Steem trading volume is much higher than is reported on CoinMarketCap but no one seems to notice and complain enough to CoinMarketCap for any changes to be made to this deliberate practice. Today I came across some data feed on my Steem homepage summarizing cryptocurrency price action along with respective charts. The data feed was coming directly from CoinMarketCap and I was perplex because I have written in the past of a deliberate cherry picking of data by CoinMarketCap with regard to Steem. As usual today I was disappointed:
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So you may ask, what's the big deal?
It is actually a very big deal for a token like Steem because this are the actual data and I would explain the details below:
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When traders are pulling their data from CoinMarketCap especially those traders that move large sums of money, one of the criteria they analyze are the 24hr, 7day and monthly volume of a particular coin. For traders looking to move 10 million USD, Steem is just isn't attractive given its low trading volume and possible liquidity issues if they want to get out of a position. Another problem with this kind of reporting by CoinMarketCap, are large volume traders pulling data feed from CoinMarketCap for coins with 7day trading volume average, without looking into the data Steem can easily be mix. If Steem isn't on the radar and these traders scan the market base on this very important criteria, Steem does not make the cut. What is even worrying, even Upbit volume at times are pull from the feed reflecting very poor overall on the project giving the impression that there isn't much trading interest taking place.
There is also a case of 'fake' volume but my answer, why single out Steem and report the very same volume feed for other coins as legitimate. I have even read some writers here say the volume from Bithumb, Upbit and HitBTC are very suspicious and possible much of it is fake. Without providing any concrete evidence, this is fueling an unwarranted negative speculation. For example, I had to comment under a very senior account here which was stating that SBD/BTC market on HitBTC is fake. I had to remind that user, that I regularly trade that pair on the exchange and its actually one hot pair on the trollbox. My profits certainly aren't fake. Likewise, the deliberate excluding of data from Bithumb and Upbit of Steem on CoinMarketCap simply because someone wrote is fake, is probably down to some of the very same reasons. This kind of practice of CoinMarketCap is worrying and sets up a trend if a market gets to hot, then the data feed is pulled and that in itself actually hurts the coin. This directly impacts Bots that are looking for price change, volume and volatility as criteria for entering or existing a market pair.
This practice is extremely detrimental for Steem and I believe its something that witnesses and the Steem team should take up with CoinMarketCap. Excluding Steem volume base on what is perceived as suspicious activities but including the very same volume profile and price action on other coins for the very same exchange is counter productive. Hopefully this issue can be addressed and resolved.