Ship or Die 2025: Finance's Best-Kept Secret: Market Data Powers Everything

In a groundbreaking presentation at Ship or Die 2025, Mike Cahill, co-founder of Pyth Network, unveils the hidden power of market data and how his company is set to revolutionize the entire financial industry. Cahill's insights reveal a $30 billion market ripe for disruption, with Pyth Network poised to become the "electricity of global finance."

Summary

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Mike Cahill, co-founder of Pyth Network, delivers a compelling presentation on the critical importance of market data in the financial world. He compares market data to electricity, emphasizing its essential role in powering all financial systems. Cahill highlights the current broken state of the market data economy, characterized by high costs, slow access, and control by middlemen.

The presentation introduces Pyth Network as a revolutionary solution to these problems. By creating a singular source of truth for global market data, Pyth aims to transform how financial information is distributed and accessed. The network pays traders and exchanges for their proprietary data, creating a new data economy that bypasses traditional distributors.

Cahill outlines Pyth's impressive progress, including partnerships with major financial institutions, support for over 1,300 price feeds, and integration across 100 different blockchains. He presents a vision of Pyth becoming the "electricity for the global financial market" by providing trusted data for millions of global assets through a single integration.

Key Points:

The Importance of Market Data

Market data is the lifeblood of financial markets, comparable to electricity in its fundamental importance. It consists of bids and offers where traders want to trade, as well as executed trades. Without market data, it would be impossible to determine the price of any asset, effectively bringing financial markets to a standstill.

Cahill emphasizes that market data's importance extends far beyond just trading. It powers every financial system, from the smallest local markets to global exchanges across all asset classes. This ubiquity makes market data a critical component of the global financial infrastructure, yet its significance is often underestimated.

The Broken Market Data Economy

The current market data economy is described as broken, expensive, and slow. Cahill illustrates the complexities of accessing comprehensive market data, which requires connections to numerous exchanges and alternative trading systems across different geographies and asset classes.

The process of obtaining market data is time-consuming and expensive, involving multiple sales teams, contracts, and substantial financial investments. This system, Cahill argues, was built for control rather than access. He reveals that the cost of market data has increased over 15-fold in the past 25 years, while still providing incomplete information.

Pyth Network's Revolutionary Approach

Pyth Network aims to disrupt the current market data paradigm by creating a singular source of truth for global market data. The network's approach is based on three fundamental changes:

1. Trust: Data comes directly from the source, with institutions generating and providing the data transparently.
2. Transparency: All data transactions occur on a blockchain, allowing users to see every price and its components.
3. Direct Access: Pyth eliminates intermediaries, reducing latency and costs.

Pyth's model pays traders and exchanges for supplying their proprietary data, a stark contrast to the traditional system where these entities received no compensation for their data. This creates a new data economy that benefits data producers while providing users with more comprehensive and cost-effective access to market information.

Pyth's Progress and Vision

Cahill presents impressive statistics showcasing Pyth's growth and adoption. The network has become a $1 billion protocol, with 120 institutions supplying data and support for over 1,300 price feeds. Over 550 applications have been built using Pyth data across 100 different blockchains.

Partnerships with major financial institutions like Revolut, Virtu, Jane Street, Binance, and Coinbase demonstrate the network's credibility and potential. Pyth's vision is to provide "the price of everything everywhere," aiming to cover millions of global assets through a single integration.

Facts + Figures

• The global market data revenue in 2024 exceeded $30 billion
• Market data revenue is split roughly 50/50 between data distributors and exchanges
• Exchanges' revenue from market data has grown from about 15% to over 30% in recent years
• Market data as an asset class has outperformed oil, Dow Jones, S&P 500, NASDAQ, and gold over the past 25 years
• Pyth Network paid out approximately $35 million in rewards to traders and $15 million to exchanges in 2024
• Pyth is a $1 billion protocol
• 120 institutions are currently supplying data to Pyth
• Pyth supports over 1,300 price feeds
• 550 applications have been built using Pyth data
• Pyth is integrated across 100 different blockchains
• Pyth added the S&P 500 in two weeks and the FTSE 100 in about a week
• The network aims to cover 1,000,000 global assets

Top quotes

1. "Market data is financial electricity. It's critical. Without it, you have no idea what the price of anything is."
2. "The truth is the market data economy is broken. It's expensive. It's slow. And it's controlled by middlemen."
3. "Pyth is creating a singular source of truth for global market data by changing three fundamental things: trust, transparency, and direct access."
4. "Our vision is very simple. The price of everything everywhere."
5. "Pyth is becoming the electricity for the global financial market. By building global markets with data you can trust."

Questions Answered

What is market data and why is it important?

Market data consists of bids, offers, and executed trades in financial markets. It's critically important because it provides the foundation for determining asset prices and enables all financial transactions. Without market data, the entire financial system would grind to a halt, as traders and institutions would have no way to value assets or make informed decisions.

How does the current market data economy work?

The current market data economy involves a complex network of exchanges, alternative trading systems, and data distributors. Accessing comprehensive market data requires connections to multiple sources across different geographies and asset classes. This system is expensive, slow, and controlled by middlemen, with costs having increased over 15-fold in the past 25 years.

What is Pyth Network and how does it differ from traditional market data providers?

Pyth Network is a decentralized market data protocol that aims to provide a singular source of truth for global market data. Unlike traditional providers, Pyth pays traders and exchanges for their proprietary data, eliminates middlemen, and offers data directly from the source. This approach results in more transparent, trustworthy, and cost-effective access to market information.

How does Pyth Network ensure the trustworthiness of its data?

Pyth ensures data trustworthiness through three key factors: 1) Data comes directly from the source, with institutions generating and providing the data transparently. 2) All transactions occur on a blockchain, allowing users to see every price and its components. 3) Direct access eliminates intermediaries, reducing the potential for data manipulation or errors.

What progress has Pyth Network made so far?

Pyth has become a $1 billion protocol with 120 institutions supplying data. It supports over 1,300 price feeds and has been integrated into 550 applications across 100 different blockchains. The network has partnered with major financial institutions and has rapidly expanded its coverage, adding major indices like the S&P 500 and FTSE 100 in a matter of weeks.

What is Pyth Network's vision for the future of market data?

Pyth's vision is to provide "the price of everything everywhere." The network aims to cover millions of global assets through a single integration, effectively becoming the "electricity for the global financial market." This would revolutionize how financial institutions access and use market data, potentially transforming the entire financial industry.

How does Pyth Network benefit data providers and users?

Pyth benefits data providers (traders and exchanges) by compensating them for their proprietary data, creating a new revenue stream. For users, Pyth offers more comprehensive, transparent, and cost-effective access to market data through a single integration, eliminating the need for multiple expensive subscriptions and complex data aggregation processes.

What impact could Pyth Network have on the financial industry?

Pyth has the potential to dramatically reshape the financial industry by democratizing access to market data. By providing a more efficient, transparent, and cost-effective data distribution system, Pyth could lower barriers to entry for new financial products and services, foster innovation, and potentially reduce costs for end-users of financial services.