Price Feeds

Price feeds are the most widely deployed oracle use case in DeFi. A lending protocol, perpetual exchange, or stablecoin does not need every tick from every venue — it needs a robust reference price that reflects liquid markets and updates quickly enough to protect solvency.

Heartbeats push updates on a timer even when price is flat. Deviation thresholds trigger updates when price moves beyond a set percentage — saving gas in calm markets while staying responsive during volatility. Both matter: a feed that only updates on deviation can go quiet when you need it most if thresholds are set too wide.

Always check decimals, the feed's underlying asset pair, and whether the market is thin or manipulated. ETH/USD on a major network is not the same risk profile as a long-tail token priced from one low-liquidity pool.