Following through on our short term goal, we have implemented a new scoring mechanism for Stellar assets based on liquidity. As much as we can tell, nicetrade the first exchange to do this. Liquidity scoring offers more protection against manipulation compared to trading volume only. It's easy to fake volume because there is nothing for the malicious actor to lose. Faking liquidity on the other hand involves staking their own XLM into the order books. Now there is a lot more for the malicious actor to lose , especially over a long period of time.
Liquidity is obviously also very important to users who trade on the exchange. With all else being equal, assets that are more historically liquid are safer.
To produce this scoring we sample each asset periodically to measure their liquidity depth against a preset benchmark. Each asset's liquidity score is computed based on a time weighted average of historical liquidity. Therefore to achieve a high score, an asset must have been liquid for some time.
nicetrade tries to make asset listing and ranking as fair as possible through purely automated mechanisms. The new ranking system now ranks by liquidity first and trade volume (in terms of XLM) second.
As a companion to this update, we also improved the user interface for nicetrade. We have built a a sleek new Markets Overview page:
We have also re-skinned our exchange and wallet for a more modern feel. Traditionally we have prioritized functionality over looks, but given feedback we have received we are also working towards being more user friendly.
Got something you want to see improved? Let me know!
