Digital Asset Research (DAR), a leading provider of crypto asset data and research, today announced the release of its January 2023 Crypto Exchange Vetting results. In an environment where cryptocurrencies trade across hundreds of lightly regulated or unregulated exchanges, DAR’s vetting processes apply institutional-level diligence to digital asset markets to meet an industry-wide need for reliable crypto data.

Over 450 exchanges were evaluated to identify 18 Vetted Exchanges. The following exchanges continue to maintain their status as Vetted Exchanges: Binance.US, bitbank, Bitfinex, bitFlyer, Bitso, Bitstamp, Bittrex, BTC Markets, CEX.IO, Coinbase, Coincheck, CrossTower, Gemini, itBit, Kraken, LMAX, Okcoin, and Zaif. Bitfront is no longer a Vetted Exchange.

Ten exchanges are now considered Watchlist Exchanges for potential future inclusion on the Vetted Exchanges list: Binance, Bitrue, CoinEx, CoinTiger, Crypto.com, Gate.io, Huobi, KuCoin, LATOKEN, and Phemex.

The Exchange Vetting process combines quantitative and traditional qualitative due diligence to identify exchanges reporting accurate volumes and eliminate exchanges that are not appropriate for determining an accurate market price.

“Recent market events have emphasized the importance of strong risk management practices and our Exchange Vetting process helps firms identify safe venues as they invest in digital assets or build investment products,” said Doug Schwenk, DAR’s CEO. “Our independent analysis provides unbiased exchange vetting information to institutional customers.”

The Exchange Vetting process follows an Asset Vetting process that was completed in December and evaluated over 1,000 digital assets to identify assets appropriate for various institutional use cases. During the Asset Vetting process, digital assets are evaluated to determine if they meet institutional investor standards for codebase construction and maintenance, community, security, liquidity, and regulatory compliance.

Results of the Exchange Vetting process determine pricing sources used to calculate DAR reference prices for institutional clients, including Bloomberg, Chainlink, FTSE Russell, the FTSE DAR Reference Price, and Refinitiv.

DAR performs its Exchange Vetting processes quarterly. Results will next be announced in April 2023.