How we source and verify every rate
Every figure on Parity carries three things: a value, a named source, and the exact UTC time it was true. Here is where the numbers come from, and how they’re checked.
Where our numbers come from
- European Central Bank Fiat reference & deep history
- The euro reference rates, published once each business day. We use them as our fiat reference and for history back to 4 January 1999. Cross-rates — say GBP to JPY — are derived through the euro.
- Tiingo Real-time fiat
- Tier-1-bank-sourced mid-market fiat rates, refreshed continuously through the trading day. Our primary source for live fiat quotes.
- Twelve Data Real-time fiat & intraday
- Aggregated mid-market fiat rates and intraday history — our live-fiat fallback, and the source for intraday movement on pairs the euro reference does not reach.
- CoinGecko Crypto
- Crypto-to-fiat prices, live and historical, aggregated across exchanges. The source for every crypto pair, including intraday.
Mid-market, never retail
Every rate we publish is the mid-market rate — the midpoint between the buy and sell prices in the market. It is the fair reference rate, not the price a bank or app will give you once it adds its margin. We never quote a retail rate, and we never imply you can transact at the mid-market number.
How we cross-check a rate
Before a live fiat rate becomes the headline, we compare our primary source against an independent one. If they disagree by more than the tolerance for that asset class — 0.25% for major pairs, 0.5% for other fiat, 1% for crypto — we show both values with their sources and times, rather than choose between them.
Freshness, and when a rate is unavailable
A live rate is marked Live under 90 seconds old, then Recent, then Stale. A daily reference like the ECB fix is not “stale” after ten minutes — it is the authoritative once-a-day rate, labelled as such. Historical points never change once a day closes.
If a rate can’t be sourced and verified, we show “rate unavailable” with the time it was last confirmed, rather than an estimate.