LAToken was created to be a decentralized trading platform for a wide variety of assets. Currently you can trade a number of crypto-pairs and several ICO tokens with your LAToken account. The exchange differs somewhat from other decentralized exchanges since it has chosen directed acyclic graph (DAG) technology over the more common blockchain technology. The choice was made to use DAG for speed and volume, with an exchange expected to be able to handle massive volumes of transactions without delays.
The cryptocurrency exchange has its own token, the LAToken (LA), which is used as the base currency for nearly all the trading pairs on the exchange. You are also able to do instant exchange between LA, ETH and VEN.
LAToken is transparent about its founders, team and corporate structure. The project, which is incorporated as LAT Foundation PTE, was founded and is run by CEO Valentin Preobrazhensky. It’s also notable that LAToken has been the primary sponsor of a series of seminars known as the Blockchain Economic Forum.
LAToken Review: Advantages
This decentralized exchange isn’t perfect, but it does come with a number of strong advantages that distinguish it from its competition. One of those differences should be apparent already, and this is that LAToken is a unique and ambitious project. Most exchanges limit themselves to simply cryptocurrencies, but LAToken has plans to launch trading in equities, funds, real estate and even fine art. By tokenizing real world assets and bringing them onto the blockchain, cryptocurrency investors can diversify their holdings while remaining on a decentralized and trustless platform. While it hasn’t been rolled out live yet, the team has already successfully tested trading commodities and blue chip stocks.
A second advantage provided by LAToken is the ability to trade several dozen pairs of cryptocurrencies, some of which are smaller coins with less popularity. Added to that is the ability to get access to ICO tokens, and the instantaneous exchange possible for LA, ETH, and VEN. There are exchanges with a greater number of coins available, but the team at LAToken is understandably more focused on adding other assets rather than new coins at this time.
The web based trading platform is very user-friendly and this should provide the exchange with a large advantage over other exchanges, some of which are extremely difficult to navigate, or look as if they were built in 2002. As you can see below, LAToken gives an easy to navigate list of available pairs, a chart provided by TradingView that has dozens of technical indicators included, and easy to read order book, and a simple order form (far right). You can also switch between LA pairs, BTC pairs, ETH pairs and USDT pairs. Recently the exchange added support for deposits and withdrawals of Bitcoin.
One further strength of the LAToken platform is its focus on security. We all know how important security is in cryptocurrencies, and LAToken has tackled the security issue by building a custom 4-layer transaction security system. It also secures user accounts with two-factor authentication, encrypted passwords and keys, and has offline storage for 99.5% of all cryptocurrencies held on the platform.
LAToken Review: Disadvantages
No exchange is perfect, and LAToken is no exception. Here are some of the disadvantages I found when researching LAToken.
First of all, I was unable to find information regarding trading fees. It does mention that the fees at LAToken are low, and that they are applied on trades and withdrawals, but I couldn’t find specifics. The exchange does mention that trades using the LA Token receive a 50% discount, and since most of the pairs on the exchange are LA pairs it makes me think the normal fees are possibly a bit on the high side.
Although there are strong indications that LAToken is a Russian backed start-up, the actual LAT Foundation PTE is registered in the Cayman Islands (based on their Terms of Use the governing law for the exchange is on the Cayman Islands). We all know that offshore companies typically don’t inspire loads of trust, but in this case I think it can be overlooked. With the way the Russian Federation was eyeing anything crypto-related a few years ago it very likely didn’t make sense to take the risk of registering a crypto-exchange there. The company has stated on their website that they are working on acquiring all the necessary licenses for full-scale trading of asset tokens.
One potential downside for some, but not all, investors is the lack of margin or leveraged trading. Of course this is true for most cryptocurrency exchanges, although margin trading is becoming increasingly common. With the increase in margin trading at other exchanges it’s possible LAToken will also add margin trading, but in the meantime those looking for leverage can always head to a CFD broker where they can speculate on cryptocurency prices with much higher leverage anyway.
Currently the exchange does not support any fiat currencies, which makes it decidedly less attractive to those new to cryptocurrency investing. The exchange accepts ETH and recently added support for deposits and withdrawals of BTC. It also supports U.S. dollar Tether.
Finally, many of the more popular altcoins such as Ripple, Stellar, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin and others are totally unrepresented on LAToken. And while there are BTC pairs listed, and ETH pairs listed, you cannot trade BTC for ETH or vice versa.
LAToken Review: Conclusion
The LAToken exchange is a unique and ambitious project, but is still in development as of August 2018. The exchange claims trading in commodities and equities has been tested and will be available soon, but who knows if that’s accurate or not. The platform is admittedly quite nice, with a simple and easy to understand interface. And there are plenty of coins listed, although some of the top altcoins are conspicuous in their absence. Finally, the seeming focus on security is a good sign.
That said, there are a lot of unanswered questions regarding the exchange, such as the lack of information regarding fees. I’m also a bit skeptical when reading the long list of advanced enhancements being promised by LAToken. The primary is real-world asset tokenization, but they are also promising licensing for assets, decentralized instantaneous trading using DAG technology, and other features. All of these enhancements sound great on paper, but implementing just one, let alone all of them, will be no easy task.
Overall the exchange seems solid, but untested. Some of the problems might be dismissed as simply growing pains for a start-up company. Of course there are always plenty of other exchanges available to trade on who are more transparent and more developed.