What other analyses have you read? This was one of the worst "research" resources I read. Did they write off all exchanges that they identified to show abnormal trading patterns? Huobi and Bitmex are considered to trade $0 according to this research? This is a waste of everyone's time.
Yes, it's widely known exchanges wash trade. This does not mean that all their volume is fake. And it's true mex only trades contracts, but I'd note they're traded only with BTC collateral so bitcoin is still exchanged.
For the most part, this report basically ignores Asian exchange volume.
It's likely that a vast majority of their volume is fake. Why would you fake it to add 10%? In the absence of real numbers, treating it as 0 is likely more accurate than taking it at face value.
It would certainly be interesting to see an analysis of BitMEX.
Unregulated exchanges fake volume to stay competitive with the other unregulated exchanges. Treating those as 0 means you may as well say "only 5% of exchange volume is traded on regulated exchanges, and we don't have the slightest clue about the rest."
Re BitMEX it wasn’t included in this report because the report focuses on spot markets but agree it’s very relevant and will be the topic of future research.
Re Huobi, there is strong evidence of material falsified
