Even with the lowered DOT requirement, it still costs 6.8btc at the moment. so $44,000 for a listing on a 5 million daily volume exchange. Easy for ICO's, not easy for projects not taking huge premines. Unless it's coming out of their own pockets.
It is quite ridiculous isn't mate. I think that ICO's are actually what created the problem and why exchanges got greedy. Like you said, many ICO's can afford the fees hence they keep increasing. The sad thing is the fees that they charge is not at all in keeping with the spirit of crypo currency but it is what it is. Surely it doesn't take an arm and a leg to run these exchanges regardless of location hardware and the likes....unfortunately crypto, like conventional markets is fast becoming a capitalist environment.
I would suggest Genesis goes with an exchange like Crex due to the sensible amount they charge for listings. Of course as the project progresses, there will be need to list on the larger (volume wise) exchanges. We'll cross that bridge when we get there i suppose.
We have discussed Crex, and as it stands now, it looks like we will most likely push for it when we release staking, but its not a promise. As it stands, all listing fees, hosting, etc comes out of our own pockets.
We've not sold any $genx as we don't feel the price is anywhere close to being right. That said, trust me when I say, its coming. We want another few smaller ones before we focus on something larger.