Messari rolls out “Real 10” volume metrics after study reveals 95% of bitcoin trading volumes are fake

Messari, the crypto information and data services firm, is taking a step today to help their users get a better sense of trading activity on the myriad of crypto exchanges, days after California cryptocurrency index and beta fund provider Bitwise released a study showing most volumes in the market are fake.

The so-called "Real 10 Volume" metrics will now be available alongside price, market capitalization, and reported volumes on Messari's OnChainFx dashboard.

"In the months ahead, we will work with additional exchange to add their clean order book data to our feeds and onboard them to Messari's new exchange registry," Messari said in their newsletter.

Bitwise recently submitted a report in which it collected and analyzed Bitcoin trading data, over four days in March, across 81 cryptocurrency exchanges. The firm concluded that 95% of reported trading volume across these exchanges were questionable, including "patterns that indicated the trading on them appears manufactured."

The firm noted that only a few exchanges — including Kraken, Binance, and Coinbase — reported accurate volumes data. Messari's "Real 10 Volume" metric will only include those exchanges. "“Real 10 Volume” it is a vastly superior metric than current reported volumes, which are likely overstated by 20-50 times," Messari said.

Messari CEO Ryan Selkis said the lack of reliable data in crypto is one thing keeping out large investors from the market.

"This industry is still a joke to most investors and this is why."

"The Bitwise report was the research report of the year — maybe the entire bear cycle."

As for the registry, it's not clear what exactly Selkis and co have in store nor is it clear is any exchange would be interested in surrender their precious data. Messari runs a token registry that provides key information on some token projects.