Token Ticker Symbol is its short name on a cryptocurrency exchange, which consists of several letters. It serves as a second, exchange, name of a digital asset and is intended to simplify the display of cryptocurrencies in trading platforms. Look at how tickers are assigned, as well as the mechanism of their use.
Ticker definition and examples
Ticker Symbol is a combination of several Latin characters (usually no more than 3-4 letters, but there are also numbers), which serves as a kind of "label" of a cryptocurrency. It is unique for each cryptocurrency asset within a particular exchange. Moreover, most exchanges use similar tickers for popular cryptocurrency assets, which eliminates possible confusion in inter-exchange trading.
The classical exchanges use the international standard ISO 4217 when assigning a ticker to an asset:
- The first two letters of the ticker indicate the international country code (for example, RU).
- The last letters of the ticker represent the first letters of the national currency of the country (for example, R - Ruble).
- Putting the letters together, we get RUR - the international designation of the Russian ruble.
Although there is no standard for the designation of cryptocurrencies, exchanges often use generally accepted rules when registering their tickers.
An interesting fact
The common ticker symbol of the popular bitcoin cryptocurrency is BTC. But not everyone knows that there is another symbol - XBT, which is used by some exchanges, trading mostly in fiat currencies, stocks and commodities. The thing is that the ticker BTC is already occupied by the national currency of Bhutan - Bhutan Ngultrum. The ticker XBT means: X is a code assigned to all global "supercurrencies" and BT is an abbreviation of the word Bitcoin. In a similar scheme, gold and silver are traded on exchanges under the tickers XAU and XAG, respectively.
Our token has the ticker symbol AKRA. This designation makes the cryptocurrency a full-fledged instrument that can be traded on exchanges with other cryptocurrencies and fiat.
What is ticker for
The history of tickers goes back to the second half of XIX century, when ticker machines were used for the transmission of stock quotes. Because of the long names of the companies, the transmission of their quotes was significantly slower, which led to the development of the standard for symbols - tickers.
Today tickers on cryptocurrency and classic exchanges solve several problems:
- they make an exchange quotation table more orderly and less complicated to understand;
- they standardize the display of quotation and assets at different exchanges;
- they separate companies and cryptocurrencies with the same or similar names, which eliminates confusion when trading their assets.
Assigning a ticker to a token is one of the conditions for its entry into exchange trading. Cryptocurrency funds are not regulated as strictly as traditional exchange-traded assets, and this has its advantages. These include a simplified procedure that actually becomes a self-regulation mechanism and allows token owners to choose a ticker code.
