One villain here is CoinMarketCap, which obviously knows most of its listed exchanges are fake yet continue to show their reported volumes. I believe they are paid by fraudulent exchanges to do this. CMC's product is solid but its values are corrupt.
They do their best to remove fake volume as far as they can tell. And in my opinion it's best to list the exchanges and assets and let the users form their own conclusions than to be a centralized gatekeeper.
I work in this industry, and they do not do their best. The Blockchain Transparency Institute lists OKex as only 11% real volume[0] yet it is the 6th biggest exchange[1]. Repeat for many other exchanges. Simply put, they need to remove most of the exchanges.
If I have taken anything away from 2018, it's that people generally do not form their own conclusions. We need gatekeepers more than ever today because fraudulent data and information is so easily created.
When 95% of volume was studied to be fake, even if they were 50% off in their estimate there is an absolute need for Coin Market Cap to be a gate keeper.
