Every change to the scoring engine

Approval: Approved under the owner's standing rule of 28 October 2026 (the recommended option is taken and reported so it can be reversed); reported with the re-read of 10 November 2026.

Wrapped assets: the published-cost criterion no longer quotes a dollar price for bitcoin

Effective from 2026-11-10 — the version every ranking on this site is scored with today. Overall ranks and Fit ranks in the categories below were scored under this version from its publish date; the measured effect on each order is stated in the changes.

The text of the published-cost criterion for wrapped assets loses the dollar price of bitcoin it quoted from DefiLlama, a source this site paused on 27 October 2026. No band and no score changes.

The criterion compares each issuer's own take on a 1.0 BTC round trip. Its text also printed the dollar price of bitcoin on 6 August 2026, read from DefiLlama's price feed, and said every dollar figure had been recomputed at that price. The re-read of 10 November 2026 took those dollar conversions out of the six pricing notes that carried them, because a paused source is neither fetched nor printed (owner decision O-74), so the sentence described figures the site no longer publishes. The four score bands never used the price.

• RemovedWrapped assets, published dated cost: the sentence giving the bitcoin price of 6 August 2026 from DefiLlama, and the note on recomputing dollar figures at it, leave the criterion text. The bands (9-10, 5-8, 3-4, 1-2) are unchanged and no score moves.

A new ranking for retail ETH staking: where to stake ETH from an app or an exchange, scored on the share of the reward you keep

Effective 2026-10-28 to 2026-11-10, superseded by 2026.11.1. Overall ranks and Fit ranks in the categories below were scored under this version from its publish date; the measured effect on each order is stated in the changes.

Retail Staking is a new category: ETH staking from Revolut, Kraken, Coinbase, Bitstamp, OKX and Bybit, with Lido's stETH as the self-custody yardstick, scored on the share of the reward you keep (50), the routes back to ETH (30) and the rate shown before sign-up (20).

Owner decision OD-ST-1 (23 October 2026): the staking ranking is a ranking of institutional validator operators, which no retail reader can buy, and a reader asking where to stake ETH in the UK was shown Kiln first. Every provider here stakes the same ETH on the same network, so the share it keeps orders net yield; the quoted APYs are measured differently (before commission, after commission, a 7-day average) and are shown, never scored.

• AddedLido (stETH), Kraken ETH Staking, Coinbase ETH Staking, Revolut ETH Staking, OKX ETH Staking, Bitstamp Earn Staking and Bybit ETH Staking enter Retail Staking, ranked in that order.
• AddedLido (stETH) enters first on the Retail Staking country pages for Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, the Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, the United States and Vietnam.
• AddedRetail Staking: seven ETH staking products ranked on the share of the reward kept, the exit routes and the rate disclosure, each read on 28 October 2026 from the provider's own pages, its public API or a regulator's register, with the page captures committed.
• AddedA rate counts as shown before sign-up only with its basis stated in words: no Lido page says whether its 7-day APR is before or after the 10% fee, so Lido (stETH) scores 5 of 10 there, not the 9 an inference from its API code would give.
• AddedA provider appears only where its own pages show its ETH staking is open: OKX's UK site has no Earn section, Bybit EU lists no on-chain ETH product, and Revolut's UK page could not be read, so those three are not shown in the UK. Kraken's own licence page says its staking rewards are open only in select US states, which it does not name, so Kraken is not shown in the United States. Revolut ETH Staking (the EEA, where its MiCA licence reaches) and Bitstamp Earn Staking (the UK and the EEA) are each open in one region, and score availability as regional products.
• AddedFind my best for Retail Staking asks who should hold your ETH. "The app or exchange I already use" removes Lido's stETH, which you hold in your own wallet; "My own wallet" removes every account product. Both are requirements on a fact read from each provider's own pages, not points.

Approval: category creation approved 2026-10-28; criteria set pending owner review

Crypto savings plans are ranked on what a year of your plan costs, and an unpublished spread stays unknown

Effective 2026-10-28 to 2026-10-28, superseded by 2026.10.18. Overall ranks and Fit ranks in the categories below were scored under this version from its publish date; the measured effect on each order is stated in the changes.

A new category ranks recurring crypto buys on five published criteria: cost per year at €100 a month (35), custody and the route to your own wallet (25), licence and asset protection (15), minimum and schedule (15) and execution price transparency (10). Cost is a year of executions at the reader's monthly amount; a plan whose provider publishes no spread or bound on it shows "Spread unpublished" beside its fee instead of a total and cannot score above 5 of 10 on cost. Find my best adds the answer "Never held by the provider", which removes every plan that holds the coins itself.

Recurring buys were ranked nowhere as plans: Simple Buy and Crypto Exchanges price a one-off purchase, so a reader asking what €100 a month costs over a year got no answer. Three of the five plans read on 28 October publish a fee but no spread, and pricing them at the fee alone would show Trade Republic's €0 execution fee as the cheapest plan. The self-custody rule that Simple Buy applies as a refusal is a scored criterion here, because a plan is a schedule whose coins are moved in batches and the cost of each exit separates plans that can all leave: non-custodial 10, a free exit 8, a charged exit 6, a restricted exit 4, no exit 2. Every plan ranked has an exit. Trade Republic was first scored 2 on an undated help article saying crypto cannot be sent out; its price list v11.2025 prices crypto transfers out at no charge beyond the network fee and its release of 14 November 2025 launched them, so it scores 8. Its minimum is €10 on the same price list, not the €1 of the help article, so minimum and schedule scores 6, not 9. Both changes were made before the category was published.

• AddedCrypto Savings Plans is a new category. Finst Auto Invest enters at #1 with 78, Bitstack Recurring at #2 with 69, Relai Recurring at #3 with 67, Trade Republic Crypto Savings Plan at #4 with 66 and Bitpanda Savings Plan at #5 with 61. Scalable Capital, Sparkasse and Coinbase are named refusals with their reasons.
• ChangedCorrected 2026-10-28, before the category was deployed: a refuter pass found that Trade Republic's coins can leave (price list v11.2025, release of 14 November 2025), so its custody score went from 2 to 8. Trade Republic Crypto Savings Plan moved from 60 to 69 and from #5 to #2; Bitstack Recurring from #2 to #3 at 69; Relai Recurring from #3 to #4 at 67; Bitpanda Savings Plan from #4 to #5 at 61.
• ChangedCorrected again 2026-10-28, before the category was deployed: Trade Republic's price list v11.2025 states 'Anlagevolumen pro Ausführung: 10 € bis 10.000 €' for the crypto savings plan, so the minimum is €10, not the €1 of an undated help article, and its minimum-and-schedule score went from 9 to 6 (from €10 on fixed execution days is not daily, weekly and monthly at a time the buyer picks). Trade Republic Crypto Savings Plan moved from 69 to 66 and from #2 to #4; Bitstack Recurring from #3 to #2 at 69; Relai Recurring from #4 to #3 at 67; Bitpanda Savings Plan stays #5 at 61.
• AddedCrypto Savings Plans country pages: Finst Auto Invest leads in Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland, the countries on its own list. Bitpanda Savings Plan leads in Norway, inside the MiCA passport of the Bitpanda entity whose terms were scored. Each plan is listed only in the countries its provider's own list or its MiCA passport names: Trade Republic in the seventeen on its help centre's list, Relai in the 26 states of its passport plus France.
• AddedRead from those lists, Relai Recurring is left off the pages for Norway, Switzerland and the United Kingdom; Trade Republic Crypto Savings Plan is left off the pages for Norway, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom; and Bitpanda Savings Plan is left off the pages for Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
• AddedCrypto Savings Plans country pages for Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, the United Arab Emirates, the United States and Vietnam list no plan: every ranked plan serves Europe only.
• AddedThe Crypto Savings Plans page for the United Kingdom lists no plan: Relai's and Trade Republic's passports do not cover the United Kingdom, and Bitpanda's UK savings plan is run by Bitpanda Broker UK Ltd under its own terms, which this ranking has not scored.
• AddedFind my best for crypto savings plans: "Never held by the provider" removes Finst Auto Invest, Bitstack Recurring, Bitpanda Savings Plan and Trade Republic Crypto Savings Plan, whose providers hold the coins, and keeps Relai Recurring, which delivers each purchase to the buyer's own wallet.

Two EEA exchanges join the ranking: Bit2Me and Gate EU; KuCoin EU is refused while suspended

Effective 2026-10-28 to 2026-10-28, superseded by 2026.10.17. Overall ranks and Fit ranks in the categories below were scored under this version from its publish date; the measured effect on each order is stated in the changes.

Exchanges add two MiCA-authorised venues, read on 28 October 2026 from their own pages and ESMA's register: Bit2Me (Spain) and Gate's EEA entity (Malta). Gate, refused since 18 August for a pending licence and for adding nothing on a scored criterion, now has its EEA entity on the register, and none of Binance, Bybit or OKX matches or beats it on every criterion; Gate's global platform stays refused. KuCoin EU is refused: its own site says trading and deposits have been suspended since 4 February 2026. WhiteBIT stays refused: its EEA website takes waitlist sign-ups only.

A refusal is reopened when its own condition is met, and a venue is ranked only when a reader can open an account and trade there. Gate's condition was met on the register, so the second half of its reason was tested on the data rather than carried. Bit2Me was missing from a market where it is a leading app.

• AddedExchanges: Bit2Me enters at #8 (65) and Gate EU at #9 (64), each scored on the four published criteria from its own terms, fee pages and proof-of-reserves page. Bybit stays #1 (81).
• ChangedExchanges: no criterion score of a venue already ranked changed. The measured-data term places each venue's published taker fee against the pool's, and with 16 venues it moves these rows: Bitstamp #2 81 → #2 80; Upbit #3 77 → #3 76; Luno #6 69 → #6 70; Bitvavo #8 64 → #10 63; Kraken #9 60 → #11 60; VALR #10 60 → #12 59; Gemini #11 48 → #13 48; CoinDCX #12 47 → #14 46; Mercado Bitcoin #13 43 → #15 41; Bitso #14 41 → #16 41. In Find my best, a reader who answers that serious licences in major markets are enough, or that access comes first, now gets Bybit ahead of Bitstamp: the two had tied at 81, and Bitstamp now scores 80.
• AddedExchanges, country pages: Bit2Me is newly listed in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand and the United Arab Emirates; Gate EU is newly listed in Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain and Sweden. Bitstamp still leads the EEA and Norway pages and Bybit the other four. In the reader's-country order of each EEA country that has one, Bit2Me and Gate EU enter right after Coinbase.
• ChangedExchanges: Gate's refusal now names its global platform only, re-read on 28 October 2026. KuCoin EU is refused as not live: its site's banner reads "KuCoin EU trading and deposit services were suspended at 14:30 (UTC+1) on February 4, 2026.", and its announcement of 20 February 2026 says a temporary restriction on new business activities remains in place after a notice from Austria's FMA. KuCoin's global refusal is re-dated. WhiteBIT's refusal is re-dated with the same day's read of whitebit.eu, which takes waitlist sign-ups only.

Software wallets rank three more wallets and name Ledger Wallet as refused

Effective 2026-10-28 to 2026-10-28, superseded by 2026.10.16. Overall ranks and Fit ranks in the categories below were scored under this version from its publish date; the measured effect on each order is stated in the changes.

OKX Wallet, Electrum and Sparrow Wallet are now ranked among software wallets, each graded on the four published criteria with a quote and source for every score, read on 2026-10-28. Ledger Wallet (formerly Ledger Live) is named as refused: it holds no key without a Ledger device, and the devices are ranked in hardware_wallet. The criteria, ladders and weights are unchanged.

The provider-universe audit of 2026-10-28 found that software wallets ranked 8 products and refused none, so ChainChoice took no position on the wallets a reader is most likely to ask about next. OKX Wallet had been dropped on 2026-08-16 as custodial; its own help centre calls it "a non-custodial and decentralized multi-chain wallet", so that reason no longer held.

• AddedThree rows, each graded on all four criteria with a quote and source for every score and placed on the published rungs (research-pending/rereads/2026-09-28-wallet.json, rows read 2026-10-28; every quote re-found verbatim on a fresh fetch or in the page captures kept in research-pending/captures/2026-10-28-wallet/): Sparrow Wallet 6/5/5/9 (BIP-39 with the derivation path shown, every input and output decoded before signing, no documented single-key export, a disclosure policy but no bounty or audit); Electrum 6/5/6/6 (its own published seed format, not BIP-39, with no stated path, private-key export, a pre-signing preview, a 2018 phishing incident it disclosed itself and six dated advisories); OKX Wallet 6/5/6/6 (seed and per-network private-key export with no stated path, a named in-house scanner but no documented simulation, a funded HackerOne bounty and an opened SlowMist wallet audit, no advisory archive). Scores in the order key export, signing visibility, incident record, recovery and exit.
• AddedRefusal: Ledger Wallet (formerly Ledger Live), a hardware device's companion app; Ledger's own page says "Transactions are approved on a Ledger device, which is bought separately." (ledger.com/ledger-wallet, read 2026-10-28). It points to hardware_wallet.
• ChangedThe custodial scope rule no longer drops OKX Wallet: it now records the 2026-08-16 drop and why it was reversed.
• ChangedPublished wallet order: 11 rows (8 before). The #1 is unchanged (Rabby Wallet, 81). Sparrow Wallet enters at #7 (68), Electrum at #9 (66) and OKX Wallet at #10 (66, the same weighted total as Electrum, 41.9, and the same score on every criterion, so the published tie order decides). Two rows move down at an unchanged score: Rainbow #7 → #8 (67) and Coinbase Wallet #8 → #11 (66). The other six keep their rank and score.

An exchange's fee is scored at the rate the entity serving the reader's country charges

Effective 2026-10-28 to 2026-10-28, superseded by 2026.10.15. Overall ranks and Fit ranks in the categories below were scored under this version from its publish date; the measured effect on each order is stated in the changes.

Owner ruling, 28 October 2026: each reader's ranking uses the rate charged by the entity that serves their country, replacing the dearest-entity rule of 2026.10.13 before it reached the live site. A reader with no country is scored on the record's base rate. Where a venue's entity for the reader's region was not read, the base rate applies and the row says "regional rate not read".

The dearest-entity rule scored a Singapore reader's Bybit at the 0.25% only Bybit EU GmbH charges, and an EEA reader's OKX at the 0.35% only OKX Inc. charges in the US: every reader was ranked on a price some other reader pays. Each venue's EU, US and UK rates were read from its own fee pages on 28 October (Kraken's US page from the Internet Archive's copy of 21 October), and a rate that could not be read is named as unread rather than assumed.

• ChangedExchanges and onramps: the fee term of the score reads the rate of the entity that serves the reader's country (taker fee, spread); with no country, the record's base rate. Replaces 2026.10.13's dearest rate.
• AddedA country whose rates differ from the base records has its own order, the questionnaire run for that country: /best with the country set, Find my best, compare and the country landing print it. 22 questionnaire countries (the EEA ones and the United States) have one for exchanges.
• AddedA row whose serving entity's rate was not read carries "regional rate not read" (Coinbase for EEA, UK and US readers: its retail fee table is behind sign-in; Kraken and Bybit for UK readers; OKX outside the EEA and the US, whose global page could not be loaded).
• ChangedOKX: the 0.20% / 0.10% spot-only rate is the EEA entity's and applies to EEA readers only; OKX has no base rate, so its published fee term is neutral.
• ChangedExchange scores, before (2026.10.13) and after: Bybit 78 to 81 (#2 to #1), Bitstamp 81 (#1 to #2), Upbit 78 to 77, Binance 76 to 75, Coinbase 71 to 70 (#6 to #5), Luno 70 to 69 (#7 to #6), OKX 73 to 68 (#5 to #7), Bitvavo 69 to 64, Kraken 62 to 60 (#10 to #9), VALR 62 to 60 (#9 to #10), Gemini 49 to 48 (#12 to #11), CoinDCX 51 to 47 (#11 to #12), Mercado Bitcoin 44 to 43. Bitso is unchanged at 41 (#14).
• ChangedExchange scores against the order published before 2026.10.13 (2026.10.12), as both versions ship together: Bitstamp 79 to 81 (#3 to #2), Upbit 76 to 77 (#4 to #3), Binance 75 (#5 to #4), Coinbase 69 to 70 (#6 to #5), Luno 69 (#7 to #6), OKX 80 to 68 (#2 to #7), Bitvavo 62 to 64, VALR 58 to 60, CoinDCX 45 to 47, Mercado Bitcoin 42 to 43. Bybit stays #1 at 81; Kraken (60), Gemini (48) and Bitso (41) are unchanged.
• Changedcheck-regional-pricing recognises every licensed MiCA entity, not only the "through X under" wording: a priced venue with one states its EEA rate or names it unread.

A venue that charges by entity is priced for each reader by the entity that serves them, and scored on its dearest entity's rate

Effective 2026-10-28 to 2026-10-28, superseded by 2026.10.14. Overall ranks and Fit ranks in the categories below were scored under this version from its publish date; the measured effect on each order is stated in the changes.

Each reader is priced by the entity that serves their country, from that entity's own page. The published score names no country, so its fee term reads the dearest rate any entity charges: Bybit costs an EEA reader 0.25%, not 0.10%, and Bitstamp is the new exchange #1.

On 28 October the value benchmark found /best/exchange?country=DE ranking Bybit the cheapest exchange at 0.10%, the rate of an entity no German reader can contract with: Bybit EU GmbH's own page charges a regular user 0.25%. A score that cannot know the reader's entity must not credit a venue with the cheapest rate it charges anyone, or the venue that splits its prices by region ranks on the price most readers do not get.

• ChangedExchanges and onramps: the fee term of the score reads the dearest entry rate a venue publishes for any of its entities (taker fee, spread), not the rate of one entity.
• AddedPricing records carry regional entries (entity, verbatim quote, source, read date); every cost a reader sees, on the list, the provider page and the country page, is computed on the entry for their country.
• ChangedExchange scores this rule gave, before and after; 2026.10.14 replaced it in the same release, so they were never the published order: Bitstamp 79 to 81 (#3 to #1), Bybit 81 to 78 (#1 to #2), Upbit 76 to 78 (#4 to #3), Binance 75 to 76 (#5 to #4), OKX 80 to 73 (#2 to #5), Coinbase 69 to 71, Luno 69 to 70, Bitvavo 62 to 69, VALR 58 to 62 (#10 to #9), Kraken 60 to 62 (#9 to #10), CoinDCX 45 to 51 (#12 to #11), Gemini 48 to 49 (#11 to #12), Mercado Bitcoin 42 to 44. Bitso is unchanged at 41 (#14).
• AddedOn every build three checks fail: a price without the currency it is billed in, a regional entry its quote does not bear out or a venue with a separate EEA entity and no EEA rate, and a provider that no longer operates still carrying a price.

A product that no longer operates is never linked, and a row that says it is unavailable must carry a sunset date

Effective 2026-10-23 to 2026-10-28, superseded by 2026.10.13. Overall ranks and Fit ranks in the categories below were scored under this version from its publish date; the measured effect on each order is stated in the changes.

A row with a sunset date is kept for reference with its criteria block at zero, and from today no surface draws a Visit for it: the compare table, country pages, the assistant, the catalog profile and review pages show a line saying it no longer operates instead, as the verdict page already did. Hop Protocol is withdrawn from bridges with a sunset date of 23 October 2026, because hop.exchange serves a gambling page and its app and route service do not answer.

On 30 September the bridges re-read wrote "treat this route as unavailable" into Hop Protocol's own notes, yet the row stayed ranked with a link to hop.exchange, which served an Indonesian slot-gambling page on that day and again on 23 October. A note that nothing reads protects no reader.

• FixedBridges: Hop Protocol carries a sunset date (2026-10-23) and links to its code repository, not hop.exchange. Its criteria block is zeroed and it stays last; it is kept for reference, not as a candidate.
• ChangedA row with a sunset date draws no outbound link on any surface; the verdict page already withheld it.
• AddedOn every build a check fails when a row's own notes say it is unavailable or not operating and it carries no sunset date, and when any outbound link points at a host on the list of hosts that served gambling or unrelated content.

Two new requirements: the chain you swap on, and a MiCA authorisation in the onramp's own name

Effective 2026-10-20 to 2026-10-23, superseded by 2026.10.12. Overall ranks and Fit ranks in the categories below were scored under this version from its publish date; the measured effect on each order is stated in the changes.

Find my best for DEXs asks which chain you swap on, and a venue without two years of pools on that chain is removed with the reason; where each venue holds liquidity, and since when, is read from DefiLlama. Find my best for onramps adds the answer "Authorised under MiCA in its own name", which removes every provider that is not authorised under MiCA in its own entity's name (listed on ESMA's interim register of crypto-asset service providers). The published order, which no answer sets, does not change.

No answer moved the DEX or onramp winner: Uniswap and Transak led every brief, and a reader who swaps on Solana was shown Uniswap first, which holds no liquidity there. Since the last MiCA transitional period closed on 1 July 2026, a reader in the EU needs a provider that is authorised itself; Transak, which led, is not on the register. Both answers are requirements, not preferences: a venue with no pool on your chain cannot fill your swap, however it scores. The two-year line is the one this category already draws for Ekubo, so PancakeSwap's Solana pools, first measured on 2 July 2025, do not yet count.

• AddedDEXs: "Which chain do you swap on?" (Ethereum or another EVM chain, Solana, or several). Solana keeps only Orca and Raydium; EVM removes Orca, Raydium and Osmosis; it keeps a venue with two years of pools on any EVM chain, not necessarily the reader's. Each venue's chains come from data/dex-chain-deployments.json, read from DefiLlama on 2026-10-20.
• AddedOnramps: "Authorised under MiCA in its own name" removes Transak, Mercuryo (it rides Criptan's authorisation), Stripe (its terms do not name the crypto provider), Topper (Uphold), Alchemy Pay and five regional rails (Koywe, Onramp Money, Onmeta, Fonbnk, Kotani Pay); six providers authorised in their own name remain. Each row is matched to ESMA's register by LEI (data/esma-casps.json, read 2026-10-10).
• AddedOn every build a test holds each of the eight flagship categories to at least one answer that changes its winner.

The live-data rule names the researched market measurements a criterion reads

Effective 2026-10-15 to 2026-10-20, superseded by 2026.10.11. Overall ranks and Fit ranks in the categories below were scored under this version from its publish date; the measured effect on each order is stated in the changes.

The rule on /methodology/live-data now says that a score reads two kinds of figure, not one: a provider's fee schedule, and a researched, dated market measurement that a criterion's published ladder is built on, such as a chain's total value locked or a reward token's 24-hour trading volume. Each is read by our research with its source and date and read again on the 45-day review; a live feed still never enters a score. The page lists the 14 criteria that read one. No score moves.

From 11 October the rule said that no number from a market snapshot, and no volume or total value locked, entered any score. Three criteria were built on exactly that: appchains_l3s' measured liquidity on arrival (DefiLlama chain TVL), depin_networks' reward integrity and liquidity (CoinGecko 24-hour volume) and flash_loans' single-transaction borrowable depth (a contract balance at a named block); Eclipse's liquidity score had moved from 2 to 1 when its TVL fell. The owner decided on 15 October (O-57) that such a measurement may enter a criterion score, read on the review cadence and dated, and that the public rule must say so. Reading every criterion's published ladder found 11 more that read a market quantity.

• ChangedThe live-data rule names a second kind of figure a score reads: a researched, dated market measurement a criterion's ladder is built on, read again on the 45-day review. /methodology/live-data lists the 14 criteria that read one; no score, rank or order changes.
• ChangedA saved decision is checked again on the answers the reader saved. The drift check had merged a priority suggested by the market (price swings, gas) into those answers, so a market reading could move a saved decision's #1; the published ranking never read it.
• AddedOn every build a test reads every criterion's published ladder: one that names a market quantity or a market-data source must be declared, and every scored row of a declared criterion must carry the source and the date its figure was read.

No live feed or market rate moves a score

Effective 2026-10-11 to 2026-10-15, superseded by 2026.10.10. Overall ranks and Fit ranks in the categories below were scored under this version from its publish date; the measured effect on each order is stated in the changes.

The fee term of Measured data now reads only the fee a provider publishes, as the catalog records it and re-reads on each category's 45-day review. It no longer reads a borrow rate for lending, a yield for staking, or a hand-kept fee table dated 1 April ahead of the catalog. A new page, /methodology/live-data, lists every live number the site shows and whether a score may read it.

Prices, yields and rates change by the hour, and a ranking that moved with them would be a price feed. Measured on 2026-10-11: the lending ranking scored borrow rates from a snapshot dated 1 April 2026 (Morpho 4.9 %, Spark 5.5 %, Aave 5.8 %, Compound 6.2 %, Venus 7.1 %) on a page that says lending is not ranked on rates, and that rate decided its #1; in a browser, once the yield feed had loaded, every pool it returned read a borrow rate of 0, a figure the feed does not carry. The exchange ranking read Kraken's taker fee as 0.26 % and Gemini's as 0.40 % from a table of the same date, where their current schedules, read into the catalog on 29 September, say 0.80 % and 1.20 %.

• FixedLending and borrowing: the borrow rate leaves the fee term, which now scores every protocol alike, so the category ranks on its four published criteria. Venus, first on those criteria, moves from #7 to #1; Spark stays #2; Morpho moves from #1 to #3 and Compound from #8 to #6.
• FixedExchanges: the fee term reads each exchange's taker fee from the catalog instead of a table dated 1 April. Kraken (0.80 %) moves from #6 to #9 and Gemini (1.20 %) from #10 to #11; Coinbase, Luno, Bitvavo and VALR each move up one place, and Bybit stays #1.
• RemovedStaking: a yield no longer stands in for a staking provider's missing commission. No published score moves.
• Added/methodology/live-data publishes which numbers may move a score; on every build a test fills each live feed with extreme values and fails if a single score moves.
• ChangedCorrected 2026-10-14: the lines above left out six rows this version moved (Bitstamp and Mercado Bitcoin; Euler V2, Kamino Lend, Fluid and Aave). Every published row it moved, rank and score before and after. Exchanges: Bitstamp #3 77 → #3 79; Coinbase #7 64 → #6 69; Luno #8 64 → #7 69; Bitvavo #9 62 → #8 62; Kraken #6 73 → #9 60; VALR #11 56 → #10 58; Gemini #10 59 → #11 48; Mercado Bitcoin #13 41 → #13 42. Lending and borrowing: Venus #7 58 → #1 81; Spark #2 78 → #2 80; Morpho #1 83 → #3 78; Euler V2 #3 68 → #4 77; Kamino Lend #4 65 → #5 74; Compound #8 58 → #6 74; Fluid (Instadapp) #5 64 → #7 73; Aave #6 62 → #8 71.

When nothing serves your country, the list shown for reference is the published ranking

Effective 2026-10-10 to 2026-10-11, superseded by 2026.10.9. Overall ranks and Fit ranks in the categories below were scored under this version from its publish date; the measured effect on each order is stated in the changes.

When no product in a category serves the country you entered, Find my best and the explorer list every product for reference. That list now follows the published order with the published scores. It used to score each row into a 40 to 70 band of its own and break the ties by name. The explorer also stops printing an overall rank for a row the published ranking does not hold.

Personalisation may narrow or reorder the published ranking for what you told it, but it may not print a score or a rank the ranking does not publish. Measured on 2026-10-10 over every category and country a reader can state: 35 runs fell back, all 35 printed scores no page publishes in an order that was not the published one, and for crypto cards in New Zealand the list led with the published #3. In the US payment-gateway run Coinbase Commerce, which the published ranking does not hold, was given its position in the run as its overall rank.

• FixedThe reference list shown when nothing serves your country is the published order with the published scores, and a build check now fails any such list out of that order or with a score the ranking does not publish.
• FixedThe explorer prints an overall rank only for a row the published ranking holds; a country entrant such as Coinbase Commerce for US merchants shows no overall rank.
• ChangedPublished orders do not move. Country results change only where nothing serves the country: in India bill pay keeps Bitcoin Well first and now shows Strike second, as published; 35 such runs across all categories and countries now match the published list exactly.

Forty-one more products are offered only where their own quoted terms serve

Effective 2026-10-10 to 2026-10-10, superseded by 2026.10.8. Overall ranks and Fit ranks in the categories below were scored under this version from its publish date; the measured effect on each order is stated in the changes.

The availability terms quoted in 130 more rows were read for countries the product excludes outright or serves exclusively. 141 exclusions on 31 rows and the served countries of 13 rows now reach the country test, so, among others, a reader in India is no longer offered Coins.ph, which serves the Philippines only, RedotPay's card, MoonPay's off-ramp or OKX P2P, each of which names India as excluded.

The country test reads the restrictions and the served countries a row carries, not the prose of its availability note, and for these rows the note quoted the provider's exclusions while the row carried none. Each finding was proposed by one model run and confirmed against the note's exact words by a second run told to refute it; partial limits (one product line, sanctioned regions within a country, a planned exit) were refused, and one name that the terms leave ambiguous ("Republic of China") was not applied.

• Fixed141 country exclusions on 31 rows, each the name of a country the row's own quoted terms exclude: for example Mercuryo Hungary, China, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Chile, Colombia and Morocco; Gemini Custody the United Kingdom, Australia and the EU after its wind-down; Backed xStocks the US, Canada, the UK, Australia, Nigeria, the Philippines and Venezuela.
• ChangedThirteen rows list the only countries their terms serve: Coins.ph the Philippines, Spritz bill pay, Brex, Unchained, WisdomTree, Franklin BENJI and AnchorWatch the United States (with its territories for AnchorWatch), PRYPCO Mint the UAE, N26 crypto seven EU countries, Gemini Tokenized Stocks the EU, XNET the US, Canada and the UK, Coldbit Steel and MetaMask Card the countries they list.
• ChangedPublished (no-country) orders do not move. Country results change: in India six categories each lose one row (bill pay, cards, off-ramps, P2P, seed backup, tokenised real estate), and bill pay there has no row confirmed available, so it shows the published order marked as such; country pages list 23 fewer rows (24,357 to 24,334). The grounding test now matches full country names in any case, which shows seven earlier exclusions were quoted all along: the named debt of unquoted exclusions falls from 40 to 33 pairs.

A criterion you require re-scores the rows that meet it

Effective 2026-10-10 to 2026-10-10, superseded by 2026.10.7. Overall ranks and Fit ranks in the categories below were scored under this version from its publish date; the measured effect on each order is stated in the changes.

Choosing a minimum on a published criterion in the explorer, or on /best with your country set, now also tells the engine you require it: the rows that meet the minimum are re-scored with that criterion at twice its published weight, the rule Find my best's priorities follow, instead of keeping the order the run without the requirement gave.

A requirement filtered rows but never reached the engine, so the first row left standing was the first of a run that ignored what the reader had just said. On 2026-10-10 that put the wrong row first in 19 of the 257 strong-band criterion filters that leave two or more rows, across 14 categories: requiring strong attribution among wallet-screening tools kept TRM Labs first, while the engine on that requirement ranks Chainalysis first.

• ChangedThe explorer sends each criterion you require, at any band, as fit_required with your other answers; region, licence, chain and fact filters stay filters. On /best, a required criterion joins For you as a marked preference does, which needs your country; Overall stays the published ranking, filtered.
• AddedEvery published criterion has a golden case as the explorer sends it (require:<criterion>), so the order a requirement gives is replayed and gated as the published order is, and a change to it needs an entry here.

A product its own terms limit to named countries is offered only there

Effective 2026-10-10 to 2026-10-10, superseded by 2026.10.6. Overall ranks and Fit ranks in the categories below were scored under this version from its publish date; the measured effect on each order is stated in the changes.

A row can now carry the only countries its own terms serve (servedCountries), and the country test reads that list before any region: CoinDCX is offered to readers in India only, Upbit in South Korea, Mercado Bitcoin in Brazil, Luno in its five countries, Bitvavo in its 24 SEPA countries and Gemini in the United States and Singapore. Bybit, Kraken, OKX and Bitso now exclude the countries their quoted restricted lists name.

A region tag cannot say "India only", so these rows were offered across their whole region: a reader in Pakistan saw CoinDCX, a reader in the United Kingdom saw Bitvavo. And four exchanges quoted restricted-country lists that never reached the country test, so a reader in Singapore, Hong Kong or mainland China was offered Bybit, which excludes all three, and a reader in India was offered OKX, which names India among its Restricted Locations.

• AddedservedCountries: the ISO codes of the only countries a row serves by its own terms. The country test decides on it before reading any region tag, and the "Serves <region>" filter treats a country outside it as excluded. Every code must be named in the row's quoted availability evidence (tests/availability-matches-own-terms).
• FixedBybit excludes the United States, mainland China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Canada (its Service Restricted Countries list); Kraken Japan and Singapore (its prohibited-regions list and its Singapore statement); OKX adds India and Malaysia to Canada, Hong Kong and Japan (its Restricted Locations); Bitso adds Venezuela (its Schedule A).
• ChangedCoinDCX, Upbit, Mercado Bitcoin, Luno, Bitvavo and Gemini list the only countries they serve. CoinDCX's and Luno's partial restriction lists of 2026-09-30 are replaced: they left CoinDCX offered in Malaysia, Pakistan, Taiwan and China, and Luno in India and across Africa.
• ChangedPublished (no-country) orders do not move: the published run states no country. Country results change: in India the exchange shortlist falls from 10 eligible rows to 6 and its runner-up changes from OKX to Bitstamp, the #1 unchanged; country pages list 20 fewer rows (24,377 to 24,357).

The 24 earlier versions, back to 2026.04.0-launch, are printed in full on the changelog archive.