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Volume & Open Interest (Market Pair, Cryptoasset, Exchange, Aggregate)

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Volume (Market Pair)

The volume for each market pair is calculated by taking the 24h volume reported directly from the exchange in quote units, and converting it to USD using CoinMarketCap’s existing reference prices. Let’s take LTC/BTC market as an example:

Let (E) be the 24h volume of LTC/BTC reported directly from the exchange in quote units.
Let (C) be the last known reference price of BTC from CoinMarketCap in USD.
Let (D) be the derived volume reported on CoinMarketCap for the market.

For this example, let (E) = 100 BTC and let (C) = 10,000 USD / 1 BTC.

D = E * C
D = (100 BTC * 10,000 USD / 1 BTC) = 1,000,000 USD

Therefore, the derived volume for LTC/BTC on this specific market pair is $1,000,000 USD.

Note: Any conversion into other fiat currencies (for example, EUR) are converted from the USD volume based on current FX rates.

Volume (Cryptoasset)

Cryptoasset volume measures total 24-hour spot trading across all exchanges. Market pairs reporting anomalous volumes are flagged with asterisks (**) and omitted from this total.

While our goal of filtering out washtrading remains unchanged, our approach has evolved alongside the market. 

  1. Institutional Maturity: Major exchanges now deploy institutional-grade surveillance and KYC/AML protocols to combat manipulation at the source.
  2. Susceptibility vs. Statistical Reality: From 2017–2019, incentived pairs were synonymous with washtrading. Today, washtrading is far less pervasive. The outlandish deviations that once defied market credulity are largely a relic of the free-wheeling era. 
    1. Cowles Foundation (2019/2021): Exchange wash trading exceeded 70% of reported volume—trillions annually.
    2. Chainalysis (2025): By contrast, suspected wash trading in 2024 was estimated to be $2.57 billion, or just 0.035–0.046% of total DEX volume. 
  3. Pairs are excluded only when they trigger clear statistical anomalies.

Volume (Exchange)

The volume of any exchange is the sum of all market pair volume reported from the exchange over the last 24 hours. 

  • Adjusted Volume - Volume from spot markets excluding markets with no fees and transaction mining
  • Reported Volume - Volume from all spot markets 

Note: Market pairs that have been excluded from the cryptoasset volume calculation are not excluded in the total exchange volume calculation. Affected pairs are excluded from the volume calculation but will not be excluded from its total exchange volume.

Volume (Aggregate)

The total volume for all cryptoassets (found on the top of the site) is the sum of all individual cryptoasset volumes over the last 24 hours.

 

Open Interest (Derivatives)

Open Interest (OI) represents the value of outstanding, unsettled derivative contracts:

  1. Single-sided OI: Counts each active contract once.
  2. Double-sided OI: Counts both the buy (long) and sell (short) sides of each contract.
    1. While some exchanges historically reported double-sided figures - often to simplify UI or isolate funding-rate calculations - this approach inflates aggregate data. 

On 29 May 2026, CMC announced that all OI figures will be normalized to reflect single-sided OI.

To align methodologies on CMC, double-sided OI figures are divided by a factor of 2.

  • Traditional futures markets (e.g., CME) use single-sided: This is the established convention in regulated derivatives. It accurately reflects the number of open contracts and the actual capital committed/exposure in the system. 
  • Better for analysis and aggregation:
    • Accurate total market OI (no double-counting when summing platforms)
    • Normalizing everything to single-sided enables apples-to-apples comparisons, and aligns crypto data with how traditional futures markets work.

    • This standardization benefits users by making OI a more reliable signal for market participation, leverage, and sentiment.

       

 
 
 
 
 



 

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