CoinMarketCap Forms Alliance to Tackle Concerns Over Price Data Integrity

Cryptocurrency data provider CoinMarketCap is working with major exchanges on an initiative aimed to make price data more transparent.

The effort sees the firms forming a new alliance, dubbed the Data Accountability & Transparency Alliance (DATA), that will discuss ways to tackle concerns over cryptocurrency data reporting in its current state, CoinMarketCap announced Wednesday.

Led by CoinMarketCap, the alliance has notable members at launch including the cryptocurrency exchanges Binance, Bittrex, OKEx, Huobi, Liquid, Upbit, KuCoin, HitBTC Gate.io, OceanEx and Bitfinex, which will provide “in-depth suggestions” on the how to boost transparency at a biannual roundtable event.

CoinMarketCap is also mandating that all exchanges listed on its platform must provide live trading data and live orderbook data. If exchanges fail to do so within 45 days, they will be removed from the platform’s adjusted volume calculations.

Last month, cryptocurrency index fund provider Bitwise Asset Management claimed that 95 percent of all reported bitcoin trading volume is faked and that the true spot market for bitcoin essentially exists on 10 different exchanges.

CoinMarketCap’s data at the time indicated that the bitcoin market’s average daily volume is roughly $6 billion, but Bitwise said that the actual average daily bitcoin trading volume was more like $273 million.

“We recognize the need for evolving with the times, and want to continue … providing transparency and discovery for the long-tail of crypto assets,” said CoinMarketCap founder Brandon Chez.

The data provider has also launched its own block explorers for the bitcoin and ethereum networks aimed to help new users better understand how to interact with blockchains.

Earlier this month, CoinMarketCap also rolled out its first Android app and revamped its Apple iOS product with new features, including portfolio tracking and candlestick charts.

CoinMarketCap image via Shutterstock