Exchanges are in a top position when it comes to these legal forms of extortion, but what can you do about it. It's their platform and their rules, so you either abide by these rules or just pack your stuff. Bittrex itself states that it doesn't charge any fees when it comes to listings, but just make it a requirement to offer something useful in terms of the utility of that particular coin. I however don't know how they treat the projects and developers of the listed coins behind the scenes, but that's not our concern, or is it? If the coin produces good enough trading volumes consistently, the exchanges in question wouldn't even dare to put their extortion skills to work. It's time for professional stock exchanges to get involved in this market -- current exchanges are shit and incompetent.