Exodus Explainer: Asset availability
One of the most loved features of Exodus is the built-in exchange. Exodus is not just a simple wallet to store your blockchain assets. It comes with built-in exchange integration, so you can trade conveniently without sacrificing privacy and security. But it has certain limits, and it’s important to be aware of them so you can plan your trades accordingly.
One of these limits is network congestion, something we had already covered a few weeks ago. The other big one is asset availability. In fact, the most frequently asked question our support engineers get is “Why XYZ asset is unavailable?” To answer this, we need to dig a little bit deeper.
When an asset is unavailable for exchange in Exodus, that means it’s temporarily disabled with our exchange partners or withdrawals are delayed at major exchanges. This typically happens for one of two reasons. Either the exchange is performing wallet maintenance on that particular asset, or there’s a liquidity shortage. The first one is easier to understand. Crypto is moving at a breakneck speed, and such technological upgrades are frequent and necessary. These maintenance breaks usually don’t last too long (a couple of hours).
Liquidity shortages can take much longer. Let’s take EOS as an example! We’ve seen an unprecedented, parabolic run on EOS in the last few days. Everybody wanted to get on the train. But nobody has a crystal ball, not even our exchange partners. They keep a certain stock of each asset based on market trends and past demand, and they go to online exchanges to replenish them time to time. But when market euphoria kicks in, they can run out of stock pretty quickly, and they might not be able to tap into additional liquidity as there are not many sellers on the market. This is especially problematic when it happens to a smaller asset like EOS.
If you felt angry and annoyed by missing a bull run, we are right there with you. It is hard to digest, not just for you but for us, too. Taking a small portion of the spread on asset exchanges is how Exodus makes money. But if you understand why assets become unavailable, you can plan around it.
The best cure is prevention. If you spend just half an hour every day to check the charts, you might be able to find the possible breakouts, and you can hop on the rocket early. There’s usually plenty of liquidity.
If you miss the departure but you absolutely want to buy in, the best thing you can do is sending a part of your stack to an online exchange. They connect buyers and sellers directly, so liquidity is not a problem there: you can trade your Bitcoin to EOS or your Ethereum to OMG in a split second. But trading on an exchange means you sacrifice privacy (as they store all sorts of data about you) and you don’t own your private keys anymore. It’s a compromise, and only you can decide if it’s worth it.
And remember, while you might be annoyed over missing a trade today, on the grand scheme of things this doesn’t matter that much. Would you be furious entering Bitcoin at $10 instead of $8? We are still very early in this game.
We at Exodus can’t promise you we’ll always get it right, but you can be sure we’ve always got your back by keeping you informed about your options, offering 24/7 support if something goes wrong and making sure you have full control over your wealth.
Please reserve the Medium comments section for lively and honest discussion about the article! If you have technical issues with Exodus, our Community Support team will be happy to speedily assist you if you send a descriptive email to: support@exodus.io
