Market Maker Bots:
A-Book vs B-Book for Exchanges.

Without an active order book, early exchange users experience wide spreads, poor fills, and a frustrating experience — preventing the organic volume growth that would eventually solve the problem. Market maker bots break this cycle by providing automated, continuous order book depth from day one.

What a Market Maker Bot Does

The bot continuously places buy and sell orders at prices derived from a reference exchange (Binance, KuCoin, etc.) plus/minus a configured spread. It updates orders continuously as prices move, manages position risk, and maintains configurable order book depth. The result: your exchange looks liquid to incoming users before you have significant organic volume.

A-Book: The Hedged Model

Every trade on your exchange is immediately hedged on the reference exchange. You earn the spread between what the user paid and what the hedge cost. No directional position risk. Requires funded accounts on the reference exchange and sufficient liquidity there to hedge. Revenue is purely spread-based.

B-Book: The Internalised Model

The exchange is the counterparty to client trades. Client buys are not hedged — the exchange holds the opposite position. Potentially higher profitability on retail flow. No hedging costs. Requires capital to absorb adverse price movements and more complex risk management. More scrutiny in some jurisdictions.

Hybrid Model: The Practical Approach

Most operators B-book small trades (under a configurable threshold, e.g. $10,000) and A-book larger trades. This balances revenue optimisation on small retail flow with risk management on significant positions. The threshold is fully configurable per trading pair.

Reference Exchange Connectivity

Major connectors: Binance (deepest global liquidity), KuCoin (mid-cap altcoin coverage), MEXC (wide token range), Gate.io (DeFi-adjacent tokens), plus custom exchange integration. Each requires API access and funded accounts for A-book hedging.