Binance-Acquired CoinMarketCap Ranks Exchange First in New ‘Top Exchanges’ Sectioncr

After being acquired by Binance for $400M at the end of March, CoinMarketCap has made some updates to its ‘Top Cryptocurrency Exchanges’ page.

Browsing the ‘Top Cryptocurrency Exchanges’ page on the site now shows something completely new. Rather than seeing no-name exchanges engaged in wash trading, we now see all the recognizable ones leading the pack: Binance, Coinbase Pro, Kraken, and so on.

Binance Tops ‘Cryptocurrency Exchanges’ Page

The reason for the change-up is that the rankings are now based on web traffic rather than self-reported trading volume. This naturally gives Binance a heavy advantage. Web traffic is often considered a more valid metric since it can be corroborated quite easily.Previously, you have no-name exchanges like BKEX, P2PB2B, and LATOKEN led CMC’s ranking based on fake trading volume.

Issues Persist

Although the changes so far are welcome, the most notorious wash trading exchanges continue to be listed on CoinMarketCap. The site has often come under fire for continuing to list shady exchanges and illiquid altcoins. 

After a BitWise report in 2019 found that 95% of cryptocurrency trading was misleading, there was pressure for CoinMarketCap to correct its data. However, the data analytics site was slow to respond and only recently added ‘real liquidity’ numbers.

Many had hoped that Binance’s acquisition would help correct the fake numbers reported by CoinMarketCap. However, the exchange seems to have replaced real volume metrics with ‘liquidity’ which is scored from 0 to 1000 based on order book slippage. Wash trading remains reported like before.

For newcomers to the cryptocurrency space, CoinMarketCap arguably does look more valid now in its reporting. However, there are still concerns over whether Binance will exploit the site to bolster Binance Coin (BNB) and its platform. So far, changes to the site have been minor.