Pyth Network, a network of decentralized oracles, launched yesterday, March 17, the Pyth 24/7 Oil Index, a composite index of crude oil that is updated continuously 24 hours a day and seven days a week.
The launch occurs in a context of strong turmoil in the oil market, driven by the conflict between the United States, Israel and Iran in the Middle East, which began on February 28.
This scenario has raised the price of a barrel above $100—a level not seen since 2022—partly due to actions such as the partial closure of the Strait of Hormuz, through which around 20% of the world’s oil transits.
Index eliminates interruptions
Unlike traditional sources of oil prices, which depend on a single exchange or market window and they stop outside business hoursthe new index aggregates data both on and off the blockchain from exchanges, institutions and professional trading firms to generate a real-time price that is constantly updated, as detailed by the Pyth Network team.
«The result is a proprietary index designed to reflect the price of crude oil in different markets, platforms and global time zones, without interruptions, closures or obsolete data,» the organization said.
Major trading firms and market makers publish data directly to the network in real time. “This bottom-up data flow provides the network with a combined view of global liquidity, spanning both traditional commodity markets and on-chain derivatives markets,” they explain.
In this way, the network obtains prices from institutional tables and exchanges during normal hours, and during nights, weekends and holidays it obtains them from chain platforms that they operate without pause . A dynamic that contrasts with the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures on NYMEX, which are only traded during US business hours and stop updating at closing, while risk exposure and global activity continue 24 hours a day.
The disconnect has become harder to ignore. During many of these periods, the main reference markets remain closed. Prices are not updated. Traders, exchanges and risk management systems operate with outdated data or no data at all.
Pyth Network
The reaction to the launch was not so positive
Although the index represents a breakthrough for real-time data availability, the native PYTH token registered a drop of 2.5% in the last 24 hours and trading at $0.048.
This trend towards continuous availability of oil prices is not limited to the Pyth Network, but is quickly spreading to the decentralized finance ecosystem, where platforms and tokenized derivatives seek to close the same timing and liquidity gaps that plague traditional markets.
As reported by NoticiasVE, the CL-USDC perpetual contract — which tracks the price of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) and operates on the DeFi platform Hyperliquid — exceeded $1.2 billion in trading volume. The Hyperliquid contract operates as a tokenized derivative that allows exposure to the price of crude oil 24 hours a day, seven days a week. These tools are positioned as a constant coverage alternative in the face of current geopolitical volatility..