Data sources and methodology

This page names each source behind the numbers in Terminal. Every number comes from one of these sources through code, never from a model.

Prices

Spot prices come from Coinbase public market data. If Coinbase has no price, we use Kraken public market data. Terminal's feed listens to public trades and builds one-minute candles from them.

Alerts are checked on this feed. The price on an alert is the last trade when the rule was checked. A price level rule also looks at each one-minute high and low since the last check. When the price touched the level and came back before the check, the alert also shows the price it reached and the minute. We do not blend Coinbase and Kraken prices. Open any number in the app to see its source and its time.

Receipts record the price again at fixed times after an alert. When a receipt uses CoinDesk Data's reference index, the number names CoinDesk Data and carries this line:

Market data: CoinDesk Data

A receipt's change is measured on one source only, never between two. The prices page says whether receipts use CoinDesk Data today. The receipts page explains how each later price is chosen.

Derivatives

Funding rates and open interest come from Kraken Futures. When Kraken Futures has no usable reading for a coin, Terminal uses Hyperliquid. Readings from the two are never averaged or mixed in one check.

Funding and open interest are not available for every coin. How alerts are checked against these readings is on the Methodology pages.

World events

World events come from public sources. They include central banks, US statistics agencies, the Federal Register, the National Weather Service, the FDIC and official project status pages. Each event names its source and links to it.

The World events page of these docs lists every source. The prices after an event follow the same rules as alert receipts.

How we use licensed data

CoinDesk Data is Terminal's licensed reference source. Wherever Terminal shows CoinDesk Data, it shows derived data: the prices on one alert, a receipt, a record row, or a why-note.

Raw CoinDesk Data is not resold or redistributed. Terminal does not offer a list or series of CoinDesk prices, a chart built from them, or a bulk download. No API or MCP answer is a series of CoinDesk prices.

Coinbase and Kraken prices come from their public market data.

The data sources notice says what you may do with the numbers Terminal shows.

When a source is late or missing

A live price carries a time. When that time is too old, the price is stale. A stale price is not used, and an alert does not fire on it.

A missing price is shown as unavailable. We do not put a zero in its place, and we do not copy an older price forward.

If Coinbase goes quiet, the feed moves to Kraken for the coins Kraken lists. A coin moves only when Kraken's price is close to Coinbase's last price. Otherwise that coin has no live price until Coinbase returns.

When CoinDesk Data has no close for a minute, or its close is too far from the feed, the receipt uses the feed. The number then names the feed.

A funding or open-interest reading that is too old is not used. A world source that fails shows as having trouble in the Sources list on the World screen. A receipt price that never arrives is marked missing. It is not counted as a change of zero.

The status page says whether prices are arriving right now.

Methodology

The methodology pages give the exact rules and the numbers behind them:

Updated Nov 6, 2026