Top 11 Cryptocurrency APIs For Developers

We all know that digital currencies have aroused the interest of institutional investors and individuals lately. Cryptocurrencies and Bitcoin have grown to fame as a fresh asset class with outstanding returns across the last decade. It is overt that the core of crypto-success stories astutely wrapped cryptocurrency APIs.

Certainly, APIs permit several businesses to access a broad range of resources and assist businesses in stepping into markets they may not have any time thought of.

Additionally, these APIs assist you in checking real-time crypto data to build a trading bot, execute academic research on cryptocurrency, or learn To Code with Crypto Data.

Believe it or not, it’s all possible with crypto APIs, whether checking market prices, keeping an eye on wallet contents and even making and getting transactions can all be done. Moreover, APIs benefit almost any project comprising a Blockchain or bitcoin.

You will see several APIs below to opt from if you are hardcore cryptocurrency speculator, developer, trader, or a person interested in undertaking cryptocurrency research.

Many cryptocurrency exchanges have made their APIs public permitting all the dedicated developers to link them to their platforms. Learn all about it below:

Key Summary

This article from InApps Technology, published in 2022 and authored by Phu Nguyen, details 11 cryptocurrency APIs designed for developers, traders, and researchers to integrate real-time and historical crypto data into applications. These APIs enable functionalities like price tracking, trading bots, wallet management, and blockchain analytics, supporting Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other cryptocurrencies. The APIs include NowNodes, CryptoCompare, CoinMarketCap, TheGraph, CoinGecko, Polygon, BraveNewCoin, Bittrex, BitcoinAverage, CoinBase, and Poloniex, each with unique features, pricing, and use cases (e.g., DeFi, market analysis, trading). The article emphasizes the growing importance of cryptocurrencies as an asset class and the role of APIs in accessing blockchain data for innovative applications. InApps highlights its expertise in blockchain development.

• Context:
  • Author: Phu Nguyen, a senior tech enthusiast with expertise in software development.
  • Theme: Cryptocurrency APIs empower developers to build trading bots, conduct research, and integrate blockchain data, driven by the rising popularity of digital currencies.
  • Source: InApps article, targeting developers and businesses in the crypto space.
• Key Points:
  • Cryptocurrency APIs Overview:
    • Purpose: Enable access to real-time/historical data, wallet management, transactions, and blockchain analytics for trading, research, or app development.
    • Market Relevance: Cryptocurrencies (e.g., Bitcoin, Ethereum) have gained traction due to high returns, driving demand for API integrations.
    • Applications: Build trading bots, analyze market trends, or create blockchain-based apps.
  • Top 11 Cryptocurrency APIs:
    • NowNodes:
      • Features: Blockchain-as-a-Service, provides access to full nodes and explorers, supports 60M API requests/day.
      • Use: Scalable blockchain infrastructure for apps.
      • Pricing: Not specified (contact-based).
      • Strength: Reliable, cost-effective, 24/7 service.
    • CryptoCompare (2014):
      • Features: Real-time/historical pricing for 6000+ assets across 300+ exchanges, Websocket API for trades and L2 order book, Cryptosheets for Excel/Google Sheets.
      • Use: Market research, portfolio tracking.
      • Pricing: Free (100K calls/month, non-commercial), paid plans for advanced data.
      • Strength: Comprehensive documentation, broad coverage.
    • CoinMarketCap (2013):
      • Features: Tracks prices and portfolios across 300+ exchanges, supports major assets.
      • Use: Price tracking, market analysis.
      • Pricing: Free (10K calls/month, no historical data), $699/month (Professional, 1M calls, 1-year historical data).
      • Strength: High traffic (150M visits), reliable data.
    • TheGraph:
      • Features: GraphQL API for DeFi/Ethereum data (e.g., lending, yield farming), uses GRT token for community-driven indexing.
      • Use: DeFi analytics, Ethereum research.
      • Pricing: Not specified (token-based).
      • Strength: Specialized for DeFi, community-driven.
    • CoinGecko:
      • Features: Real-time/historical data (e.g., OHLC, pricing, volume) for 450+ exchanges, 50 calls/min limit.
      • Use: Price tracking, portfolio management.
      • Pricing: Free (no total call limit).
      • Strength: Broad exchange coverage, no call cap.
    • Polygon:
      • Features: Unlimited calls, 10 years historical data, L2 order book, includes non-crypto data (e.g., Nasdaq, NYSE).
      • Use: Cross-market trading, data analysis.
      • Pricing: $49/month (unlimited calls).
      • Strength: Granular data, traditional market integration.
    • BraveNewCoin (BNC):
      • Features: Real-time/historical data for 1500+ assets across 200 exchanges, volume-weighted spot prices, market cap tables.
      • Use: Market analysis, institutional research.
      • Pricing: Not specified (public/private plans).
      • Strength: Accurate, broad asset coverage.
    • Bittrex:
      • Features: Programmatic access to trading, withdrawals, deposits, supports JSON, WebSocket, HMAC-SHA512.
      • Use: Trading bots, account management.
      • Pricing: Not specified (exchange-based).
      • Strength: Secure, reliable trading platform.
    • BitcoinAverage:
      • Features: Weighted Bitcoin price, aggregates volume/price data from multiple exchanges.
      • Use: Market analysis, price tracking.
      • Pricing: Free (5K calls/month), $75/month (unlimited).
      • Strength: Accurate Bitcoin data, open-source.
    • CoinBase:
      • Features: Supports Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, offers real-time/historical prices, wallet management, payment notifications, 1s updates (enterprise), 15s updates (free).
      • Use: Payments, wallet integration.
      • Pricing: Free (limited), enterprise plans.
      • Strength: Fast updates, secure storage.
    • Poloniex:
      • Features: WebSocket/HTTP APIs for public/private data, supports HMAC-SHA512 authentication.
      • Use: Trading, account management.
      • Pricing: Not specified (exchange-based).
      • Strength: Robust exchange integration.
  • Key Insights:
    • Use Case Selection: Choose based on needs—CoinGecko/Polygon for budget-friendly calls, TheGraph for DeFi, CoinBase/Bittrex for trading, CryptoCompare for research.
    • Data Coverage: CoinGecko (450+ exchanges), CryptoCompare (300+), BNC (200+), Polygon (15+ but includes traditional markets).
    • Pricing: Free tiers (e.g., CoinGecko, CryptoCompare) suit small projects; paid plans (e.g., CoinMarketCap, Polygon) for heavy usage.
    • Limitations: CoinGecko lacks L2 order book; CoinMarketCap is costly; Polygon has limited crypto exchange coverage.
  • Broader Context:
    • Crypto Growth: Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies are a new asset class with high returns, driving API adoption.
    • API Benefits: Enable real-time trading, research, and blockchain app development.
    • Future: Depends on innovative API features and project adoption.
• InApps Insight:
  • InApps Technology, ranked 1st in Vietnam and 5th in Southeast Asia for app and software development, specializes in blockchain and crypto app development, using React Native, ReactJS, Node.js, Vue.js, Microsoft’s Power Platform, Azure, Power Fx (low-code), Azure Durable Functions, and GraphQL APIs (e.g., Apollo).
  • Offers outsourcing services for startups and enterprises, delivering cost-effective solutions at 30% of local vendor costs, supported by Vietnam’s 430,000 software developers and 1.03 million ICT professionals.
  • Relevance: Expertise in blockchain APIs and crypto development aligns with building trading platforms and data-driven crypto apps.
• Call to Action:
  • Contact InApps Technology at www.inapps.net or sales@inapps.net to develop crypto applications or integrate cryptocurrency APIs for trading or analytics.

Cryptocurrency APIs For Developers For Integration

1. NowNodes

If you are a developer looking for an opportunity to get in on the ground floor of a service that will be built into the backbone of future Blockchain applications, take a moment and check out nownodes.

The company behind the service is led by a group of seasoned professionals who have experience in building high-quality infrastructure that is quick, and cost-effective.

NOWNodes is a blockchain-as-a-service solution that lets users access full Nodes and Explorers via API. Founded on the idea of providing the best online experience for customers, Nownodes provides customers with reliable and scalable servers.

The need for a service like NOWNodes is great. High-quality infrastructure and a scalable solution to the problem of high costs and timescales for securing full Nodes have been needed for a long time.

People at NOWNodes are working hard to maintain our cloud infrastructure’s quality while expanding it to meet the demands of ever-growing clients.

For that, they deem to provide 24/7 service to their clients. To that end, They have been developing a new API that can handle up to 60 million API requests per day!

People need a fast, efficient, cost-effective way to access all network nodes and explorers. The demand for this kind of service has been steadily increasing, which has led many people to NOWNodes.

2. CryptoCompare

CryptoCompare was launched in 2014 and is considered one of the most well-established data offerers on the list. Its API documentation and playing field are more attractive, which is not easily comparable.

The documentation is helpful when exploring which endpoints to use and how to pass the appropriate measures to get the data you want.

There is a tab known as ‘Crytosheets’ here which shows you a nifty excel crypto data plugin that takes all the data of CryptoCompare into Google sheets or excel.

This Cryptocurrency API is very handy for researchers unfamiliar with APIs. CryptoCompare embraces all the basics in terms of data coverage.

With its free plan, you can have access to real-time and historical pricing data for around 6000 assess over 300+ exchanges. For the ones who wish to dig deeper into the analysis.

It’s worth discovering the blockchain’s data, which embraces daily metrics like hash rate and transaction value of over 800 coins. Additionally, you can stream trades and L2 order book data on the Websocket API.

Note that you don’t have access to use their free API for commercial purposes and you certainly capped at 100,000 calls every month.

A few of you might consider this a lot, but if you are one of those power users out there who requires millions of calls every month on a budget, you will surely like this.

3. CoinMarketCap

CoinMarketCap is one of the leading and longest-running data providers launched in 2013 and gathered 150 million visits this year. Like CoinGecko, its basic focus is assisting its retail users in tracking the prices of coins and executing their portfolios.

The API of CoinMarketCap is a bit costly and has stricter limits to it than others. Its free tier lets you receive 10,000 calls; however, it comprises no historical data, which you require for lots of use cases like backtesting crypto trading strategies or charting.

Besides, if your goal is to get 1 million calls a month, then you will require 1 year of historical data to take out the professional plan that will probably set you back $699 monthly.

Notwithstanding the cost, it is a considerable choice of API and embraces 300 exchanges and the hefty majority of crypto assets, if not all of the significant ones.

4. TheGraph

If you consider yourself a DeFi or Ethereum nerd, then TheGraph is your go-to place. This GraphQL API embraces everything like lending, yield farming rates, borrowing, as well as generally any data on the most significant DeFi protocols. Sadly, you are unable to access market data from The Graph.

Their playing field seems a little confusing at first however, it is fun to use once you get the hang of it. TheGraph is exciting due to its business model as it is unlikely any other you have come across. It is supported by a token called Graph Protocol (GRT) that is used to incentivize.

TheGraph’s community to turn the data more reliable by indexing the daunting and dynamic data on Ethereum.

5. CoinGecko

CoinGecko is the place for Developers with a certain budget but also need many calls. You can get free access to this and it has no total call limits alongside the rate-limiting of 50 calls per minute, which is a lot for most use cases.

CoinGecko has a wide coverage of exchanges and assets in data, with around 450 exchanges collaborated, which is higher than any provider. This API also offers you the most significant real-time and historical data sets like OHLC, pricing, and volume.

Its downside is their data depth; their API doesn’t provide trade or L2 order book data. Besides, after testing trials, it’s overt that the prices are not real-time and look updated every 30 seconds.

6. Polygon

Polygon is a robust API provider known for its granularity of data and unlimited calls feature. You can get access to unlimited calls just at $49 per month and all of their data, trades, 10 years of history, and L2 order book data. The only API that you will find offering non-crypto data is Polygon.

Moreover, Polygon is the initial traditional market data provider embracing equities from exchanges like Nasdaq and NYSE. So, for those who dabble in traditional markets and crypto, Polygon should be your go-to choice as you will get all data from just one API and it saves your development time too.

Its downside is that its crypto coverage is slightly less than that of the crypto specialist APIs. Polygon only collaborates with over 15 crypto exchanges, which means many of the most appealing coins are not available.

7. BraveNewCoin (BNC) API

BraveNewCoin is a cloud-based is one of those Cryptocurrency APIs and it offers a swift and accurate reference for historical crypto data and real-time data from around 200 exchanges, embracing thousands of marketplaces and assets.

The developer’s community and the institutions have complete access to a group of public and private API maintained by BraveNewCoin.

Here specifically, the API delivers a volume-weighted spot price for more than 1500 cryptographic assets from around the worldwide network of crypto exchanges.

BraveNewCoin is also famous for providing a complete history of crypto-asset market data over all products, involving the Crypto Spot Rates, LX program, Crypto Market Rates, and Market Cap Table.

8. Bittrex API

Bittrex is a dependable, secure, and creative digital asset trading platform formed on Bittrex’s cutting-edge technology for crypto traders.

It has this special point where users can programmatically access their Bittrex accounts and withdrawals, do trades, and make deposits using the Bittrex API.

Additionally, it has a pacific architecture and uses the API key protocol for basic authentication. JSON answer format, URI Query String/ CRUD, XML request formats are all fully supported with Bittrex API.

9. BitcoinAverage

BitCoinAverage is an Open-Source Project that offers you an accurate weighted average of the Bitcoin price. It is outfitted with several tools and uses along several other exchanges to aggregate volume and price data for its measures. Besides, this API is the best for market watchers and analysts.

You will get access to the free plan with this API which is certainly limited to 5,000 API requests monthly. Also, you will get three other plans with differing peaks. The most expensive plan will cost you $75 per month with unlimited requests feature.

10. CoinBase API

Bitcoin will surely let you accurately and swiftly look after the market rates with a one-second update frequency on the enterprise plan, and a 15-second update frequency on its free plan Coinbase API.

Coin Base API permits you to involve bitcoin cash, bitcoin, litecoin, and ethereum payments into your application or website. It is proficient of creating bitcoin cash, bitcoin, ethereum, and litecoin wallets and addresses. One can easily sell/buy and send/receve bitcoin cash, bitcoin, ethereum, litecoin, etc.

You can securely store your digital currencies by retrieving historical price and real-time information and getting notifications when payments come are some of the skills CoinBase API holds.

11. Poloniex API

Poloniex is held by Circle and is known as one of the world’s heftiest crypto exchanges. It offers APIs for linking with the exchange over WebSocket and HTTP.

Both of them deliver access to the public data read as well as to private account read. The public HTTP endpoint can be easily accessed through GET requests during the private endpoint is accessed through HMAC-SHA512 signed POST requests using Poloniex API keys.

In a NutShell

The cryptocurrency market never misses a chance to hit mainstream coverage improving susceptibility and turning broadly used by the heaps. We believe it is vital to get a good start in Developing Applications and doing analysis within the industry.

Besides, crypto data is a precious asset that can be used for trades, research experiments, and transparency for your company.

The future development of crypto entirely depends on how many projects will move ahead to build creative characteristics within application programming interfaces.

You will find tons of cryptocurrency APIs to choose from, and choosing the best depends mainly on your requirements. Also, it depends on which programming language you wish to use.

Most of it delivers you price API access, so maybe you wish to receive one with more than price, such as social metrics. We hope this assists you choose which data provider is best for your upcoming project.

In case you have any queries regarding API providers, we at InApps are there to help you.