Cryptocurrency price aggregator CoinMarketCap has made a series of announcements to celebrate its sixth birthday. The platform intends to implement changes to improve transparency by removing exchanges that do not provide mandatory data.
In March, CoinMarketCap (CMC) said it would make a number of changes to address concerns that the site is publishing false information based on the data feeds of cryptocurrency exchanges broadcasting fake trading volumes for Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP and more than 2,000 altcoins.
The improvements are designed to address several different types of complaints the data tracker receives on a daily basis.
A cursory glance at our Zendesk tickets (which can number in the high hundreds to thousands per day) reveals a bevy of exhortations to delist and/or denounce specific projects/exchanges for misconduct. These usually take the following forms:
- Remove Exchange X because it is faking its volumes!
- Project X is a scam. Please delist it otherwise you are aiding and abetting these crooks!
- Please remove our pairs on Exchange X because we do not want our project to be associated with wash trading.
- Exchange X has stolen my funds! Please issue an alert!
CoinMarketCap launched in 2013. At that time, Bitcoin had a market cap of $1.48 billion versus $97.9 billion today. Bitcoin and Litecoin were the only two cryptocurrencies in the top seven that still remain in the top seven today.
Historical Snapshot – April 28, 2013
Top Cryptocurrencies by Market Capitalization, May 2, 2019
Over the past six years, as the crypto markets have grown more complex and amid rising interest from retail traders and institutional investors, ongoing reports of scandals and hacks, and an increasing number of accusations of wash trading and market manipulation, CMC has been the leading crypto price tracker, ranking as the 478th largest website in the world, according to Alexa.
CoinMarketCap has formed the Data Accountability & Transparency Alliance (DATA) to promote transparency and help build a more trusted cryptosphere.
DATA Objectives
1. Review, align, and enhance reporting standards across the industry.
2. Identify gaps, propose strategies and measures to enhance data accountability and transparency.
Exchanges that partner with CMC will be required to self-report information and provide mandatory data.
All exchanges will be required to provide live trading data and live order book data. Exchanges that fail to provide the data will be excluded from price and volume calculations on the site.
“These data points will enable analyses to determine measures such as liquidity, order book depth, spreads, and other meaningful measures. With these additional data points, users will be better able to contextualize the pricing and volume being reported on the site and API.”
Changes are set to go into effect on June 14, 2019. Exchanges will be given a 45-day grace period to provide the requested information.
You can check out the full announcement here.
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