Unless you’re a degenerate gambler, there are several things you’d want to know before investing in a cryptocurrency. First, you might ask why it exists. Is it a governance token that entitles holders to a share of protocol revenue? Is it a network token needed to transact on a flourishing blockchain? Is it $LAPTOP, Hunter Biden’s naked attempt at cashing in on his notoriety? 

We can’t help you there. If you want answers to those questions, hire an analyst or spend a boatload of tokens (not the crypto kind). 

But there are other questions. Is the issuer transparent? Who, exactly, created the token? Are insiders holding most of the supply, waiting to dump on retail investors? You might also want to know how the token is performing. Does it trade on major exchanges? Are there lots of buyers and sellers, or can a single, big trade crater — or boost — the price? 

Built in partnership with Forgd, DefiLlama’s Universal Token Ratings answer all those questions, and more. It debuted last month, and we’ve been digging into the data over the past several weeks. They tell an interesting story. 

You can find our first report here. In our second, we examine why Disclosure proved such a bottleneck for tokens that would have otherwise earned high marks. 

The UTR scores tokens along two major axes: Disclosure and Performance. Those axes are comprised of many sub-categories, like “tokenomics” and “market quality.” 

Tokens earn scores on each axis. A token’s total rating is the product of the two. In other words, if a token scores a 7 out of 10 on Disclosure and Performance, its overall score is 49 out of 100. Earning a high overall rating requires an exceptional score on each axis. 

As it turns out, the Disclosure axis is the proverbial albatross weighing on tokens’ scores. Three quarters of all rated tokens earned higher marks on Performance than on Disclosure. The mean Disclosure score among rated tokens was 4.98 out of 10. Their mean Performance score was 6.07.

Most tokens that scored highly on the Disclosure axis also did well on the Performance axis. Those that didn’t suffered some combination of the following issues: meager trade volume relative to their market capitalization, lack of access to a top-tier exchange, and modest fully-diluted valuation (a figure that includes the value of all tokens, even those that have yet to enter circulation).

Monero, for example, earned a Disclosure rating of 5.19 and a Performance rating of 4.32. Among other things, the Performance axis flagged relatively weak trade volume and order-book depth for a token of that size. 

Critically, the Performance data is measured onchain, in real-time. By the time this goes out, Monero’s performance score may have improved. This separates the UTR from the many disclosure-only token rating frameworks that came before, which offer a static image of a token’s quality. 

Monero meticulously detailed its tokenomics, earning a AAA rating across three of four sub-sub-categories. A would-be buyer might think they have all the information they need to make an informed investment. But middling order-book depth might give them pause. 

But what about the vast majority of tokens, which score highly on the Performance axis while sporting a middling Disclosure rating? And what might explain why so many issuers struggle to earn high marks on the latter? 

To learn more, read our report here. 

Back in April, we profiled Pharos, a new blockchain purpose-built for the booming real-world asset market. It had raised $52 million in total funding, including a $44 million Series A that valued it at nearly $1 billion post-money. 

Now, more than four months after launch, it is a top-50 blockchain when measured by the size of its DeFi ecosystem, ahead of well-known competitors such as Blast, Berachain, Unichain, and MegaETH. 

More than $32 million has been deposited in its DeFi ecosystem. That figure has grown 168% over the past month, the second-fastest rate of growth among top 50 blockchains. 

See our Pharos Spotlight here.

This feature lets users visually synthesize DefiLlama’s oodles of blockchain data however they find most intuitive. Charts can feature up-to-date figures for protocol TVL, volume, fees, revenue, users, and transactions; ecosystem-wide metrics across different chains; protocol rankings and data tables; and much more. 

Try it today.