Pricing Algorand Standard Assets (ASAs)

In this work, we explore the price action of various ASAs (i.e., on-chain representations of many different kinds of assets) for a period of time. We will take a look at the price of some assets over the span of a day and an hour first, and we'll later explore the volume of assets in a 90-day window.

Methods

The data shown in this dashboard has been extracted from the algorand.price_swap table, which shows the price of assets based on information about previous swaps of these assets.

Part One: Short-term price action

To illustrate the wide range of prices ASAs can have, we first show the five cheapest and the five most expensive assets in the Algorand blockchain on the 1st of May 2022:

It is clear that Algorand has a wide range of assets, which makes their valuation a hard task.

We now show the distribution of the prices assets in the Algorand blockchain have. We show this for the window between 16:00 and 17:00 on May 1st, 2022, for assets that have been swapped at least once.

We show the results using a histogram with bins distributed on a logarithmic scale, in order to better appreciate the data. The price of the assets is again in USD. From the chart, we can observe that the prices of assets follow a very steep power law, where most of the ASAs have been swapped for less than a USD.

We will next explore the behavior of assets over a longer period of time.

Part Two: Long-term price action

We now explore which assets are the most traded in the Algorand blockchain. To do so, we show below a table with the 10 assets that have had the highest trading volume for the last 90 days:

It is clear that the most traded assets are the ones that provide the most utility to the Algorand ecosystem. While the asset that has had the largest volume is the SCOUT token, the one that has been most swapped is the ALGO token, followed by Yieldly and USDC. The average maximum volatility shows values that are not realistic, given that the volatility is defined as the difference between the maximum price and the minimum price an asset was swapped for in an hour in USD.

Conclusion

Algorand allows for the on-chain representation of a very wide range of assets.
Most ASAs are traded for less than a USD.
In the long run, the most traded assets are the ones that are most used in the Algorand ecosystem.

Contact data

For any questions or feedback feel free to contact me on Discord at CarlOwOs#4288 or Twitter at @CarlOwOs1