PRESS RELEASE

‍London, 1st November: CCData is proud to announce the release of its latest Exchange Benchmark. The Exchange Benchmark has become the industry standard for assessing the risk associated with digital asset exchanges since launching in 2019. The report has since expanded to encompass dedicated methodologies to evaluate all major digital asset trading venues, covering over 150 spot, derivatives and decentralised exchanges.

In light of historical concerns surrounding dubious trading and increased regulatory stringency following the collapse of FTX, identifying reliable trading venues has become paramount. Many existing reports lack comprehensive and transparent methods. CCData’s Exchange Benchmark introduces a robust methodology encompassing over 200 qualitative and quantitative metrics, to provide a highly reliable evaluation of the trading landscape. The benchmark methodology is also being utilised by leading institutions, such as VanEck, who employs CCData’s Exchange Benchmark methodology to power its pending Bitcoin Trust ETF application.

A year on from FTX, the future of crypto, and its regulatory direction, is still a central topic of global debate - with numerous market participants calling for well-structured, transparent regulation that  addresses market challenges and inefficiencies. The October 2023 Exchange Benchmark reflects this, featuring new strategic partnerships with Ciphertrace by Mastercard, GBBC Digital Finance (GDF), TokenInsight and Hexagate. This also includes a newly forged partnership with VASPnet, the world’s assured source of regulatory reference data, to enhance the regulatory coverage of exchanges featured in the benchmark.

Key takeaways from the latest report:

• Seven exchanges, including Coinbase, Bitstamp and Kraken, achieved the highest attainable grade in the benchmark, AA. This highlights the progress made by exchanges a year on from FTX.
• Coinbase secured the highest score in the Centralised Exchange benchmark, with a leading security rating, displacing Bitstamp, which now ranks second.
• 8 of 27 derivatives exchanges attained a Top-Tier (BB+) rating. OKX was the highest ranked derivatives exchange, with Bybit also receiving an AA grade.
• Uniswap was the only AA ranked decentralised exchange, in part due to its high security and liquidity scores. Curve, dYdX and GMX followed Uniswap.
• 75 of 107 centralised exchanges, as indicated by VASPnet, now operate under regulatory licences, highlighting a sector trend towards compliance.
• Top exchanges continue to bolster their KYC practices, according to Ciphertrace. The average KYC score for October 2023 was 3.2/4 compared to 2.8/4 in April 2023.

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“Digital asset exchanges have been subject to intensifying scrutiny since the collapse of FTX. Global regulators, cognisant of the intricacies of this sector, have enhanced their oversight mechanisms and exchanges have had to improve their standards in response. CCData’s latest Exchange Benchmark reflects the hard work and improved operational quality of exchanges, highlighted by the notable increase in rankings. I hope we continue to see improvements as stakeholders place renewed emphasis on security, regulatory, and compliance practices.”  said Charles Hayter, CEO & Co-Founder of CCData.

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CCData’s Exchange Benchmark is updated bi-annually to reflect the rapidly evolving infrastructure and regulatory landscape inherent to the digital asset sector. Visit our Benchmark Dashboard to view the full rankings and scores.

The rankings derived from this report power CCData’s industry-standard CCCAGG Index and data solutions. This index, which tracks the true market price of traded digital asset pairs, only utilises data from exchanges that are deemed ‘Top-Tier’ (BB and above), ensuring a highly reliable and market representative price. If you would like to learn about our Index Solutions, please visit here.