Private Equity firm is acquiring a lot of currency conversion APIs

[leosantos]

I'm working on a side project that needed a currency conversion API, and I'd originally started using https://exchangeratesapi.io/ which until a few days ago was a free API - https://web.archive.org/web/20210328014153/https://exchangeratesapi.io/

As of today, it is now a paid API, and says it's operated by apilayer (which was recently acquired by a private equity firm).

It seems like they've acquired a decent number of currency conversion APIs:

1. https://openrates.io/ 2. https://currencystack.io/ 3. https://fixer.io

And probably a few more.

It's almost amazing how private equity strategy works :)

[protoduction]

If anybody is looking for a free alternative that just works, I'm using [1] for a demo on my product's homepage [2]. I suppose it is a bit different in scope though (updated daily instead of near realtime).

[1]: https://exchangerate.host/ [2]: https://starboard.gg/#visualization

[junon]

At what point does this sort of thing become legally questionable?

[webmaven]

> At what point does this sort of thing become legally questionable?

Only at the point where the roll-up creates a dominant player (or several, ie. a monopoly, duopoly, or oligopoly[0]) and antitrust rules kick in to prevent further consolidation or abuse (of various sorts) of the dominant position(s).

[0] In theory, antitrust also protects from abuse of monopsonies etc., but abuse of a dominant buyer (eg. Walmart) is harder to accomplish and maintain, harder to prove harm, and harder to regulate.

[jhugo]

At no point? These APIs are all secondary sources anyway, the actual price is public information on the actual currency markets

[kasey_junk]

Currency (spot) markets are not typically public. They are usually OTC deals between 1 counterparty and a specific bank. Even on multi dealer platforms you don’t see the same prices other people trading on those platforms see.