13 Exchanges Pass the New ‘Trusted’ Spot Volume Tests

Just above half of the examined crypto exchanges passed the tests for ‘trusted’ spot volume, according to crypto market analysis firm Coin Metrics‘s latest metric. One failed all of them.

Coin Metrics has introduced a “trusted volume” metric, in an effort to help differentiate between legitimate and fake trading volumes. Each exchange is tested in three categories – volume correlation, web traffic analytics, and qualitative features – and they must pass all three to be included in the trusted volume set of metrics, wrote the firm.

According to the July 28 report, as of June 2020, the passing exchanges for ‘trusted’ spot volume include these fourteen platforms: Binance, Binance US, Bitbank, Bitfinex, bitFlyer, Bitstamp, Bittrex, CEX.IO, Coinbase, Gate.io, Gemini, itBit, Kraken, and Poloniex.

However, major exchange OKEx is the only one among the 26 tested platforms that failed all three tests performed. It got 76% in volume correlation (cutoff is 80%); it got 50 in qualitative features (cutoff is 50); and it’s outside the threshold set in the traffic analytics category.

Four exchanges passed only one test, these being: Bibox (volume correlation), HitBTC (qualitative features), LBank (qualitative features), and ZB.COM (web traffic analytics).

The remaining seven exchanges on the list passed two tests each, as seen on the table.

The report said that the list will remain under periodical revision, while certain exchanges, such as derivatives platform FTX (which had failed the volume correlation test) have already “added a broader listing of spot assets since the end of June and subsequently improved performance on the volume correlation test.”

Meanwhile, based on the Exchange Benchmark by crypto market data provider CryptoCompare (assigning grades between AA and E), only Gemini and Coinbase got an AA grade, while nine others got an A grade.

Looking at the exchanges on Coin Metrics’ ‘winner’ list, the majority are graded AA or A by CryptoCompare. Meanwhile, Binance US and Gate.io are graded B, while Bitbank, Bittrex, and Poloniex got a BB each.

The failed OKEx has gotten a BB from CryptoCompare.

Per their July report, in June, volume from many of the largest Top Tier exchanges decreased 35% on average compared to May.

“Binance and OKEx remained the top players in terms of volume in June relative to other Top Tier exchanges,” said the report, while “among the top 15 Top Tier exchanges, they currently represent approximately three quarters of the volume.”

Furthermore, both Top Tier volumes and Lower Tier volumes decreased “drastically”: -36% to USD 177bn and -53% to USD 466bn, respectively.

Binance was the largest Top Tier exchange by volume in June, the report said, trading USD 41.8bn, followed by OKEx’s USD 40.6bn, and Coinbase’s USD 6.86bn.