Inside Sezga · · 5 min read
How does Sezga rate events as Critical, Important or Info?
Sezga gives every event one of three severity levels: Critical, Important or Info. The decision is made by predefined rules: for news, the topic decides (a hack, a withdrawal halt, the Fed and so on); for price and liquidation events, numeric thresholds decide.
The severity level is a filter that tells you what to look at first in a busy event feed. To read it correctly, you need to know which rule produced it. This article explains the criteria used for news, exchange announcements, sudden price moves and liquidations, and what the levels do not tell you.
Why rule-based?
In a rule-based system, the same kind of event always gets the same level. That has three consequences:
- Explainability: The rule itself explains why an event is Critical.
- Consistency: Two events under the same conditions do not receive different levels.
- Auditability: Event memory measures the price of the related pair 5 minutes, 1 hour and 24 hours after each event, so you can look at data on how similar events have related to price in the past.
There is a cost too: rules cannot capture nuance. A story that looks minor can trigger an unexpected price reaction, and an event marked Critical may barely move the price at all.
How is the level set for news?
For news, the topic of the story sets the level. Examples that show the logic of the rules:
| Level | Example topics |
|---|---|
| Critical | A hack, a halt on withdrawals, an ETF approval or rejection, a stablecoin losing its peg (depeg) |
| Important | The Fed, inflation, the SEC, large institutions |
| Info | Other news that does not match a Critical or Important rule |
If the same story is repeated across different sites, the copies are clustered under a single entry, so dozens of copies of one story do not flood the feed. Major coins mentioned in a story are also tagged. The news sources are international English-language crypto news sources, Turkish crypto news sources and the Fed's official feeds.
Levels for exchange announcements
Binance announcements are read every 30 seconds. Spot listing announcements such as "Binance Will List" are Critical. Korean-language announcements from Upbit, a South Korean exchange, are read using known patterns, turned into understandable headlines and given these levels:
| Upbit announcement | Level |
|---|---|
| New listing or market addition | Critical |
| Adding to the trading warning list | Important |
| End of trading support (delisting) | Important |
| Removal of a warning | Info |
Thresholds for sudden price moves
The 60 highest-volume pairs are scanned roughly every 15 seconds. An event is recorded if the change over roughly 5 minutes exceeds 1.5% for BTC and ETH, or 4% for other pairs. The level depends on the size of the move:
| Pair | Info | Important | Critical |
|---|---|---|---|
| BTC and ETH | none | above 1.5%, below 2.5% | 2.5% and above |
| Others | above 4%, below 6% | 6% and above, below 10% | 10% and above |
Any move in BTC or ETH that crosses the threshold counts as at least Important; the Info level is used only for smaller moves in other pairs. With hypothetical examples: if BTC falls 2% in 5 minutes, the event is Important. If an altcoin rises 4.5%, it is Info; 7%, Important; 12%, Critical. No second alert is generated for the same pair within 30 minutes.
Liquidations and other thresholds
On the Binance futures market, liquidations of $50,000 or more are recorded individually. Those of $1 million or more enter the event feed, and those of $5 million or more count as Critical. If the total over the last 5 minutes exceeds $30 million, a "liquidation wave" event is recorded together with which side dominated.
The thresholds for other numeric events to enter the feed are:
- A position of $2 million or more being opened, closed or changed significantly by one of the large accounts tracked on Hyperliquid
- A change of 6% or more within one hour in BTC or ETH open interest
- A change of $1 billion or more within 24 hours in USDT or USDC supply
When reading the level, keep one more thing in mind: Binance sends at most one order per symbol per second in its liquidation stream. The real total can be higher than what is shown, and Sezga says so explicitly.
Frequently asked questions
Does a Critical event on Sezga mean the price will fall?
No. Critical shows that an event stands out because of its type or size; it says nothing about the direction of the price. For example, both a new listing announcement and a hack story can be Critical.
How does Sezga decide the severity level?
The level is set by predefined rules. For news the topic decides, for exchange announcements the type of announcement, and for price and liquidation events numeric thresholds.
Why is a 2% move in BTC Important while a 5% move in an altcoin is Info?
BTC and ETH have lower thresholds: in these two assets, a move above 1.5% counts as an event and gets at least the Important level. For other pairs, the event threshold is 4% and the Important threshold is 6%, so a 5% move stays at Info.
Key takeaways
- Sezga gives every event a rule-based level of Critical, Important or Info.
- For news the topic decides: a hack, a withdrawal halt, an ETF approval or rejection and a depeg are Critical; the Fed, inflation, the SEC and large institutions are Important.
- Binance spot listings and new Upbit listings are Critical; Upbit warning-list additions and delistings are Important, and removal of a warning is Info.
- For sudden moves, the Critical threshold is 2.5% for BTC and ETH and 10% for others; liquidations of $5 million or more count as Critical.
- The level does not indicate price direction and is not a buy or sell signal.