Yes, adding delay generally lowers the economic value of markets. In addition to improving liquidity, as mentioned by others here, HFT also improves the relati

Yes, adding delay generally lowers the economic value of markets. In addition to improving liquidity, as mentioned by others here, HFT also improves the relative pricing of related instruments. There is an enormous number of financial instruments traded for the purpose of prioritizing resources, transforming assets, and offsetting risk. Equities and cryptocurrencies are a small part of this connected financial universe. There are many trading entities with unique information and/or understanding about different parts of this constantly changing universe of prices. None of them has a complete view, but by communicating with each other through trading, their expertise is pooled. HFT speeds this communication network, which improves the dynamic consensus.