Crypto analytics platform DefiLlama has integrated Forgd’s market-maker leaderboard, giving users access to standardized data on spreads, market depth, trading volume, and uptime. The integration aims to bring greater transparency to a critical but often opaque layer of the crypto ecosystem: the firms that provide liquidity across centralized and decentralized exchanges.
According to an announcement issued by Forgd, the dashboard ranks crypto market makers using standardized measures of pricing, depth, reliability, and execution quality. The underlying data draws on information from more than 500 token projects and 35 market-making firms that use Forgd’s tools to monitor liquidity across active engagements. Forgd first launched the leaderboard in May as a product designed for token projects that need help selecting and monitoring liquidity providers.
What the leaderboard includes
The new integration on DefiLlama allows users to compare market makers across multiple exchanges and assess the quality of liquidity behind individual tokens. This can be particularly useful for traders, analysts, and project teams who want to understand which market makers are genuinely supporting a token’s trading environment versus those that merely provide order book depth on a superficial level.
Forgd’s metrics go beyond raw volume figures. The dashboard evaluates how tightly a market maker quotes spreads, how much depth it provides at various price levels, whether it remains reliably online during periods of market stress, and how well it executes trades relative to the best available price. These are the operational dimensions that determine whether a liquid market is genuinely robust or simply looks active on the surface.
Ryan Celaj, head of research at DefiLlama, said the integration adds another signal for evaluating execution quality and market resilience alongside metrics such as volume and liquidity. In the announcement, Celaj noted that the leaderboard helps close a gap in the publicly available data around market maker performance. While traders often see aggregated volume and liquidity metrics on analytics platforms, they rarely have direct visibility into the behavior of the specific firms that provide that liquidity.
Why market-maker transparency matters
Market makers play an indispensable role in cryptocurrency markets by continuously quoting buy and sell orders. Their willingness to hold inventory and adjust prices helps reduce the bid-ask spread and dampens price volatility. Without active market making, even well-known tokens can suffer from wide spreads, slippage, and erratic price moves that discourage institutional participation.
However, the market-making industry has historically been somewhat opaque. Many firms operate under nondisclosure agreements with exchanges and token projects, making it difficult for outsiders to evaluate which counterparties are reliable. This opacity can create risks. A project might select a market maker based on reputation alone, only to discover later that the firm fails to provide adequate liquidity during high-volatility events.
Forgd’s leaderboard attempts to address this by creating a standardized, comparative view. By aggregating performance data from a wide set of token projects, the dashboard offers a snapshot of how different market makers behave in real trading conditions. This can help token projects conduct more informed due diligence before signing liquidity agreements.
A caveat about the rankings
Forgd is careful to note that the ratings do not solely reflect observed trading performance. The company’s CEO, Shane Molidor, explained that a lower grade on the index is not necessarily a negative judgment of a firm’s trading ability. Rather, he said, "It reflects that they haven’t yet fully opted into performance verification."
This nuance is important for anyone interpreting the leaderboard. A market maker may still be highly capable, but if it has not shared comprehensive data with Forgd, its score could understate its true performance. Conversely, firms that are more transparent with their data may appear higher on the list simply because they have provided more information. This means the leaderboard should be viewed as a signal that benefits from verification, not as an absolute ranking of trading skill.
"A lower grade on the index is not necessarily a judgment of a firm’s trading," Molidor told Cointelegraph in comments that were later added to the original announcement. He clarified that the ratings are designed to encourage participation in performance verification. The more data a market maker provides, the more accurate its score can become.
Partnership structure
Clarifying the arrangement between the two companies, Molidor said that Forgd provides the leaderboard’s anonymized market-maker performance data, while DefiLlama hosts it as a distribution partner. He confirmed that the companies have no other financial arrangement specifically related to the dashboard.
This structure is similar to other data integrations in the DefiLlama ecosystem. DefiLlama has become one of the most widely referenced crypto analytics platforms, known primarily for its total value locked (TVL) rankings across decentralized finance protocols. In recent years, DefiLlama has expanded beyond TVL to include yield aggregators, stablecoin data, and other market intelligence tools. The addition of Forgd’s leaderboard continues that expansion into the area of market microstructure.
The integration also aligns with a broader trend in crypto toward transparency and standardized reporting. As institutional interest in digital assets grows, professional investors increasingly expect the same level of disclosure and data granularity they receive in traditional finance. Market maker performance is one of the areas where this desire for transparency has collided with the industry’s historical lack of standardized reporting.
Background on crypto market makers
Market makers operate across a wide range of venues, from major centralized exchanges like Binance and Coinbase to decentralized exchanges such as Uniswap and Curve. Their strategies can vary significantly. Some focus on high-frequency trading with low latency and small profit margins. Others provide over-the-counter liquidity for large block trades or specialize in listing support for new tokens.
In the current crypto environment, effective market making is about more than just quoting a bid and an ask. Firms must manage inventory risk, navigate fragmented liquidity across multiple venues, and stay resilient during flash crashes and volatile news events. They also need to maintain relationships with exchanges and token issuers, which often requires vetting and integration with multiple trading APIs.
Despite the critical nature of these services, the market maker landscape is relatively concentrated. A small number of firms handle a disproportionate share of trading volume across the industry. This concentration can create systemic risks. If a major market maker withdraws from a particular token or exchange, liquidity can dry up quickly, leading to sharp price movements and loss of confidence.
Forgd’s leaderboard could help mitigate some of these risks by giving projects a clearer picture of which market makers are consistently dependable. For example, a token project might use the dashboard to identify a market maker that maintains tight spreads and deep order books even during periods of low trading activity. The same data can also help exchanges assess the quality of the liquidity providers they work with.
What this means for DefiLlama users
For regular DefiLlama users, the integration offers a new lens through which to evaluate tokens. Previously, the platform allowed users to inspect a token’s liquidity pools, lending markets, and yield opportunities, but not the behavior of the market makers behind those pools. Now, users can get an at-a-glance view of how well a token’s market makers perform on key operational metrics.
This can be especially useful for decentralized finance participants who provide liquidity themselves or who rely on deep markets to execute trades without excessive slippage. A token may have a high total value locked or a large volume figure, but if its underlying market makers are inefficient or unreliable, the user experience can suffer. The Forgd leaderboard adds an additional layer of due diligence that was previously available only to professional firms with direct access to market maker performance data.
The dashboard also highlights the growing importance of data-driven decision-making in the crypto industry. With more than 500 token projects and 35 market-making firms represented, Forgd has assembled one of the largest independent data sets of its kind. The partnership with DefiLlama extends that data to a broad audience, potentially setting a new standard for how market maker performance is publicly evaluated.
As the integration unfolds, market participants will likely watch to see how the leaderboard influences the behavior of market makers themselves. Public scoring can be a powerful incentive for firms to improve their operational standards, particularly if token projects and exchanges begin using these metrics in their selection processes. In a market where reputation is often based on word of mouth, a transparent benchmark could reshape how the industry views its most important liquidity providers.
Source:Cointelegraph News