Coinmarketcap API

CoinMarketCap is one of the most popular websites for checking cryptocurrency prices and metrics. CoinMarketCap has been in business for five years and is the first stop for many when checking spot prices. CoinMarketCap has both a public and professional API. The public API has certain limitations to the requests which can be made for data. The documentation related to the API is noted on the CoinMarketCap website.

The professional tier for the API was announced in August 2018. The professional tier was aimed for more business use cases. The professional tier will add derivatives data. The accuracy of data from CoinMarketCap has been heavily questioned by those in the cryptocurrency community. The exchanges the data is sourced from has also been heavily questioned and there have been some reports of wash trading where the exchange conducts transactions themselves to pump up volumes.

Developers have also voiced concerns over their use of the API. They are subject to strict rate limiting but with the launch of the new professional tier, they may be able to overcome this at a cost to themselves. Developers are also concerned over CoinMarketCap’s tendency to delist coins without any public notice. This can affect the programmes which have been developed as the programmes may depend on the delisted coins data also.