What a position is valued at

The last traded rate, the size-adjusted one, or the computed value of a claim — three numbers that could make a valuation, and only one fits the question.

This lesson has had no expert review. It was written for this platform and against the evidence it cites; nobody has gone through it independently.

Learning objectives

You can say which of the available price figures fits which valuation question.
You can document a valuation so it stays reconstructable later.
You can explain why a position without a reliable price source is not impossible to value.

Check your prior knowledge

Answer these for yourself before reading on. Wherever you hesitate is where this lesson pays off.

Which price sits in your position report today?
Who checks that number, and against what?
What do you do when an asset has no ongoing trading?

Core concept

Fact

Three numbers, three different questions

The last traded rate answers: what did someone last exchange at? The size-adjusted price answers: what would I get if I exited today? The computed value of a claim answers: what am I entitled to if I wait? All three can be correct and far apart. Which belongs in the valuation is decided by purpose — not by availability.

Interpretation

Size belongs in the valuation, not beside it

Valuing a position at the last rate when it is a multiple of the usual trade size puts an assumption in the carrying value that nobody made: that size does not matter. It is cleaner to show the discount — either in the value itself or as a named item beside it. What does not work is omitting it and still calling the number a market value.

Assessment

With no ongoing trading the number is not impossible, only differently reasoned

Where a reliable market price is missing, valuation stays possible — it then rests on the components: the assets deposited, the share in them, and the conditions on which it is released. The result is a reasoned estimate with a named method, not a market valuation. That distinction belongs in the report, because it decides how much weight the number carries.

Fact

The method belongs in the file with the date

A valuation is reconstructable only once four things are recorded: which source, at which moment, with which adjustment, and who determined it. Without them it is later impossible to tell whether the value changed or the method did. That distinction is exactly what an examination asks for.

Definitions

Adjusted price: A price reflecting the price impact of one's own position size.
Reasoned estimate: A valuation built from a position's components when no reliable market price exists.
Valuation date: The fixed moment a valuation refers to.

Model

What is the valuation for — a redemption today, a report, or holding to maturity?
Choose the fitting source: venue, adjusted price, or components
Name and justify the adjustment
Record source, date, adjustment and ownership

From purpose to number — The order is not reversible: starting from the available number means afterwards looking for the purpose it fits.

Formulas

Adjusted value

adjusted_value = quantity * last_trade_price * (1 - discount)

discount: Estimated price impact of exiting at this size
last_trade_price: Last traded rate at the chosen venue

Limit: The discount is itself an estimate, computed on today's depth. If depth disappears it is too small; if depth grows, too large. The formula makes the assumption visible, it does not supply it — and it applies to exiting in one go, not in tranches.

Worked example

One position, three defensible numbers

Holding: 1.8m units
Last trade: 1.000
Estimated discount on exiting in one go: 3.7 %
Computed value of the underlying claim: 1.014

At the last trade: 1.800m. Adjusted for the discount: 1.733m. At the computed claim value: 1.825m. The span between the second and third numbers is 92,000, a good 5 %.

All three numbers are correctly computed and answer three different questions.

Reading: For a redemption that must be met today, 1.733 is the apt number. For a position held to maturity, 1.825 is defensible — provided the claim's conditions are met. The last trade alone is the only one of the three belonging to neither question.

Retrieval

Nothing — the last rate is the market price.The value contains the unspoken assumption that size does not matter.Positions of this size may not be valued.

Not at all — with no market price there is no valuation.From the components, as a reasoned estimate with a named method — expressly not a market valuation.At cost, until trading resumes.

Exercise on real data

Use the guiding questions to determine which figures an estimate of the discount would need.

Dimension 6: liquidity →

Check which of the quantities needed for a valuation this platform serves and which it does not.

Metric catalog →

Application

Write the valuation line for a large on-chain position so an examination can reconstruct it a year later.

Related case studies

Institutional reading

Asset management: Which of your valuations could you evidence today with source, date and adjustment?
Bank: Who in the institution determines the valuation method for a position without ongoing trading?
Advisory: How do you explain three different correct numbers for the same position to a client?

Metrics in this lesson

TVL (Total Value Locked)

Key takeaways

Last trade, adjusted price and claim value answer three different questions.
Omitting size makes an assumption without naming it.
Without a market price, valuation runs from the components — with a named method rather than as a market valuation.

Evidence

EVD-2026-0008
DeFiLlama — DeFiLlama yields endpoint (/pools)