# Market Making on Regulated Venues: What the Books Show

> Order book depth is public and tells you more about a venue than its marketing does. What to look at and what it means.

- Source: https://astanacryptonotes.com/market-making-on-regulated-venues/
- Published: 2026-09-27
- Author: Yerlan Nurpeis
- Publication: Astana Crypto Notes — Dated notes from the AIFC
- Topic: exchange
- Tags: exchange, liquidity, method

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Depth is observable. It is the most honest public signal a venue produces, because it cannot be written by a marketing department.

## What to look at

The order book on the pairs you care about. Specifically: the spread at the top, the quantity within a small distance of the top, and how quickly the book refills after a trade.

Three observations, repeated at different hours.

## What a thin book looks like

A wide top spread, small quantities at each level, and large gaps between levels. An ordinary order moves the price visibly.

For a user this means the advertised fee is irrelevant; the book sets the cost.

## What a well-supported book looks like

Tight top spread, meaningful size within a fraction of a per cent, and rapid refill. That is market makers at work.

## What depth tells you about the venue

That someone is committing capital to quote there. Market makers do not provide depth on venues they distrust operationally.

It is an indirect credit assessment performed by people with money at risk, which is more than most users can do themselves.

## What it does not tell you

Whether the depth is genuine two-sided interest or a small number of participants. From outside, those look similar.

I note what the book shows and do not infer who is behind it.

## The hours effect

Depth varies through the day and collapses at weekends on smaller venues. Measuring once gives a misleading picture.

Three observations at different hours, minimum.

## Why this matters more than fees

Because for any order of meaningful size, slippage against a thin book exceeds any fee difference between venues.

Users compare schedules and trade against books.

## The practical routine

Before trading anywhere new, look at the book at your intended size. The arithmetic takes a minute and settles the question.

[Exchanges that list their regulatory permissions](https://collectnexchange.com/services/crypto-exchange) and publish their books let you do both checks in the same visit. [An exchange operating under a published licence](https://collectnexchange.com/compliance/cysec-licensed) has also been assessed by someone other than its own marketing, and [Collect & Exchange](https://collectnexchange.com/) quotes for size rather than leaving a large order to walk the book.

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This article explains how something works. It is not financial advice.
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