Sources
The price and FX sources behind the Kimp Index, including venue fallbacks, the two-venue minimum and the treatment of USDT.
The Kimp Index uses three inputs per asset: an Upbit KRW price, a global USD price and a USDKRW reference. This page defines each source and the rules reporters follow when a source is unavailable.
Source table#
| Input | Source | Price used |
|---|---|---|
| P_upbit_krw | Upbit, market KRW-ASSET | Last trade price |
| P_global_usd | Binance ASSET/USDT | Last trade price |
| P_global_usd | Coinbase ASSET/USD | Last trade price |
| P_global_usd | OKX ASSET/USDT | Last trade price |
| USDKRW | Mid-market FX reference | Mid of bid and ask |
Upbit KRW price#
The Upbit input is the last trade price of the asset's KRW market, for example KRW-BTC. Upbit is the reference venue for Korean retail flow and the market the kimchi premium is quoted against in Korea.
When the official Upbit Oracle ships on GIWA, it becomes the primary source for this input through a governance-controlled source switch. Reporters then remain as fallback. See Upbit Oracle migration.
If Upbit halts or suspends trading in an asset, the index for that asset is frozen at its last value and the market becomes reduce-only. See Edge cases.
Global USD price#
The global price is the median of three venues: Binance, Coinbase and OKX.
- USDT pairs are quoted at par with USD. The index does not apply a USDT/USD conversion.
- If one venue is unavailable, the median of the remaining venues is used. With two venues, the median is the mean of the two prices.
- A minimum of two venues is required. With fewer than two, a reporter does not submit a report for that asset in that epoch.
A venue is treated as unavailable by a reporter when its API does not return a trade price within the epoch, when trading on the pair is halted, or when the last trade is older than the epoch it would be used for.
Why a median#
A median of three ignores one outlier completely. A single venue printing a wick, lagging, or going offline cannot move the global price on its own. The mean would be moved by any one bad print.
Why USDT at par#
Two of the three venues quote in USDT. Treating USDT as USD keeps the index simple and avoids introducing a fourth feed. USDT deviations from par are usually small relative to premium moves, but a large depeg would show up as a distortion in the index. This is disclosed in Risks.
USDKRW reference#
USDKRW is a mid-market FX reference: the midpoint between bid and ask of the interbank rate. It is not a card rate or a bank retail rate.
FX markets close on weekends and some holidays. During these gaps reporters carry the last valid FX mid for up to 72 hours. Every value computed with a carried FX mid is flagged in the event data, so consumers can tell a live FX input from a carried one. Rules for longer gaps are in Edge cases.
Reporter obligations#
Each reporter sources all inputs independently. Reporters are expected to:
- 1Pull prices directly from each venue, not from a shared aggregator.
- 2Timestamp every input at the time it was retrieved.
- 3Retain the raw source data for each report for at least the dispute window, so it can be produced as evidence.
- 4Skip an asset for an epoch rather than submit a value built from fewer than two global venues.
The median across reporters is the second layer of protection. One reporter with a bad feed is outvoted by the others and flagged automatically. See Bonding and slashing.
Changing sources#
Adding, removing or replacing a venue or the FX reference is a governance action executed through the 48-hour timelock. The change is visible on-chain before it takes effect. See Governance process.
Collateral valuation#
The same inputs value ETH collateral. The finalized global ETH/USD median, P_global_usd for the ETH Kimp Index, is the ETH/USD reference used by KimpMarket and KimpPool for margin, NAV and payouts. ETH posted as trader margin is counted at that price less a 10% haircut. No separate price feed is introduced.