Volume Metrics

Overview

Volume metrics measure how much trading activity took place, expressed in US dollars so that markets quoting in different assets can be compared directly. Coin Metrics publishes two views of that activity. Reported volume aggregates everything collected across the coverage universe, spanning spot, futures, and options markets on centralized and decentralized venues. Trusted volume restricts the same spot calculation to a curated set of exchanges whose reported activity Coin Metrics considers reliable.

Both views answer the question "how much was actually traded", and they answer it differently on purpose. Fake and inflated trading volume is a persistent problem in digital asset markets, and with limited regulatory oversight a headline volume figure can be difficult to take at face value. Reported volume tells you what the market said it traded. Trusted volume tells you how much of that stands up to scrutiny. Researchers, index providers, and trading teams use the pair together: reported volume for market-share and total-activity analysis, trusted volume for valuation work and anywhere an inflated denominator would distort the result.

Exploring Option Volume Metrics

At a Glance

Data type	Entities	Frequency / cadence	Unit	Primary endpoint	Coverage
Metric	Assets, exchanges, exchange-assets, pairs (trusted volume: assets and pairs only)	1h, 1d	USD	/timeseries/asset-metrics	🔗

Metrics

The family splits by market class. Spot metrics carry both the reported and trusted variants, while futures and options are reported only.

Spot

Metric	Description	Frequency	Coverage
volume_reported_spot_usd_1d	The sum of all reported volume from spot markets in units of U.S. dollars.	1d	🔗
volume_reported_spot_usd_1h	The sum of all reported volume from spot markets in units of U.S. dollars.	1h	🔗
volume_trusted_spot_usd_1d	The sum of all volume from the spot markets of a set of trusted exchanges in units of U.S. dollars.	1d	🔗
volume_trusted_spot_usd_1h	The sum of all volume from the spot markets of a set of trusted exchanges in units of U.S. dollars.	1h	🔗

The trusted metrics are published for assets and pairs only. There is no exchange or exchange-asset trusted volume, because the trusted set is itself defined at the exchange level.

Futures

Metric	Description	Frequency	Coverage
volume_reported_future_usd_1d	The sum of all reported volume from futures markets in units of U.S. dollars.	1d	🔗
volume_reported_future_usd_1h	The sum of all reported volume from futures markets in units of U.S. dollars.	1h	🔗
volume_reported_future_perpetual_usd_1d	The sum of all reported volume from perpetual futures markets in units of U.S. dollars.	1d	🔗
volume_reported_future_perpetual_usd_1h	The sum of all reported volume from perpetual futures markets in units of U.S. dollars.	1h	🔗
volume_reported_future_nonperpetual_usd_1d	The sum of all reported volume from non-perpetual futures markets in units of U.S. dollars.	1d	🔗
volume_reported_future_nonperpetual_usd_1h	The sum of all reported volume from non-perpetual futures markets in units of U.S. dollars.	1h	🔗
volume_reported_future_coin_margined_usd_1d	The sum of all reported volume from futures markets where the margin asset is equivalent to the underlying base asset in units of U.S. dollars.	1d	🔗
volume_reported_future_coin_margined_usd_1h	The sum of all reported volume from futures markets where the margin asset is equivalent to the underlying base asset in units of U.S. dollars.	1h	🔗
volume_reported_future_tether_margined_usd_1d	The sum of all reported volume from futures markets where the margin asset is Tether in units of U.S. dollars.	1d	🔗
volume_reported_future_tether_margined_usd_1h	The sum of all reported volume from futures markets where the margin asset is Tether in units of U.S. dollars.	1h	🔗

The category filters overlap rather than partition. A market is either perpetual or non-perpetual, and independently it is margined in some asset, so a coin-margined perpetual contract contributes to volume_reported_future_perpetual_usd_*, to volume_reported_future_coin_margined_usd_*, and to the unfiltered volume_reported_future_usd_*. Adding the subcategories together will therefore double count.

Options

Option volume metrics are generated over a parameter grid rather than named individually. All 24 metric IDs follow one convention:

volume_reported_option_<filter>_<valuation>_usd_<frequency>

Component	Values	Meaning
<filter>	omitted, tether_margined, usdc_margined, coin_margined, call, put	Which option markets are included. Omitting the component includes every option market. The margin filters select markets by margin asset, where coin_margined means the margin asset equals the underlying base asset. The call and put filters select by contract type.
<valuation>	market_value, notional	How each contract is valued. Market value is the premium actually exchanged. Notional is the value of the underlying the contracts control.
<frequency>	1h, 1d	The aggregation interval.

For example, volume_reported_option_put_notional_usd_1d is the daily notional volume of put option markets, and volume_reported_option_usdc_margined_market_value_usd_1h is the hourly market-value volume of USDC-margined option markets. As with futures, the filters overlap: a USDC-margined call contributes to the usdc_margined, call, and unfiltered metrics alike. The distinction between the two valuations is explained under Options: notional and market value.

Conventions. Decimals are returned as JSON strings to preserve precision. Timestamps are UTC ISO-8601 with nanosecond resolution, and time marks the start of the interval the value covers. Every metric in this family is denominated in US dollars. The 1d and 1h suffixes are part of the metric ID, so a metric is requested at the frequency built into its name.

Methodology

From trades to volume

Volume metrics sit at the end of a three-step pipeline. Coin Metrics collects individual trades from every market in its coverage universe. Those trades are aggregated into market candles, each of which carries the interval's traded volume and its US-dollar equivalent. The volume metrics then sum candle US-dollar volume across whichever set of markets the metric and entity define.

Aggregating from candles rather than re-reading raw trades keeps volume metrics consistent with the candle data served alongside them. A daily asset volume is the sum of the same numbers a user would get by pulling that asset's daily candles. Only candles that completed validation are included, so a market whose candle failed its checks for an interval contributes nothing to that interval rather than contributing a suspect figure.

Converting to US dollars

Every market's volume is converted to US dollars before aggregation, using the same conversion that produces the candle US-dollar volume field. That conversion is described in full under Volume in US dollars. In summary, US-dollar volume for a market $m$ over interval $T$ is the interval's traded volume, scaled by contract size, multiplied by a US-dollar price:

$$\mathrm{UsdVolume}_m(T) = V_m(T) \times S_m \times P_{\mathrm{USD}}$$

For spot markets quoted in US dollars the price is the candle's own VWAP. Otherwise Coin Metrics forms a market-derived price and a reference rate price for the asset, and prefers the market-derived price unless the two disagree by more than 5%, in which case the reference rate wins. For derivatives there are two candidate prices, the settlement asset's US-dollar price and the candle's VWAP converted through the quote asset, and which one is preferred depends on whether the settlement asset differs from the underlying base asset.

These metrics are not a simple sum of trade notional. Because conversion runs per market per interval against a resolved US-dollar price, a volume metric will not reconcile exactly against a naive sum of each trade's price times quantity. Use candle US-dollar volume as the reference point instead.

Reported and trusted volume

Reported and trusted spot volume are produced by the same calculation over the same candle set. The only difference is the set of markets summed. Reported volume includes every spot market in the coverage universe. Trusted volume includes only those on exchanges in the trusted set. There is no separate collection path, no separate conversion, and no additional filtering or smoothing applied to the trusted figure, so the two are directly comparable and trusted volume is always a subset of reported volume for the same entity and interval.

The trusted set is drawn from the Talos Exchange Scorecard, a quantitative and qualitative evaluation of exchange quality. The set is versioned by effective date and has been revised several times as venues have been added and removed. Each interval is calculated against the set that was in effect on that date, not the set in effect today. Historical trusted volume is therefore point-in-time and is not restated when the constituent list changes. A step in a long trusted-volume series can reflect a change in constituents rather than a change in market activity. Consult the Scorecard for current membership and the criteria behind it.

Spot volume

Reported spot volume over interval $T$ is the sum of US-dollar volume across the spot markets $\mathcal{M}_{\mathrm{spot}}(T)$ implied by the entity:

$$\mathrm{VolumeReportedSpot}(T) = \sum_{m \in \mathcal{M}_{\mathrm{spot}}(T)} \mathrm{UsdVolume}_m(T)$$

Trusted spot volume is the same sum restricted to markets on trusted exchanges, where $E_{\mathrm{trusted}}(T)$ is the constituent set in effect during $T$:

$$\mathrm{VolumeTrustedSpot}(T) = \sum_{m \in \mathcal{M}_{\mathrm{spot}}(T),\; \mathrm{exchange}(m) \in E_{\mathrm{trusted}}(T)} \mathrm{UsdVolume}_m(T)$$

Decentralized exchange markets are included in reported spot volume, aggregated at the market level across pools.

Futures volume

Futures volume sums US-dollar volume across futures markets, with the category filters applied to the market set:

$$\mathrm{VolumeReportedFuture}(T) = \sum_{m \in \mathcal{M}_{\mathrm{fut}}(T)} \mathrm{UsdVolume}_m(T)$$

A market is classified as perpetual when it has no expiry date and non-perpetual when it does. It is classified as coin-margined when its margin asset is the same as its underlying base asset, and as Tether-margined when its margin asset is USDT.

Options: notional and market value

Options are the one place in this family where two different valuations of the same trading activity are published, because for options they answer genuinely different questions.

Notional volume values each contract by the underlying it controls, using the same US-dollar volume as every other market class:

$$\mathrm{VolumeReportedOptionNotional}(T) = \sum_{m \in \mathcal{M}_{\mathrm{opt}}(T)} \mathrm{UsdVolume}_m(T)$$

Market value volume values each contract by the premium actually paid, using the interval's volume-weighted average price and converting through the margin asset's US-dollar reference rate $R_{\mathrm{margin}(m)}$:

$$\mathrm{VolumeReportedOptionMarketValue}(T) = \sum_{m \in \mathcal{M}_{\mathrm{opt}}(T)} V_m(T) \times \mathrm{VWAP}_m(T) \times S_m \times R_{\mathrm{margin}(m)}(T)$$

The two differ by a large factor. A far out-of-the-money option controls a full unit of underlying while trading for a small fraction of its price, so notional volume typically runs one to two orders of magnitude larger than market-value volume. Use notional volume to size exposure and market value volume to size premium flow. Do not compare one against the other, and do not compare option notional volume against spot or futures volume without accounting for the difference.

Entity aggregation

The same market-level values are rolled up along four entity dimensions. The entity determines which markets enter the sum, and the metric name filters that set further.

• For assets, every market where the asset is either the base or the quote asset.
• For exchanges, every market listed on that exchange.
• For exchange-assets, every market on that exchange where the asset is either the base or the quote asset.
• For pairs, every market across all exchanges trading that pair.

Asset volume credits both sides of a trade. A trade on btc-usdt contributes its full US-dollar volume to btc and again to usdt. This is intentional, since each asset genuinely saw that much activity, but it means summing an asset-volume metric across assets roughly double counts total market activity. To measure the market as a whole, aggregate over exchanges or pairs instead.

Accessing the Data

The metrics are served through four timeseries endpoints, one per entity dimension:

• /timeseries/asset-metrics
• /timeseries/exchange-metrics
• /timeseries/exchange-asset-metrics
• /timeseries/pair-metrics

Python Client

from datetime import timedelta
from coinmetrics.api_client import CoinMetricsClient
import os

client = CoinMetricsClient(os.environ["CM_API_KEY"])

# Daily reported and trusted spot volume for bitcoin over a time range.
df = client.get_asset_metrics(
    assets=["btc"],
    metrics=["volume_reported_spot_usd_1d", "volume_trusted_spot_usd_1d"],
    frequency="1d",
    start_time="2026-01-01",
    end_time="2026-08-01",
    format="json_stream",
).parallel(time_increment=timedelta(days=30)).to_dataframe()

# For just the latest few observations, use limit_per_asset instead:
# client.get_asset_metrics(
#     assets=["btc"],
#     metrics=["volume_reported_spot_usd_1d"],
#     limit_per_asset=3,
# ).to_dataframe()

Shell

curl --compressed "https://api.coinmetrics.io/v4/timeseries/asset-metrics?assets=btc&metrics=volume_reported_spot_usd_1d,volume_trusted_spot_usd_1d&frequency=1d&start_time=2026-01-01&end_time=2026-08-01&page_size=10000&api_key=$CM_API_KEY"

Python

import os
import requests

url = "https://api.coinmetrics.io/v4/timeseries/asset-metrics"
params = {
    "assets": "btc",
    "metrics": "volume_reported_spot_usd_1d,volume_trusted_spot_usd_1d",
    "frequency": "1d",
    "start_time": "2026-01-01",
    "end_time": "2026-08-01",
    "page_size": 10000,
    "api_key": os.environ["CM_API_KEY"],
}
data = requests.get(url, params=params).json()["data"]
print(f"{len(data)} observations")
print(data[0])

Full parameter reference: see the API Reference for /timeseries/asset-metrics, /timeseries/exchange-metrics, /timeseries/exchange-asset-metrics, and /timeseries/pair-metrics.

Examples

Example: reported spot volume by asset

Daily reported spot volume for btc from /timeseries/asset-metrics. Run this query.

[
  {
    "asset": "btc",
    "time": "2026-08-04T00:00:00.000000000Z",
    "volume_reported_spot_usd_1d": "5564632184.99229"
  },
  {
    "asset": "btc",
    "time": "2026-08-05T00:00:00.000000000Z",
    "volume_reported_spot_usd_1d": "5727564590.55665"
  },
  {
    "asset": "btc",
    "time": "2026-08-06T00:00:00.000000000Z",
    "volume_reported_spot_usd_1d": "4153838610.34515"
  }
]

Example: trusted spot volume by asset

The same asset and the same days, restricted to trusted exchanges. Run this query.

[
  {
    "asset": "btc",
    "time": "2026-08-04T00:00:00.000000000Z",
    "volume_trusted_spot_usd_1d": "4205948911.336"
  },
  {
    "asset": "btc",
    "time": "2026-08-05T00:00:00.000000000Z",
    "volume_trusted_spot_usd_1d": "4418458895.18234"
  },
  {
    "asset": "btc",
    "time": "2026-08-06T00:00:00.000000000Z",
    "volume_trusted_spot_usd_1d": "3106296983.21548"
  }
]

Comparing the two directly shows what the trusted filter removes. On 2026-08-04 bitcoin's trusted spot volume was roughly 76% of its reported spot volume, so about a quarter of reported activity came from venues outside the trusted set.

Example: reported spot volume by exchange

Daily reported spot volume for the exchange binance from /timeseries/exchange-metrics. Run this query.

[
  {
    "exchange": "binance",
    "time": "2026-08-04T00:00:00.000000000Z",
    "volume_reported_spot_usd_1d": "5856471030.42944"
  },
  {
    "exchange": "binance",
    "time": "2026-08-05T00:00:00.000000000Z",
    "volume_reported_spot_usd_1d": "6307184180.68034"
  },
  {
    "exchange": "binance",
    "time": "2026-08-06T00:00:00.000000000Z",
    "volume_reported_spot_usd_1d": "5329173955.14772"
  }
]

Example: reported spot volume by exchange-asset

Daily reported spot volume for the exchange-asset binance-btc from /timeseries/exchange-asset-metrics. Run this query.

[
  {
    "exchange_asset": "binance-btc",
    "time": "2026-08-04T00:00:00.000000000Z",
    "volume_reported_spot_usd_1d": "1409972570.11124"
  },
  {
    "exchange_asset": "binance-btc",
    "time": "2026-08-05T00:00:00.000000000Z",
    "volume_reported_spot_usd_1d": "1436002482.6739"
  },
  {
    "exchange_asset": "binance-btc",
    "time": "2026-08-06T00:00:00.000000000Z",
    "volume_reported_spot_usd_1d": "1033248670.92818"
  }
]

Example: reported spot volume by pair

Daily reported spot volume for the pair btc-usd from /timeseries/pair-metrics. Run this query.

[
  {
    "pair": "btc-usd",
    "time": "2026-08-04T00:00:00.000000000Z",
    "volume_reported_spot_usd_1d": "974788323.232547"
  },
  {
    "pair": "btc-usd",
    "time": "2026-08-05T00:00:00.000000000Z",
    "volume_reported_spot_usd_1d": "1034461092.22166"
  },
  {
    "pair": "btc-usd",
    "time": "2026-08-06T00:00:00.000000000Z",
    "volume_reported_spot_usd_1d": "737356741.17669"
  }
]

Coverage

Coin Metrics CoverageCoin Metrics Coverage

Usage

• Choosing between reported and trusted. Use trusted volume when an inflated figure would corrupt the result, such as liquidity screens, index construction, valuation ratios, and any weighting scheme where volume is the weight. Use reported volume when the goal is to describe the market as it presents itself, such as exchange market share, total activity across the coverage universe, or analysis of a specific venue. Trusted volume is only available for spot, so derivatives analysis necessarily uses reported volume.
• Comparing the two as a signal. Because trusted volume is a strict subset of reported volume computed identically, their ratio is meaningful on its own. A trusted share that is low or that moves sharply points at where activity is concentrating.
• Exchange market share. Exchange and exchange-asset volume give venue-level share directly, without the double counting that affects asset-level aggregation.
• Matching the frequency to the horizon. The 1h metrics suit intraday and event-window work. The 1d metrics suit trend and longer-horizon analysis and are less exposed to a single venue's publication delay.
• Sizing options activity. Reach for notional volume to measure exposure traded and market value volume to measure premium flow. Reporting one while describing the other is the most common error with this family.

Limitations

• Categories overlap, so subtotals do not add up. Within futures and within options the filters are independent selections over the same market set rather than a partition. Summing perpetual and coin-margined volume, or call and coin-margined option volume, double counts the markets that satisfy both.
• Asset volume counts both sides. Every trade credits its full US-dollar value to both the base and the quote asset, so asset-level volume cannot be summed across assets to obtain a market total.
• Trusted history is point-in-time. Trusted volume for a past interval uses the constituent set in effect then. Constituent changes introduce steps in the series that are not changes in trading activity, and past values are not restated.
• Intervals can be withheld. When fewer than the minimum number of exchanges have reported for an interval, no value is published rather than a partial total. A missing recent observation usually means the interval is still waiting on venues rather than that volume was zero.
• Option market value depends on a margin-asset rate. Market-value metrics convert through the margin asset's US-dollar reference rate. An option market whose margin asset has no reference rate available for the interval is omitted from the market-value metrics, though it still contributes to the notional metrics.
• Values inherit candle behavior. Because the metrics aggregate candle US-dollar volume, they inherit the candle pipeline's price resolution and its recalculation window. A very recent interval can be revised slightly as late-arriving trades are incorporated.
• Coverage varies by market and history. Availability follows the underlying trades and candles for each market. Check the coverage tool for a specific entity's available range.

FAQ

What is the difference between reported and trusted volume?

Reported volume aggregates every market in the coverage universe. Trusted volume applies the identical calculation to spot markets on a curated set of reliable exchanges. Trusted volume is always less than or equal to reported volume for the same entity and interval.

Which exchanges are in the trusted set?

The set is defined by the Talos Exchange Scorecard and changes over time as venues are evaluated. Consult the Scorecard for current membership rather than hard-coding a list.

Why is trusted volume not available for exchanges?

The trusted set is defined at the exchange level, so an exchange-level trusted metric would either equal that exchange's reported volume or be empty. Trusted volume is published for assets and pairs, where the filter changes the result.

Why do option notional and market value volume differ so much?

They value the same trades differently. Notional volume measures the underlying the contracts control, while market value measures the premium exchanged. Because options frequently trade far out of the money, notional volume is typically orders of magnitude larger.

Can I add the subcategory metrics together to get the total?

No. The subcategories overlap. Use the unfiltered metric, volume_reported_future_usd_* or volume_reported_option_notional_usd_*, for the total.

Why does summing asset volume across assets overstate the market?

Each trade credits both its base and its quote asset with the full US-dollar value. Aggregate over exchanges or pairs to measure total market activity.

Why is a recent hourly value missing?

Volume metrics are only published for an interval once enough exchanges have reported candles for it. A recent interval may still be waiting on venues, and it will appear once the threshold is met.

Related

• Market Trades: the tick-level executions the entire pipeline is built from.
• Market Candles: the per-market interval aggregates these metrics sum, including the US-dollar conversion.
• Talos Exchange Scorecard: the evaluation that defines the trusted exchange set.
• Liquidity Metrics: resting liquidity, the counterpart to executed volume.