A challenging market
We’ve seen a thing or two of the past decade during the highest highs and lowest lows. Competing company closures is surely one of the hardest to watch unfold. The world of cryptocurrency trading has seen a significant evolution over the years, with the advent of trading bots being one of the most notable developments. Trading bots, designed to automate trading strategies and execute trades with speed and precision, have been a game-changer for many traders. However, not all trading bot companies have managed to stay afloat in this highly competitive landscape.
Most recently Trality, Shrimpy.io, Tuned, and BitUniverse have decided to call it quits. Open-source relics like Zenbot and Gekko still have their archives visible to the public after years of inactivity. Let’s explore the reasons behind their demise.
Trality
What is Trality?
Trality was a platform designed to democratize algorithmic trading in the cryptocurrency market. It provided a space for both novice and experienced traders to create, backtest, and deploy their own trading bots. The platform aimed to make algorithmic trading accessible to a wider audience by offering a user-friendly interface and a range of tools to develop and optimize trading strategies.
Why did they close?
As of July 31, 2023, Trality has announced its decision to wind down its product. The company cited the increasing competition in the market and the difficulty in maintaining a sustainable business model as the primary reasons for its closure. Despite its innovative approach to algorithmic trading, Trality was unable to keep up with the rapidly evolving landscape of crypto trading. As an alternative, traders are now turning to platforms like Haasonline, which offer a comprehensive suite of tools for automated trading.
Is HaasOnline a viable alternative to Trality?
Yes, HaasOnline has always offered highly customizable trading bots, including a revolutionary visual designer. Trading bots can also be configured to trade based on remote signals from third-party providers that include TradingView and other popular services.
Shrimpy.io
What is Shrimpy.io?
Shrimpy.io was a social trading platform that provided automated portfolio management services for cryptocurrency traders. The platform offered a range of features, including portfolio rebalancing, backtesting, and strategy automation. It also allowed users to follow and copy the strategies of successful traders, a feature known as social trading. Shrimpy.io was aimed to simplify the process of managing a diverse cryptocurrency portfolio and executing complex trading strategies.
Why did they close?
In a letter to users, Shrimpy.io announced it was closing its doors on July 7, 2023. The exact reasons for its closure are not publicly stated, but it’s likely that the company faced similar challenges as Trality in maintaining a competitive edge in the market. Another speculation is that most large exchanges now directly offer trading bots such as Shrimpy’s popular rebalancing bot, hijacking their user base.
Is HaasOnline a viable alternative to Shrimpy.io?
Yes, one of the earliest innovations was the Portfolio HaasBot, which allowed traders to customize their own crypto index portfolios. HaasOnline also allows backtesting, paper trading, and many other tools required for crypto trading.
Tuned
What is Tuned.com?
Tuned.com replaced the need for in-house software engineering teams traditionally involved with establishing advanced trading operations. Completely eliminating up-front capital infrastructure expenses typically associated with managing and building a high-frequency trading solution.
Why did they close?
November 30, 2022, Alkarim Nasser, posted to their Discord that Tuned had officially closed their doors. As the world of crypto continues to consolidate and drive a more competitive landscape for small companies Tuned failed to secure $60m in funding from 3AC (which was ultimately insolvent). Then again a $10m deal fell through due to FTX & Alameda. According to a press release Tuned has been purchased by SageMaster, although not sure what that means for legacy Tuned customers.
Is HaasOnline a viable alternative to Tuned.com?
Yes, HaasOnline offers competing features and has always maintained their own scripting language known as HaasScript. Other highly desired features include backtesting, paper trading, and HaasLabs.
BitUniverse
What is BitUniverse?
BitUniverse was an all-in-one cryptocurrency management platform that offered a range of features to assist users in managing their cryptocurrency holdings. It calculated profit and loss, tracked coin prices in real-time, provided customizable alerts, and included a built-in decentralized wallet that supported Ethereum ERC-20 tokens. The platform was designed to be user-friendly and was available on both Android and iOS devices.
Why did they close?
A notice appeared on their website informing users that “We regret to inform you that due to the high maintenance cost of supporting APIs from major exchanges, we have made the difficult decision to cease operations of our product on 7/30/2023. Until then, you can continue to use our product, but please note that we will no longer provide updates and technical support.”
Is HaasOnline an alternative to BitUniverse?
Yes, HaasOnline has been a viable alternative since their inception. We offer backtesting, paper trading, and a plethora of bot templates. Need to go further? Well develop custom trading strategies using HaasScript.
NapBots
What is NapBots?
NapBots is a platform that provides automated cryptocurrency trading strategies. Users can connect their cryptocurrency exchange accounts to NapBots and then utilize the platform’s algorithms to automate their trading based on predefined or custom strategies.
Why did NapBots shutdown?
In a surprising move, NapBots, the automated cryptocurrency trading platform, ceased operations in January 2023. The exact reasons behind this sudden shutdown remain unknown, leaving the crypto community and many industry experts puzzled. Existing users of the platform were taken aback as their accounts were automatically closed, leaving them seeking alternatives and clarity on the situation. The unexpected closure has sparked widespread speculation and discussions about the future of automated crypto trading platforms and the factors that may have led to such a decision by NapBots.
Is HaasOnline a viable alternative to NapBots?
In the wake of NapBots’ unforeseen shutdown, many traders have been searching for reliable alternatives, and HaasOnline has always been a standout choice. Offering sophisticated trade bots, HaasOnline empowers users with the tools they need to automate and optimize their trading strategies. Additionally, the platform’s robust backtesting features enable traders to rigorously test their strategies against historical data, ensuring informed and data-driven decisions. Coupled with its support for a wide array of cryptocurrency exchanges, HaasOnline provides both versatility and depth, making it a compelling option for those seeking a comprehensive and dependable automated trading solution.
Open Source Projects
Zenbot
Zenbot is an open-source command-line cryptocurrency trading bot that supports multiple cryptocurrencies and exchanges. It offers a range of features, including high-frequency trading and arbitrage opportunities. However, the project’s GitHub repository has not seen any new commits for a while, suggesting that the project may no longer be actively maintained (“Zenbot on GitHub”).
Gekko
Gekko was another open-source trading bot and backtesting platform that supported 18 different Bitcoin exchanges. Like Zenbot, Gekko’s GitHub repository has not seen any recent activity, indicating that the project may have been abandoned (“Gekko on GitHub”).
The main developer moved on to provide market making services.
Why are trading bot companies and projects closing?
Direct exchange competition
Several factors have contributed to the closure of these trading bot companies. One significant factor is the emergence of exchanges offering directly competing products. Many exchanges have started to offer their own trading bots, which are often more integrated with the single exchange infrastructure and can offer lower fees.
There are several reasons why we prefer to see traders use third-party bots like HaasOnline some of them are:
- Limited customization to settings and bots
- Conflicts of interest by the exchange
- Reliance on a single exchange
- Lack of support or updates to trading strategies
Extremely competitive market
The landscape of crypto trading bots is also extremely competitive. With numerous companies offering similar services, standing out from the crowd and attracting a sufficient user base can be challenging. There is no shortage of cookie cutter trade bot services that are being deployed by mysterious companies driving down margins and clouding marketing efforts.
Retail demand dropping in turbulent crypto markets
Finally, the turbulent nature of the crypto markets may have led to a drop in retail demand for trading bots. During periods of high volatility and uncertainty, retail traders – who make up a significant portion of the user base for trading bots – may be less likely to engage in trading. You can also factor in the growing regulatory, geo-political, and other related crypto uncertainty driving a decline in crypto adoption.
Final Thoughts
During the past 10 years HaasOnline has been operating. We often see the closure of competing trading bot projects and serves as a reminder of the challenges that come with operating in the rapidly evolving crypto space. While trading bots can offer significant advantages, companies offering these services must continually innovate and adapt to stay competitive. As the landscape continues to change, it will be interesting to see how other trading bot companies navigate these challenges.
References
- “Trality Winding Down Product.” Trality, 2023, https://www.trality.com/blog/trality-winding-down-product.
- “Crypto Bots In Trouble – Shrimpy Calls It Quits” BraveNewCoin, 2023, https://bravenewcoin.com/insights/crypto-trading-bots-in-trouble
- “SageMaster announces acquisition of strategy development and quantitative trading platform Tuned.com” CoinTelegraph, 2023, https://cointelegraph.com/press-releases/sagemaster-announces-acquisition-of-strategy-development-and-quantitative-trading-platform-tunedcom
- Twitter tweet, Twitter, 2023, https://twitter.com/alkarim/status/1609345036445155330?s=20&t=yZvaqo1U4LmP5K3cFW3Q4g
- “Zenbot.” GitHub, https://github.com/DeviaVir/zenbot.
- “Gekko.” GitHub, https://github.com/askmike/gekko.
Frequently Asked Questions
Trality cited increasing competition and the difficulty in maintaining a sustainable business model as the primary reasons for its closure.
Haasonline is a viable alternative that offers a comprehensive suite of tools for automated trading.
The crypto trading bot landscape is competitive due to the large number of companies offering similar services and the emergence of exchanges offering their own trading bots.
During periods of high volatility and uncertainty in the crypto markets, retail traders may be less likely to engage in trading, leading to a drop in demand for trading bots.
Trading bot companies face several challenges, including maintaining a competitive edge in a crowded market, innovating and adapting to changes in the crypto space, and dealing with fluctuations in demand due to market volatility.
