The trouble with ticker symbols

Final month, Paxos, the issuer of the seventh-largest stablecoin within the $2 trillion international cryptocurrency market, renamed the token, beforehand known as the Paxos customary, to the Paxos greenback. As a part of the rebranding, the crypto exchange modified the ticker image from PAX to USDP.

There was one hitch: One other stablecoin was already utilizing the ticker.

Unit Protocol, a decentralized lending platform that went reside in February, had been calling its token USDP since at the very least July of final 12 months, when it revealed a white paper. For a scorching minute it appeared the plucky staff was not about to let a much bigger rival use the four-letter identifier and not using a battle.

“We’re at present disputing Paxos’ trademark software for USDP,” Benjamin Meredith, a consultant for Unit Protocol, instructed CoinDesk on Aug. 27.

To point out that the unique USDP was a recognized amount out there, Meredith pointed to blockchain information indicating that 138 million models of the token had been minted, every value just below $1. He additionally shared writeups available on the market information websites CoinGecko and CoinMarketCap as additional proof this stablecoin was a longtime asset – even when the Paxos stablecoin’s market cap was 7.5 occasions bigger.

As of this writing, nevertheless, no formal objection was filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Workplace. In a later e-mail, Meredith mentioned the Unit Protocol staff determined to first speak to a Paxos govt. Nonetheless later, he mentioned the decision didn’t occur.

“We’re simply going to go alongside our merry means in the intervening time,” Meredith mentioned.

Paxos, for its half, appeared unwilling to budge when contacted by CoinDesk. “It’s frequent for tasks to share tickers within the cryptocurrency area,” mentioned Paxos spokesperson Becky McClain. “There are dozens of cases of shared qtickers or tickers that share letter strings, and we really feel assured these makes use of are distinguishable and coexist with out confusion for customers.” She didn’t reply a follow-up query about whether or not Paxos checked if the ticker was already in use earlier than selecting it.

This anticlimactic story highlights a difficulty that has come up a handful of occasions in crypto and should accomplish that extra typically sooner or later because the business grows. With no customary for exchanges to assign identifiers, traders are apt to get confused.

“Tickers are designed to make property immediately recognizable to shoppers, so it’s vital every ticker refers to a single asset,” mentioned Kevin Beardsley, lead product supervisor for professional buying and selling on the Kraken alternate. “Nevertheless, two tasks generally declare the identical image, and the winner is generally determined de facto by the group.”

$ETH(an Allen)

In contrast to a inventory, which is often listed on a single alternate that has remaining say over ticker assignments, a crypto asset may be purchased and offered on lots of of venues all through the world.

“Each time two, often smaller, token tasks declare the identical ticker, it’s typically the one [that] beneficial properties extra public momentum and alternate listings early on that retains the image,” Beardsley mentioned.

At Coinbase, “we take the issuer’s suggestion beneath advisement, however now we have an opinion, too, as do all exchanges,” mentioned a spokesperson for the crypto alternate powerhouse. “In case of conflicts, we’ve thus far adopted a primary come, first serve mannequin.”

(Coinbase itself ruffled feathers this 12 months by selecting the ticker COIN for its watershed Nasdaq inventory itemizing; Coinsilium, a blockchain funding agency, already used the identifier for its shares, which commerce on the London-based Acquis Alternate.)

One other latest instance of the issue was when Ethan Allen, a furnishings retailer, modified its inventory ticker to ETD from ETH to keep away from confusion with ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization.

Amazingly, an enormous run-up in Ethan Allen’s share value earlier this 12 months had been attributed to retail merchants mistaking the inventory for the crypto. The furnishings chain’s … ahem, the service provider’s CEO additionally mentioned the ticker change would assist with search site visitors as a result of folks googling news about his firm received’t find yourself wading via tales concerning the native token of the Ethereum blockchain.

Early crypto advocates noticed that requirements mattered. In 2014, the Bitcoin Basis, then in its heyday, lobbied the Worldwide Group for Standardization (ISO) to make XBT the unique cryptocurrency’s ticker image for overseas alternate.

Why not BTC, which even then was already the customary abbreviation? “The code XBT was chosen as a result of the prefix ‘X’ denotes a non-national affiliation or a financial steel comparable to gold or silver,” defined Jon Matonis, one of many basis’s leaders, in a CoinDesk op-ed on the time. “Technically, BTC can be unavailable because of the truth ‘BT’ already represents the nation of Bhutan.”

Matonis predicted that an ISO-standard ticker would spur worldwide adoption. “When a brand new foreign money code turns into adopted by the [ISO], it instantly enters the database tables upon which Visa, MasterCard, PayPal, SWIFT and different clearing networks rely,” he wrote.

ISO by no means made it official, nevertheless, and XBT was solely sparsely used to symbolize the mom of all digital property. In April, seven years after adopting the would-be ISO ticker, Kraken, one of many few exchanges from these early days that survived and thrived, scrapped XBT for many functions in favor of the extra acquainted BTC.

“Being that Bitcoin is decentralized, there isn’t any customary, nor governing physique, to dictate what notation needs to be used for it. Nonetheless, ‘BTC’ has been the commonly accepted abbreviation for Bitcoin stemming from the early days of Bitcoin,” the corporate defined.

Which BCH?

Maybe essentially the most dramatic ticker story in crypto includes Bitcoin Money, the breakaway blockchain whose creators seceded from the Bitcoin community in 2017 following a protracted, vitriolic debate over learn how to scale the system.

“Whereas each the Bitcoin and Bitcoin Money communities claimed the BTC ticker forward of the laborious fork in 2017, the very fact most of the people continued ascribing the BTC ticker to the segwit chain in the end settled the dispute,” Beardsley at Kraken recalled. (Segregated Witness, or segwit, was the scaling technique most well-liked by the Bitcoin faction.)

Thus the brand new cryptocurrency glided by the ticker image BCH.

To current holders of BTC, the chain split was a windfall. In case your personal key managed, say, 2 BTC earlier than the contentious hard fork, afterward you may nonetheless use it to unlock that a lot on the unique chain and to entry 2 BCH on the brand new one. Even for those who didn’t care a lot for BCH, you may declare it on the brand new chain, ship it to an alternate and swap it for BTC.

The next 12 months, Bitcoin Money itself break up into two, once more over technical variations between warring camps. As soon as once more, the upshot for holders was free cash on the brand new chain.

Exchanges that custodied BCH for shoppers thus discovered themselves holding two property the place there had been one. And for a time, they used a befuddling nomenclature to inform them aside.

The exchanges labeled one coin BCH ABC or BAB, the opposite BCH SV or BSV. Finally, the ABC faction reclaimed the BCH ticker (sans suffix) and the Bitcoin Money moniker, and the opposite coin turned often known as BSV (Bitcoin: Satoshi’s Imaginative and prescient).

Final November, the sample repeated. Bitcoin Money once more break up into two. Once more, one chain was quickly known as BCH ABC. This time, the opposite was briefly known as BCHN (the “n” stood for “node”). It attracted extra laptop processing energy, turned the “official” Bitcoin Cash, and the ABC chain was ultimately renamed eCash, with the ticker XEC.

The fantastic thing about blockchains is that they let strangers on the web come to settlement on issues and not using a boss in cost. However these ticker dramas present expertise doesn’t clear up all coordination issues.

As establishments enter the market, the business might have to teach them on the idiosyncrasies of crypto tickers. No portfolio supervisor desires to have to elucidate to her board, “no, not that BCH – we purchased the opposite one.”