Here's a quick way to spot the red flags: when your exchange's market maker can't maintain basic order book depth, spreads blow out on minor volume spikes, and price execution gets worse instead of better during peak hours. You notice it instantly—slippage that shouldn't exist, liquidity that vanishes when you need it most, quotes that feel stale. The irony? It's the opposite of what you're paying for. A quality market maker should be tightening spreads and keeping the order book healthy even under stress. Instead, you get the silence of abandonment masked as "normal market conditions." That's when you know something's broken behind the scenes.