Few Big Exchanges Continue to Report Fake Volumes in 2019: Chainalysis
Large crypto exchanges appear to have stopped misreporting their trading volumes in 2019, a new study by Chainalysis says. According to the New York-based blockchain analytics firm, there are still some crypto exchanges including Bitforex that likely report fake trading volumes to simulate greater market activity and liquidity. Chainalysis posted the study on its blog on Nov. 15. In the study, Chainalysis analyzed the top 10 cryptocurrency exchanges, known as the “Bitwise 10,” which were reportedly considered the only large exchanges that reported their actual volumes. Those exchanges include Binance, Bitfinex, Kraken, Bitstamp, Coinbase, BitFlyer, Gemini, itBit, Bittrex, and Poloniex. The firm used the Bitwise 10 as a representative sample of large exchanges who report accurate trade volumes, and compared their data with volumes of other exchanges in order to discover potential suspicious activity. Specifically, Chainalysis found out that in a period between January 2018 and November 2019, the average ratio between trade volume and on-chain volume received for the Bitwise 10 accounted for 6:1. The data means that the Bitwise 10 see roughly six Bitcoin in trade volume for every one Bitcoin received on-chain. Based on the data, Chainalysis concluded that it’s likely that those 12 exchanges were faking trade volume in 2018, specifically during the period between July and January 2019. Since 2019, the exchanges' trade volume ratios have tracked more closely with those of the Bitwise 10, suggesting that they have stopped misreporting volumes. Chainalysis’ new study follows a report by crypto index fund provider Bitwise Asset Management claiming that as much as 95% of volume on unregulated exchanges appears to be fake or non-economic in nature. On Nov. 12, major crypto data supplier CoinMarketCap launched its new metric to compare exchanges and token pairs based on liquidity as a measure to prevent manipulation by exchanges.
Reference: https://cointelegraph.com/