How to read the monthly exit-friction index before you trust it

You bought something, checked its coin page, felt reasonably informed, and moved on. What that page did not tell you is what happens the day you try to leave. That is a separate measurement, and it changes every month.

The exit-friction index is exactly that: a monthly measurement of how easily a position can actually be closed, not a one-time rating stamped on a token and left to sit. Liquidity moves. Market makers come and go, order books thicken and thin, and a token that was easy to exit in one month can be harder to exit the next. Treating a single reading as permanent misunderstands what is being measured. The index is rebuilt every month for that reason.

Right now it covers 63 tokens with at least one exit measurement. That is not the whole market, and it is not meant to be. If a token you hold is not on the list, that means it has not been measured yet — it does not mean the exit is safe, and it does not mean it is dangerous. Absence is a gap in coverage, not a verdict. Read it as "not yet checked," nothing more.

What the index is actually measuring is narrower than "does a market exist." A token can have an active market and still be difficult to leave in size. Exit friction looks at order depth — how much sits on the book at prices near the current one — the spread between what buyers will pay and sellers will accept, and how much the price moves against you as your own order works through what's available. A market can look busy on the surface and still absorb a modest sell order by moving the price several steps down. That is friction, and it is invisible on a standard coin page.

A high friction score is a description of a moment somebody measured, not a permanent character trait of the token. It reflects the depth and spread that existed when the measurement was taken. Liquidity providers can arrive the following week, an exchange listing can add depth, or the opposite can happen just as easily. The same token can score very differently a month later, in either direction. The number is a snapshot, dated by the month it was taken, and it should be read that way rather than as a permanent label.

Given all that, the sensible way to use the index is as a starting filter, not a verdict. A poor score does not tell you what to do about a position, and a good one does not clear it of scrutiny either. What it does is tell you where to look more closely — which order books deserve a manual check before you place a large order, and which ones probably don't need one this month. It narrows your attention. It does not replace it.

It's worth being direct about something the market cap and price fields on a coin page will never show you: two tokens can look nearly identical there and score very differently on exit friction. Market cap is a size estimate built from price and circulating supply. It says nothing about how many people are actually standing ready to buy on the other side of your sell order, at what price, and in what size. Friction lives in the order book — in the actual bids sitting there right now — not in any of the headline numbers. Two tokens with similar market caps can have very different numbers of real participants willing to trade at size, and that difference only shows up when you look at depth directly. This is part of why a coin page and an exit measurement answer different questions; how to read a coin page goes into the rest of what those headline numbers do and don't tell you.

One more asymmetry matters here. The index measures exit, not entry, because entry is almost never the hard part. Buying into a position is close to friction-free for most tokens most of the time — there is usually a seller willing to take your money at something close to the quoted price. Selling back out, especially in size, is where the resistance shows up: thinner books on the sell side, wider spreads once you're the one initiating, and price impact that only becomes visible when you actually try. The index tracks that harder direction deliberately, because it's the direction that catches people off guard. For a broader look at what "can I get out of this" actually involves beyond order-book mechanics, can you actually sell it is worth reading alongside the index itself.

The current measurement for every covered token, updated monthly, sits at /exit-index. That is the place to check a specific token before assuming the coin page told you everything you needed to know about getting back out.