The text below documents how we monitor stablecoin price stability, also known as “peg deviation,” as part of the Stress Test system. Stablecoins are designed to maintain a 1.00 USD value. Deviations from this peg, even minor ones, can serve as early warning signs of risk events, liquidity strain, or a loss of market confidence. We use CoinGecko’s API to retrieve daily stablecoin price data.

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Purpose

Monitoring stablecoin peg deviation enables detection of:
  • Market stress affecting stablecoin credibility
  • Disruptions in liquidity or arbitrage mechanisms
  • Early signs of depegging risk before on-chain liquidity dries up

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API Endpoint

Endpoint: 
GET https://api.coingecko.com/api/v3/coins/markets
Query Parameters:
  • vs_currency=usd
  • ids=usd-coin,dai,tether,trueusd,frax

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Example Query (cURL)

curl -X GET "https://api.coingecko.com/api/v3/coins/markets?vs_currency=usd&ids=usd-coin,dai,tether,trueusd,frax"

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Example Response (truncated)

[
  {
    "id": "usd-coin",
    "symbol": "usdc",
    "current_price": 0.998
  },
  {
    "id": "dai",
    "symbol": "dai",
    "current_price": 1.001
  }
]

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Important Fields

Field Purpose
  • **current_price ** Real-time price of the stablecoin in USD

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Peg Deviation Evaluation Criteria

We track the absolute deviation from $1.00:
  • Stable (Low Risk): Price between 0.995and0.995 and 1.005
  • Moderate Risk: Price between 0.990–0.990–0.995 or 1.005–1.005–1.010
  • High Risk: Price outside 0.990–0.990–1.010
  • Prices updated daily are compared to these thresholds to assign a Risk Score.

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Rate Limits and Notes

  • CoinGecko’s public API supports 5–15 calls per minute.
  • No API key required.
  • We perform one daily data pull aligned with other Stress Test metrics.

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Last Word

  • Maintaining peg stability is fundamental to a stablecoin’s trustworthiness.
  • Continuous daily monitoring of price deviation provides an essential early warning system for potential loss of peg and subsequent liquidity crises.