Data methodology

How often each CoinWorldCap API dataset is rebuilt, which field dates a response, where each history starts, and how to read the numbers, so you can tell what you are looking at before you compare it with another source.

How fresh each dataset is

The intervals below are how often we rebuild the data, not a guarantee; the last column names the field that dates a response.

We publish no interval for /assets, /quotes, /exchanges, /rwa, /rwa/info and /rwa/issuers. /exchanges' market.data_time is when its 24-hour aggregate was taken. /rwa's last_price_change_time does not date the response: it is when an RWA's values last changed, not when we last checked them, so a price that has not moved keeps an old time.

Earn

A product whose apy_max is above the response's promo_threshold is a promotion: it carries is_promo and is left out of its platform's apy_min and apy_max, so a short-lived offer does not decide a comparison between platforms. See /earn.

Derivatives

Derivatives cover only the exchanges we collect, and only contracts whose base asset is an asset on /assets. Open interest is added up as each exchange reports it, and some report a quantity of the asset rather than USD, so an exchange's open_interest_usd on /derivatives/exchanges can be lower than its true USD figure. See /derivatives/pairs and /derivatives/exchanges.

/derivatives/history combines a coin's perpetual contracts into one point per hour: open interest summed, the funding rate and the basis averaged weighted by open interest. Only contracts that pass every filter count: the quote currency is on an allow-list, the open interest reported is not small next to the 24-hour volume, and the contract is not on a list we exclude. The same filters are behind the derivatives charts on our website.

Chains

A chain's market cap and 24-hour volume are the total market cap and the summed 24-hour volume of the coins on that chain: the same market aggregate as a category's on /categories, which /chains shares, and /chains/history records over time.

Teams and people

Teams, people and their investments come from RootData. /people/info names the source in source.name, and source.data_time is when we fetched the data behind its stats and investments.

DEX tokens

The lists come mainly from CoinMarketCap's DEX data. How they are built, how a token is named, and when data counts as stale or is too old to serve are in DEX tokens: what the endpoints share. Trades and liquidity changes cover a limited recent window, and holder and pool snapshots expire; each of those endpoints says how far back it goes.

History

How the points of the history endpoints are made and where each history starts. Their parameters and limits are in History: what the endpoints share.

• On /rwa/history, /chains/history and /derivatives/history, a daily point is the day's last hourly figure, timed at midnight UTC and published once the day is over; on /derivatives/history each value comes from the last hour of the day that has it. /earn/history has daily points only: each product's APY range the last time we read it that day.
• A DEX daily point is a stored daily candle, not one built from the hourly candles: its time is the open time our source gives it, and today's may still be open.
• Older RWA points carry a price only. That part of the history was filled in from price records, so market_cap and volume_24h are null and the points can be days apart (/rwa/history).

Hourly points are limited as the shared rules say, and start no earlier than the daily points above.