CoinMarketCap Stands for Data Transparency and Clarity
At
CoinMarketCap, we believe in transparency and openness in our data. All
the information that you see on our site is aggregated from hundreds of
exchanges based on the APIs that they provide us. When we list
exchanges, we do our best to verify with exchanges that the APIs
they provide us will pipe through the freshest and most accurate data
possible. In recent weeks, we have heard increasing concern around
exchange volumes and rankings. There are three main concerns that
have been brought to our attention, that have been skewing the perception of the
data on the site, namely: Transaction mining is a new model
adopted by exchanges to rebate users with their own exchange coin
when transactions are made. Essentially, coins are “mined” in the process of
transacting, and all exchange fees are then refunded to the user. With a
model like this, users are incentivized to trade back and forth in order to mine
more coins, oftentimes with bots. Some exchanges charge extremely
low fees in order to encourage more trading activity. Often, these fees
fluctuate, are tiered differently by account type (such as market makers
or bots) and transaction volume, and are not obvious to the user
or to us at CoinMarketCap. In order to ensure that their listings
remain active on certain exchanges, sometimes projects are
instructed to maintain a minimum level of volume. This causes
projects to heavily employ market making services and bots to trade their
own coin to inflate their volumes. As you can imagine, the complexity of dealing
with these evolving models is multi-faceted and deep. While we have a
relationship with most of the exchanges listed on our site, there is no
guarantee that any of them will respond or comply to any specific guidelines,
but we have to continue showing users the best approximation of price and
volume based on all the data we have available. The evolution of new
models such as transaction mining also means that there needs to be new ways to
account for volume. Compounding it is the fact that they are, in fact,
enabling greater liquidity in the way that users are trading more readily on the
platforms. Even though we try our best to verify the data with the
exchanges on our site, we are not in the practice of censoring or
policing others. In an open ecosystem like the one we are in, we believe that
the best policy – that we follow closely – is to over-provide on data and let
users make their own informed choices about what to do with that data. However,
we understand that these concerns are valid and have implications on the
community and the impressions that people have about exchanges,
even more than we are traditionally used to. Previously, we had volume
requirements for exchanges in order to filter for more popular
exchanges that could be listed on CoinMarketCap. It was a
necessary but not sufficient requirement, since we receive hundreds to
thousands of requests a day to list new exchanges and coins. This
was not meant, in any way, for us to introduce censorship, but rather for
us to use a simple and easy-to-understand criteria for exchanges to
figure out what they need to be on CoinMarketCap. Due to the recent
changes in the exchange landscape, and the concerns aired by our
community, we have removed the volume requirement for exchanges.
This went into effect on Monday this week. The removal of the limit is partly to
combat the impression that volume is the only requirement that is
necessary for listing on CoinMarketCap. In fact, our team spends time
researching new coins and exchanges to ensure that they are real
projects, backed by real teams, and are not fraudulent, before putting them on
CoinMarketCap. We are extremely conscientious about giving all
exchanges and coins/tokens accurate representation on
CoinMarketCap. Going a step further, we will be progressively updating
our exchange rankings to be even more in line with our view that users
should be given the power to experience and use the data in a way that fits
their needs most. CoinMarketCap will ensure that there are more levers and
toggles that users can use to filter for the exchanges most relevant to
them, such as those that they have accounts with, and look only for specific
exchanges with attributes that are of interest, such as exchanges
supporting transaction mining. In this way, by introducing different ways to
look at exchanges and their respective features, the ranking system will be able
to take into account various expectations that users have and help them view and
digest exchange information better. Additionally, we will also introduce
new metrics, such as 7-day and 30-day volume, and the establishment date of each
exchange, so that users can use those as a way to evaluate for themselves the
consistency of the volume on the exchange. As you can probably guess from the
challenges we have alluded to above, it is an extremely demanding problem that
requires all our stakeholders in the cryptocurrency community to solve. We hope
that as we all move towards expecting higher transparency from exchanges and
projects, they will be able to join us in raising the standards for data
veracity. Again, we want to state that our philosophy is to provide as much
information as possible to our users, so that they can form their own
conclusions and interpretations – and not introduce our own bias into that mix.
We are open to your feedback as we collectively figure out best practices in
identifying and rooting out issues with data. As always, we welcome you to make
any suggestions or requests on our form. Our team reads each and every request,
and will attend to them ASAP – Sometimes, it just takes a while because we get
so many requests in a day! Thank you for being fans and users of CoinMarketCap,
and we look forward to having a constructive and productive conversation with
you.
At
CoinMarketCap, we believe in transparency and openness in our data. All
the information that you see on our site is aggregated from hundreds of
exchanges based on the APIs that they provide us. When we list
exchanges, we do our best to verify with exchanges that the APIs
they provide us will pipe through the freshest and most accurate data
possible. In recent weeks, we have heard increasing concern around
exchange volumes and rankings. There are three main concerns that
have been brought to our attention, that have been skewing the perception of the
data on the site, namely: Transaction mining is a new model
adopted by exchanges to rebate users with their own exchange coin
when transactions are made. Essentially, coins are “mined” in the process of
transacting, and all exchange fees are then refunded to the user. With a
model like this, users are incentivized to trade back and forth in order to mine
more coins, oftentimes with bots. Some exchanges charge extremely
low fees in order to encourage more trading activity. Often, these fees
fluctuate, are tiered differently by account type (such as market makers
or bots) and transaction volume, and are not obvious to the user
or to us at CoinMarketCap. In order to ensure that their listings
remain active on certain exchanges, sometimes projects are
instructed to maintain a minimum level of volume. This causes
projects to heavily employ market making services and bots to trade their
own coin to inflate their volumes. As you can imagine, the complexity of dealing
with these evolving models is multi-faceted and deep. While we have a
relationship with most of the exchanges listed on our site, there is no
guarantee that any of them will respond or comply to any specific guidelines,
but we have to continue showing users the best approximation of price and
volume based on all the data we have available. The evolution of new
models such as transaction mining also means that there needs to be new ways to
account for volume. Compounding it is the fact that they are, in fact,
enabling greater liquidity in the way that users are trading more readily on the
platforms. Even though we try our best to verify the data with the
exchanges on our site, we are not in the practice of censoring or
policing others. In an open ecosystem like the one we are in, we believe that
the best policy – that we follow closely – is to over-provide on data and let
users make their own informed choices about what to do with that data. However,
we understand that these concerns are valid and have implications on the
community and the impressions that people have about exchanges,
even more than we are traditionally used to. Previously, we had volume
requirements for exchanges in order to filter for more popular
exchanges that could be listed on CoinMarketCap. It was a
necessary but not sufficient requirement, since we receive hundreds to
thousands of requests a day to list new exchanges and coins. This
was not meant, in any way, for us to introduce censorship, but rather for
us to use a simple and easy-to-understand criteria for exchanges to
figure out what they need to be on CoinMarketCap. Due to the recent
changes in the exchange landscape, and the concerns aired by our
community, we have removed the volume requirement for exchanges.
This went into effect on Monday this week. The removal of the limit is partly to
combat the impression that volume is the only requirement that is
necessary for listing on CoinMarketCap. In fact, our team spends time
researching new coins and exchanges to ensure that they are real
projects, backed by real teams, and are not fraudulent, before putting them on
CoinMarketCap. We are extremely conscientious about giving all
exchanges and coins/tokens accurate representation on
CoinMarketCap. Going a step further, we will be progressively updating
our exchange rankings to be even more in line with our view that users
should be given the power to experience and use the data in a way that fits
their needs most. CoinMarketCap will ensure that there are more levers and
toggles that users can use to filter for the exchanges most relevant to
them, such as those that they have accounts with, and look only for specific
exchanges with attributes that are of interest, such as exchanges
supporting transaction mining. In this way, by introducing different ways to
look at exchanges and their respective features, the ranking system will be able
to take into account various expectations that users have and help them view and
digest exchange information better. Additionally, we will also introduce
new metrics, such as 7-day and 30-day volume, and the establishment date of each
exchange, so that users can use those as a way to evaluate for themselves the
consistency of the volume on the exchange. As you can probably guess from the
challenges we have alluded to above, it is an extremely demanding problem that
requires all our stakeholders in the cryptocurrency community to solve. We hope
that as we all move towards expecting higher transparency from exchanges and
projects, they will be able to join us in raising the standards for data
veracity. Again, we want to state that our philosophy is to provide as much
information as possible to our users, so that they can form their own
conclusions and interpretations – and not introduce our own bias into that mix.
We are open to your feedback as we collectively figure out best practices in
identifying and rooting out issues with data. As always, we welcome you to make
any suggestions or requests on our form. Our team reads each and every request,
and will attend to them ASAP – Sometimes, it just takes a while because we get
so many requests in a day! Thank you for being fans and users of CoinMarketCap,
and we look forward to having a constructive and productive conversation with
you.
