Coin Metrics is pleased to announce the version 2.5 release of our Hourly Reference Rates and version 0.6 release of our Real-Time Reference Rates. Updated methodology documents for both products can be found here.

Coin Metrics produces the CM Hourly Reference Rates and Real-Time Reference Rates, a collection of prices rates quoted in U.S. dollars, published once per hour and once per second, for a set of cryptocurrencies.

The release notes for this release include euro-quoted reference rates for Bitcoin and Ethereum, additions and terminations to our coverage universe, reconstitutions of our whitelisted markets, some recalculations of certain assets, and a change in the Market Selection Framework section of the methodology.

Euro-Quoted Reference Rates

In this release, we offer euro-quoted reference rates for Bitcoin and Ethereum. These two reference rates are generated using euro-quoted constituent markets from major exchanges. You can access these rates using the ReferenceRateEUR metric in our version 4.0 API. Reference rates quoted in U.S. Dollars are available using the ReferenceRateUSD metric and the original ReferenceRate metric is preserved for backward compatibility.

Coverage Universe Additions

This release expands our coverage universe to include 63 additional assets and brings our total coverage universe to a total of 305 assets. The 63 additional assets are included below.

  • Akropolis (akro)
  • Ampleforth (ampl)
  • Arweave (ar)
  • Balancer (bal)
  • bZx Protocol (bzrx)
  • Celo (celo)
  • Compound (comp)
  • Curve DAO Token (crv)
  • Caspian (csp)
  • DMM: Governance (dmg)
  • Polkadot (dot)
  • FOAM (foam)
  • Kin (kin)
  • Orchid (oxt)
  • THORChain (rune)
  • Solana (sol)
  • Serum (srm)
  • VeThor Token (vtho)
  • Wrapped Bitcoin (wbtc)
  • Wrapped NXM (wnxm)
  • Haven Protocol (xhv)
  • XYO (xyo)
  • YAMv2 (yamv2)
  • yearn.finance (yfi)
  • DFI.Money (yfii)
  • UMA (uma)
  • Energy Web Token (ewt)
  • Revain (rev)
  • Reserve Rights (rsr)
  • Avalanche (avax)
  • The Midas Touch Gold (tmtg)
  • JUST (jst)
  • Helium (hnt)
  • OriginTrail (trac)
  • Velas (vlx)
  • MXC (mxc)
  • Fetch.ai (fet)
  • Aurora (aoa)
  • IRISnet (iris)
  • Kleros (pnk)
  • Melon (mln)
  • ShareToken (shr)
  • Uquid Coin (uqc)
  • Harmony (one_harmony)
  • Tellor (trb)
  • Origin Protocol (ogn)
  • Travala.com (ava)
  • Loki (loki)
  • Hxro (hxro)
  • Wirex Token (wxt)
  • Cryptopay (cpay)
  • Filecoin (fil)
  • Uniswap (uni)
  • Swerve (swrv)
  • SushiSwap (sushi)
  • Aave (aave)
  • Elrond (egld)
  • Handshake (hns)
  • DIA (dia)
  • BOSAGORA (boa)
  • Ultra (uos)
  • Creditcoin (ctc)
  • renBTC (renbtc)

Coverage Universe Terminations

The following 6 assets are terminated from the coverage universe because they have been delisted from most major exchanges in our coverage universe.

  • Aeron (arn)
  • PumaPay (pma)
  • Elrond (erd)
  • Matrix AI Network (man)
  • Everipedia (iq)
  • Aave (lend)

Reconstitution of Whitelisted Markets

The whitelisted markets that serve as the input data source for the calculation of the reference rates for each asset was refreshed on 2020-09-28 as part of a regularly scheduled quarterly review. During each quarterly review, our Market Selection Framework is applied and the highest scoring markets are selected for each asset.

Recalculations Due to Improvements in Historical Whitelisted Markets

Investigations of price anomalies resulted in minor modifications of historical whitelisted markets for a small number of assets. The following 25 reference rates received changes and historical values received minor changes.

  • bcn-usd: recalculation from 2020-07-01 to 2020-09-28
  • cvt-usd: recalculation from 2019-12-11 to 2020-09-28
  • dent-usd: recalculation from 2020-01-23 to 2020-09-28
  • dta-usd: recalculation from 2020-01-23 to 2020-09-28
  • dx-usd: recalculation from 2020-04-09 to 2020-09-28
  • grin-usd: recalculation from 2019-05-23 to 2020-09-28
  • ignis-usd: recalculation from 2019-03-22 to 2020-09-28
  • leo-usd: recalculation from 2020-07-01 to 2020-09-28
  • mof-usd: recalculation from 2020-02-26 to 2020-09-28
  • nmr-usd: recalculation from 2019-01-28 to 2020-09-28
  • npxs-usd: recalculation from 2018-06-22 to 2020-09-28
  • paxg-usd: recalculation from 2020-04-08 to 2020-09-28
  • rif-usd: recalculation from 2019-01-16 to 2020-09-28
  • vsys-usd: recalculation from 2019-04-02 to 2020-09-28
  • zb-usd: recalculation from 2019-05-29 to 2020-09-28
  • dent-usd: recalculation from 2018-07-13 to 2020-09-28
  • npxs-usd: recalculation from 2018-06-22 to 2020-10-03
  • pnt-usd: recalculation from 2020-09-28 to 2020-10-03
  • fun-usd: recalculation from 2020-09-28 to 2020-10-28
  • pnk-usd: recalculation from 2020-08-26 to 2020-10-28
  • snx-usd: recalculation from 2020-09-28 to 2020-10-28
  • ignis-usd: outlier removed on 2019-10-02
  • snx-usd: all rates prior to 2020-04-09 were removed
  • ubt-usd: all rates prior to 2020-03-11 were removed

Changes to the Methodology

The Market Selection Framework section of the methodology was amended to exclude any constituent markets where volume, measured in U.S. dollars over the past 90 days, is less than 1 percent of the volume of the constituent market with the greatest volume. This change was implemented such that extremely low volume markets are less likely to be selected as a constituent market if higher volume markets of similar quality are available. Our research has indicated that this change will increase the quality of our reference rates.

About the CM Reference Rates

The CM Reference Rates are designed to serve as a transparent and independent pricing source that promote the functioning of efficient markets, reduce information asymmetries among market participants, facilitate trading in standardized contracts, and accelerate the adoption of cryptocurrencies as an asset class with the highest standards. The reference rates are calculated using a robust and resilient methodology that is resistant to manipulation and adheres to international best practices for financial benchmarks, including the International Organization of Securities Commissions’ (IOSCO) Principles for Financial Benchmarks. The Coin Metrics Oversight Committee and an independent governance structure protect the integrity of the reference rates and ensure the reference rates serve as sources of transparent and independent pricing.

Please reach out to Coin Metrics at info@coinmetrics.io for more information on the CM Reference Rates.