Don’t invest unless you’re prepared to lose all the money you invest. This is a high-risk investment and you are unlikely to be protected if something goes wrong. Take 2 minutes to learn more
CMC (CoinMarketCap) cuts through the noise with its new dedicated section, giving traders crystal-clear visibility on rehypothecated assets.
The Only Constant Is Change
Crypto moves at breakneck speed. Today’s breakthrough becomes tomorrow’s afterthought before most investors even understand it.
Right now, all eyes have locked onto wrapped tokens and restaking protocols. They’re rewriting the rules of liquidity and yield generation across chains. But beneath the hype, how do these instruments actually work?
The Origin Story of CMC
Let’s rewind to crypto’s wild early days—before CMC became the industry standard.
A young Brandon Chez spotted the chaos: no clear way to track crypto valuations. So he did something radical.
Taking cues from arcade leaderboards (yes, like Dance Dance Revolution), he built a simple market cap ranking tool. That scrappy side project? It became the heartbeat of crypto.
Today, CMC still fights for the same mission: cutting through noise with reliable data.
The Data Dilemma of Modern Crypto
By 2023, wrapped and restaked assets had reshaped crypto’s infrastructure—and exposed critical data gaps. Two systemic issues emerged:
The Replication Problem
Multiple derivatives of single assets (stETH, rsETH, rETH) flooded the market. Tracking platforms struggled to display coherent rankings as identical underlying value appeared across numerous tokenized forms.
The Inflation Risk
Unadjusted accounting threatened to distort global market caps. Without proper deduplication, the $2.36 trillion sector (June 2024 data) risked significant valuation overstatements from double-counted collateral.
These challenges weren’t theoretical—they undermined the reliability of fundamental metrics used by traders, regulators, and institutional investors alike.
Why Market Cap Integrity Matters?
Global cryptocurrency market capitalization serves as a key macroeconomic indicator. Investors rely on this metric to gauge market cycles, with some venture capitalists predicting a $10 trillion valuation as the next cycle’s peak.
The Counting Conundrum
The inclusion of wrapped and restaked assets creates measurement challenges:
Potential double-countingartificially inflates the total figure
A $10 trillion milestone might reflect accounting artifacts rather than organic growth
Early cycle completion could occur if synthetic liquidity gets miscategorized
Psychological Market Forces
The Thomas Theorem (where perceptions shape reality) suggests inflated metrics might:
Accelerate perceived cycle progression
Trigger premature exit strategies among institutional players
Distort risk assessment models
Data Reliability at Stake
Inaccurate reporting risks:
Misguided investment decisions across market tiers
Erosion of trust in crypto analytics platforms
Regulatory scrutiny over valuation methodologies
The crypto market’s volatility already challenges traditional valuation frameworks. Precise accounting of synthetic assets becomes critical when billions in capital allocation depend on these benchmarks.
The platform developed a solution to address these tracking challenges while maintaining data accuracy.
New Tracking for Synthetic Assets
The platform now features separate rankings for wrapped and restaked tokens. This addresses previous data issues while increasing visibility for these instruments.
Key features include:
Deduplicated market cap calculations
Clear labeling of asset types
Improved comparability metrics
The update reflects crypto’s evolving financial engineering landscape.
CMC’s Clutter-Free Solution
The dedicated page isolates wrapped/restaked assets, keeping main rankings clean while maintaining full accessibility.
Eliminating Double-Counting
Separate tracking prevents market cap inflation, preserving accurate valuation metrics across all listings.
User-Centric Design
The interface prioritizes clear data visualization for synthetic assets, with layout and functionality tailored to analytical needs.
The Evolving Tracking Challenge
Web3’s rapid innovation continuously introduces new asset types and financial instruments, requiring constant methodology updates from data platforms.
Adapting to Change
As synthetic assets grow more complex, market trackers must adjust their approaches to maintain accurate valuations across:
New wrapping protocols
Emerging restaking models
Cross-chain derivatives
The industry’s ability to provide reliable metrics remains critical as crypto matures.
Conclusion
The rise of wrapped and restaked assets highlights crypto’s rapid evolution—and the need for precise tracking. As the space grows more complex, transparent data remains essential for informed decisions. The industry’s next challenge? Keeping pace with innovation while maintaining reliability.
