So it is true then that these exchanges are faking their volumes. I see this as a welcome change. Hopefully with all those fake volume gone, the backlog would be reduced and transaction fees would go down.
1. That does not show that the volumes were faked. It is no surprise that trading volume dropped when trading was no longer free.
2. Since exchange trading is not done through the block chain, a drop in volume will have little effect on transaction backlog or transaction fees.