What the article dances around is the Efficient Market Hypothesis, which, in short, claims that there is one true price for every financial asset. No market is

What the article dances around is the Efficient Market Hypothesis, which, in short, claims that there is one true price for every financial asset. No market is truly efficient, but some are more efficient than others. Low spreads and lack of arbitrage opportunities (the ability to buy an asset on one exchange and immediately sell it on another for a profit) are signs of a more efficient market. Bitcoin, clearly, is far from an efficient market. Everybody knows that. A lot of people are profiting from that, although there is a significant risk involved from the shoddy state of most exchanges. As a nitpick, smart order routing is not something stock and futures exchanges give you, it's a layer you can buy or build on top of the available exchanges.