yes, along with an even more lucrative stream called "order flow" which is practically an order book crystal ball that allows HFT shops to front run retail trad

yes, along with an even more lucrative stream called "order flow" which is practically an order book crystal ball that allows HFT shops to front run retail traders (and one another) some crypto exchanges also sell order flow but they don't really need to, as its far more profitable to front run their own users, whose entire account activity including sidelines and account balance transfers, is completely exposed to exchange insiders, who can trade against it. "oh look, whale user #4457 just transferred $100k of $COIN into their account. I wonder what they plan to do next?"