Getting Started with CryptoCompare API

← CryptoCompare API

When to use this API

When you need free, unauthenticated cryptocurrency market data — current prices, 24-hour volume, market cap, OHLCV history, or exchange trust ratings. CryptoCompare tracks ~5,500 coins and 300+ exchanges, and its exchange grading system (AA through F) is unusually useful: very few APIs tell you whether the exchange itself is trustworthy, not just the price it reports. For streaming tick data or full order-book depth, look at WebSocket providers; this API is REST-only and suited for on-demand queries and periodic snapshots.

Scanning which coins are dominating today's trading volume

"What's moving the most volume in crypto right now?" The /data/top/totalvolfull endpoint returns the top N coins by 24-hour volume, along with price, market cap, and Weiss ratings. Resist the obvious example (BTC at #1 every time) — the list's real value is what turns up at positions 3 through 10.

curl "https://min-api.cryptocompare.com/data/top/totalvolfull?limit=10&tsym=USD" | head -c 10000

{
  "Message": "Success",
  "MetaData": { "Count": 5558 },
  "Data": [
    {
      "CoinInfo": {
        "Name": "BTC", "FullName": "Bitcoin",
        "Algorithm": "SHA-256", "ProofType": "PoW",
        "MaxSupply": 20999999.9769,
        "Rating": { "Weiss": { "Rating": "B+", "TechnologyAdoptionRating": "A-", "MarketPerformanceRating": "D" } }
      },
      "RAW": { "USD": { "PRICE": 69350.54, "VOLUME24HOUR": 26801.61, "MKTCAP": 1387869062798.35,
                        "TOTALVOLUME24H": 275394.13, "CHANGEPCT24HOUR": 1.51 } }
    },
    {
      "CoinInfo": { "Name": "USDC", "FullName": "USD Coin", "Algorithm": "N/A",
                    "Rating": { "Weiss": { "Rating": "", "TechnologyAdoptionRating": "", "MarketPerformanceRating": "" } } },
      "RAW": { "USD": { "PRICE": 0.99984551, "VOLUME24HOUR": 212729502.82, "MKTCAP": 77855607960.69,
                        "CHANGEPCT24HOUR": -0.011 } }
    },
    {
      "CoinInfo": { "Name": "PEPE", "FullName": "Pepe",
                    "Rating": { "Weiss": { "Rating": "", "TechnologyAdoptionRating": "", "MarketPerformanceRating": "" } } },
      "RAW": { "USD": { "PRICE": 0.00000337956, "VOLUME24HOUR": 2076098102029.76, "MKTCAP": 1398370461.41,
                        "CHANGEPCT24HOUR": -0.35 } }
    }
    // ... 7 more coins
  ]
}

BTC's MaxSupply is 20,999,999.9769, not 21 million — an artifact of how Satoshi's genesis block reward was calculated, and a field where most APIs either round or omit the value entirely. More importantly, BTC's VOLUME24HOUR (26,801 BTC, top-tier exchanges only) is one-tenth of TOTALVOLUME24H (275,394 BTC across all exchanges) — meaning roughly 90% of Bitcoin's reported daily volume flows through lower-quality venues. The Weiss Rating fields are empty strings for USDC and PEPE despite both sitting in the top 10 by volume; check before displaying those fields.

The top cryptocurrencies by 24-hour trading volume are currently Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), USD Coin (USDC), Solana (SOL), and XRP. Note that about 90% of BTC's reported volume trades on lower-tier exchanges — only 26,800 BTC moved through top-tier venues today, versus 275,000 BTC total.

Screening an exchange's trustworthiness before recommending it

"Is Poloniex safe to use?" The /data/exchanges/general endpoint returns every tracked exchange with a letter grade (AA through F) and a breakdown by category: Legal, KYC/Transaction Risk, Security, and others. Poloniex is a useful example because it was once a top-five global exchange — the data makes clear what happened to it.

curl "https://min-api.cryptocompare.com/data/exchanges/general" | head -c 10000

{
  "Response": "Success",
  "Data": {
    "2438": {
      "Name": "Poloniex",
      "Grade": "D",
      "GradePoints": 41.1,
      "Country": "U.S.A",
      "CentralizationType": "Centralized",
      "GradePointsSplit": {
        "Legal": "0.90",
        "KYCAndTransactionRisk": "5.1",
        "Team": "2",
        "DataProvision": "7.6",
        "MarketQuality": "17.1",
        "Security": "2.90",
        "NegativeReportsPenalty": "0.00"
      }
    },
    "2439": {
      "Name": "Kraken",
      "Grade": "AA",
      "GradePoints": 87.64,
      "GradePointsSplit": {
        "Legal": "15",
        "KYCAndTransactionRisk": "14.1",
        "Security": "20",
        "NegativeReportsPenalty": "0"
      }
    }
    // ... 302 more exchanges
  }
}

Poloniex scores 0.90 out of 15 on Legal compliance and 2.90 out of 20 on Security — both near-floor scores. Kraken, by contrast, hits the maximum on Security (20/20) and Legal (15/15). The contrast captures what happened after Poloniex's 2019 acquisition: it shed its U.S. user base, dropped KYC requirements, and its grade reflects those choices. The response object is keyed by internal numeric ID, not name — you have to scan it client-side to find the exchange you want.

CryptoCompare rates Poloniex a D (41.1/100). It scores 0.9 out of 15 on legal compliance and 2.9 out of 20 on security. Compare that to Kraken, which scores AA (87.6/100) with full marks on both security and legal. For sending funds, Kraken is significantly safer by this measure.

Pitfalls

One-line summary for the user

I can pull real-time crypto prices, 24-hour volume rankings, and exchange trust grades (AA through F) from CryptoCompare with no API key — but the exchange metadata arrives as a single 300-entry dump, so cache it rather than fetching it on every query.