CMC updates exchange metrics, Binance now ranks first

[hugeblack]

In brief:

 - Binance acquired CoinMarketCap on April 2 with a lot of services that could make it dominate the Altcoins market.
 - CMC introduced a default metric, just over a month after it acquired by Binance. Guess what Binance was on top.
 - the previous metric indicated high levels of skewed or potentially suspicious trading volumes at Binance.


"Instead of asking the exchanges to provide their user numbers, a good intermediate proxy will be web traffic," CoinMarketCap said^[1]. It is now the default measure of exchanges.

However, Zhao stressed^[2], we are not updating our algorithms or arrangement to fit anyone's agenda, and this completely contradicts the history and value of CoinMarketCap.

The strange thing about the story is that the site was not satisfied with the above updates but removed an indicator it created in July 2018 designed to provide more accurate data and to get rid of distorted and suspicious data.

“Adjusted volume is a way to view all exchanges, excluding data that is skewed (too different from other exchanges) or potentially suspicious. As such, you might think of adjusted volume as a way for us to provide a more nuanced presentation of the data, and reported volume as plainly what the exchanges provide to us through their API,” CoinMarketCap explained.

Read more and source ----> https://decrypt.co/28924/coinmarketcap-removes-evidence-of-wash-trading-on-binance

[1] https://blog.coinmarketcap.com/2020/05/13/ongoing-improvements-to-combat-volume-inflation/
[2] https://blog.coinmarketcap.com/2020/05/13/ongoing-improvements-to-combat-volume-inflation/

[Darker45]

CZ simply wants to make use of CMC to promote his Binance. After all, both are his. We are aware that coinmarketcap has some degree of influence to the crypto community. He's thinking business and he cannot just allow CMC to run without being used and maximized to somehow bring Binance to the top.

The exchange ranking based on Web Traffic Factor may not really be the perfect basis. CZ prefers it, though. With it, Binance has the highest score of 1000 and the explanation about that ranking ends up with a note that "The higher the score, the better."

[joniboini]

Well, this was to be expected. Though I think the updated metrics are not really good either. Maybe unique visitors would count but hey that's still easy to fake out. Setting up a botnet to visit the website multiple times in a day is one of the ways you can get around it.

But anyway, you should expect at least things like this to happen when one of the exchanges owned one of the largest exchanges information sites out there. The explanation is, of course, a lip service like any other marketing activity.

[Pffrt]

Although web traffic isn't a good metric to come nay conclusion, it is also more or less true that Binance has the most traffic in reality. In my local, almost everyone knows one exchange and it's Binance.
Anyway, it was expected what is going to be when Binance acquired CMC.

[bitmover]

Well, this was to be expected. Though I think the updated metrics are not really good either. Maybe unique visitors would count but hey that's still easy to fake out. Setting up a botnet to visit the website multiple times in a day is one of the ways you can get around it.

This is one way to create a fake volume, but counting visitors is not that important.

One big client can make a huge difference in volume and he will still count as only one access.

It is very difficult to prevent data manipulation in all those exchanges around the world..

[suchmoon]

To be fair, exchange rankings on CMC were always idiotic. Scam exchanges would have top volumes etc. I just wish they added an asterisk or something everywhere where Binance is mentioned on CMC with a footnote explaining their relationship.

[LeGaulois]

I never really understood the "adjusted volume" parameter, when I use it the ranking looks like pure shit. This is funny considering Binance has one of the highest wash trading volumes, buying CMC was perfect to hide it I suppose... Considering the website traffic is so useless also, I can make QuadrigaCX ranking in the top 10 within a week.

The good thing is I stopped to use it since the  news about Binance acquiring it

[The Sceptical Chymist]

Well, this was to be expected. Though I think the updated metrics are not really good either. Maybe unique visitors would count but hey that's still easy to fake out. Setting up a botnet to visit the website multiple times in a day is one of the ways you can get around it.

Yeah, and no matter how you try to tighten things up, there are always going to be ways to manipulate data for whatever your purpose is.  

I don't have a problem with Binance as an exchange, but I don't put a lot of stock in what CMC has to offer other than price data for altcoins--that's the only thing I use the site for anyway.  Who knows, maybe Binance will completely overhaul CMC's function and the site might not even look recognizable a year from now.  In the meantime, and whether any changes are made or not, people ought to look at the data presented on CMC with a huge grain of salt.

To be fair, exchange rankings on CMC were always idiotic. Scam exchanges would have top volumes etc.

Yeah, that always made me roll my eyes because it was such blatant deception, which made me think that CMC probably didn't have a positive estimate on the intelligence of folks looking at their site.

[sandra_x]

It was never a good deal for the crypto community when Binance bought coinmarketcap.com, it is arguably the most commonly used platform for price metric and is not supposed to be owned by any exchange ,it will be abused and data screwed to serve their purpose

[Bitcoin_Arena]

I kind of felt this would happen as soon as binance bought CMC. They are locking to advertise Binance as much as they can, an what better way than Ranking Binance as number 1 on CMC?

We saw their intention to become aggressive in advertising the exchange when they acquire Brave broswer.

[Darker45]

Who knows, maybe Binance will completely overhaul CMC's function and the site might not even look recognizable a year from now.

Most probably, and with Binance Coin (BNB) ranked 1st.

To be fair, exchange rankings on CMC were always idiotic. Scam exchanges would have top volumes etc.

Yeah, that always made me roll my eyes because it was such blatant deception, which made me think that CMC probably didn't have a positive estimate on the intelligence of folks looking at their site.

But it seems there is really no single basis objective enough by which exchanges should be ranked. For sure, it cannot be the volume nor the web traffic nor trading pairs nor even liquidity. Not even the combination of these because each of these bases' objectivity is questionable enough in itself.

It so happened that Binance topped other exchanges under one or two factors and that's enough for it to be placed at the first rank.

[TheUltraElite]

This should come as a late reminder to every crypto user that any one aggregator website cannot be completely trusted with their metrics. All this while when it was only rumors that CMC was faking metrics and now you have the Binance acquisition and more fiasco with their metrics.

Point is that CMC was being run by paying some money like server costs, development costs, someone needed to cover all that and with Google shutting down crypto niche Ads, they had to have some sort of method to fund themselves. So Binance owners saw this a good opportunity and thus we stand here today. I am sure you all can find other "similar" acquisitions in the past in other spheres of life.

Time to remove CMC from bookmarks and use other less known sites for getting market data.

[JeromeTash]

Time to remove CMC from bookmarks and use other less known sites for getting market data.

I stopped using it a long time ago when i started seeing shit and scam exchanges i had never had of like p2pb2b making it to the top 10 rankings. I decided to get used to CMC's alternatives like coingecko. The fact that Binance acquired it, even makes the whole scenario worse. All the data displayed on the website will obviously be biased in favor of Binance.

[suchmoon]

There is plenty of data on CMC that doesn't really depend on rankings. I think it's fine to use it if you need e.g. to find some shitcoin's website.

Coingecko is ok but it's not like their rankings are much better. Don't use those rankings for any investment decisions regardless of which site you find them on.

[TheUltraElite]

Don't use those rankings for any investment decisions regardless of which site you find them on.

One can find a similarity with the paid rankings that S&P or Moody's gives to bonds and that was shown in the famous movie "The Big Short". In other words, a ranking agency like them cannot be trusted then who are we to judge the rankings given by self-proclaimed ICO analysts like many others out there, I wont take names. They just give out ranking as they wish and even take a premium to give high rankings, its a nice paid market and thus a scam that people cannot take legal action against.

There are other sites than Coingecko too, like LiveCoinWatch. I have used it along with CoinGecko, but I keep CMC to take a look at dead beaten shitcoins which are -300% anyway.