I agree that we're seeing an increase in partnerships between exchanges and start up projects but it's not really true that these small or medium exchanges are "begging" these project owners to list tokens or coins in their platform. With the increasing number of trading exchanges coming out, they've taken an extra step to market their platform by forming strategic partnerships. Other than IDEX, Coinbene and Bitmart also does this.
I do not think "begging" is the right word to use there. Perhaps "strategic partnership" is a better word as Zed pointed out.
We are seeing more and more of this type of collaboration now and I think it all started with the IEOs. Before, I only see LA Token do this but now many have already copied the idea.
Agreed. Fundamentally there is no reason why an exchange even
needs to ask to list a smart contract on their platform, they have the legal right to do so due to the decentralization of blockchain technology. They do not need permission, the only reason they would "ask" is in order to charge a fee or take a "donation". Think about it logically: Do ERC20 tokens need to ask
permission from "Ethereum" to create their smart contract? Obviously not.
If however, for some strange reason, an exchange is begging to
exclusively list a token then I'd recommend to stay away from these desperate exchanges. It should be a red flag that an exchange either lack necessary liquidity, and is therefore trying to increase volume, or is simply insolvent. Quadriga one?