge for the DIY option is required mainly for the hosting part and this is if you want to run the 100% free DIY exchange if not the cloud hosting offered by bitHolla is affordable enough to allow you to start in a more streamlined way.
The editing features are only available for the fonts and not for the website text font
Collateralisation in XHT to get the fiat currencies to work might be hard for some smaller startup to afford but is a necessity for serious businesses in order to connect with local traditional currency systems, like a local bank or fiat payment service
If you can’t read code this can still be a hard piece of technology to verify. There are other exchanges using the kit publicly available such as KoinKoin and XIV Exchange which helps with the verification but like all things, doing your own research here would be the only way to know if this solution is fitting for your project.
General customer experience
Easy-to-follow. 5-step exchange set up.
Self-explanatory. just add coins and you’re away.
In comparison to titans like AlphaPoint, the open-source HollaEx Kit solution is a new player in the white label exchange software space but has already carved out strong roots in the fintech space. Their main difference is the fact that their solution is very DIY originated which makes it very fast to test and best of all free to test. It is important to note that they also have an enterprise solution that allows larger businesses to totally retool and take the kit in other directions.
Conclusion
Overall, the experience is pretty fluid but it can take a bit more time for people that want to set up new coins or to use different domain names. The unique thing is you can really do-it-all-yourself.
This is one of the easiest and quickest solutions when it comes white label bitcoin and crypto exchange solutions. It is known that free software is worrying but this one is clearly of quality.
It is worth the try and it is free. There is truly nothing to lose.
For more information, here is the technical description of the kit and here for the setup explanation in detail.