Methodology

This page explains how BitAdvent works: the “First Light” method behind our coverage, where our market data comes from, and how often it updates. We would rather be transparent than impressive.

The First Light method

Every major story and asset gets a First Light briefing with three clearly labelled parts:

• What is happening — the fact or the move, tightly sourced to a primary source.
• Why it matters — the plain-English significance, without hype.
• On the horizon — things to watch next: catalysts, dates and open questions. This is a watchlist, not a forecast. It is never a price prediction or a recommendation.

Every First Light block carries the line: “First Light shows what’s happening, why it matters and what’s on the horizon. Not financial advice.”

Where our data comes from

Our market data is keyless and sourced from public APIs, cached to stay fast and to respect rate limits:

• Price, 24-hour change, volume, highs/lows and charts — Binance public market data.
• Market capitalisation — derived from the live price multiplied by a curated circulating-supply figure. Because supply is curated, our market cap can differ slightly from other sources; we keep supplies current.
• Fear & Greed Index — Alternative.me.
• DeFi and stablecoin totals — DefiLlama, where shown.

Freshness and caching

Live values are cached on short cycles — roughly 60 seconds for headline prices, a few minutes for tables, and up to an hour for longer charts. When fresh data is briefly unavailable we serve the last known-good value; we never fabricate a number. If a datum is genuinely missing, we render nothing rather than a placeholder.

What we will not do

We do not invent prices, supplies, returns or quotes. We do not present forecasts as guarantees. We do not publish anonymous “insider” claims on money-and-life topics. Where we are uncertain, we say so.

See also our Editorial Guidelines and Disclaimer.