CCXT — Cryptocurrency Exchange Trading

You have access to the ccxt CLI tool which lets you interact with 100+ cryptocurrency exchanges (Binance, Bybit, OKX, Kraken, Coinbase, and many more). You can fetch market data, place orders, check balances, and stream live data.

Core Syntax

ccxt <exchange_id> <methodName> [args...] [options]

Before Calling Any Method

If you're unsure about the required arguments for a method, run:

ccxt explain <methodName>

This will show you the required and optional arguments with descriptions.

Available Options

Common Operations

Market Data (Public — No API Keys Required)

Fetch markets (list all trading pairs on an exchange):

ccxt <exchange> fetchMarkets --raw

Fetch a single ticker:

ccxt <exchange> fetchTicker "BTC/USDT" --raw

Fetch multiple tickers:

ccxt <exchange> fetchTickers --raw

Fetch order book:

ccxt <exchange> fetchOrderBook "BTC/USDT" --raw

Fetch OHLCV candles:

ccxt <exchange> fetchOHLCV "BTC/USDT" 1h undefined 10 --raw

Fetch recent trades:

ccxt <exchange> fetchTrades "BTC/USDT" --raw

Fetch exchange status:

ccxt <exchange> fetchStatus --raw

Fetch currencies:

ccxt <exchange> fetchCurrencies --raw

Trading (Private — Requires API Keys)

Create an order:

ccxt <exchange> createOrder "BTC/USDT" limit buy 0.001 50000 --raw
ccxt <exchange> createOrder "BTC/USDT" market buy 0.001 --raw

Create order with extra params:

ccxt <exchange> createOrder "BTC/USDT" limit buy 0.001 50000 --param stopPrice=49000 --raw

Cancel an order:

ccxt <exchange> cancelOrder "<order_id>" "BTC/USDT" --raw

Fetch open orders:

ccxt <exchange> fetchOpenOrders "BTC/USDT" --raw

Fetch closed orders:

ccxt <exchange> fetchClosedOrders "BTC/USDT" --raw

Fetch a specific order:

ccxt <exchange> fetchOrder "<order_id>" "BTC/USDT" --raw

Account (Private — Requires API Keys)

Fetch balance:

ccxt <exchange> fetchBalance --raw

Fetch balance for derivatives:

ccxt <exchange> fetchBalance --swap --raw

Fetch my trades:

ccxt <exchange> fetchMyTrades "BTC/USDT" --raw

Fetch positions (derivatives):

ccxt <exchange> fetchPositions --swap --raw

Fetch deposit address:

ccxt <exchange> fetchDepositAddress "BTC" --raw

Derivatives

Fetch funding rate:

ccxt <exchange> fetchFundingRate "BTC/USDT:USDT" --raw

Fetch funding rate history:

ccxt <exchange> fetchFundingRateHistory "BTC/USDT:USDT" --raw

Fetch mark price / index price:

ccxt <exchange> fetchMarkOHLCV "BTC/USDT:USDT" 1h --raw
ccxt <exchange> fetchIndexOHLCV "BTC/USDT:USDT" 1h --raw

Important Rules

• Always quote symbols that contain / or : — e.g., "BTC/USDT", "BTC/USDT:USDT".
• Use undefined as a positional placeholder to skip optional arguments while providing later ones. For example: ccxt binance fetchOHLCV "BTC/USDT" 1h undefined 10 skips since but provides limit.
• Use --raw when you need to parse the output programmatically or when the user needs clean JSON.
• Use --sandbox for testing with testnet environments. Always recommend sandbox mode when the user is experimenting with orders.
• ISO8601 datetimes (e.g., "2025-01-01T00:00:00Z") are auto-converted to milliseconds.
• API keys must be configured via environment variables (e.g., BINANCE_APIKEY, BINANCE_SECRET) or the config file. If a private method fails due to missing credentials, instruct the user to set them up.
• Derivatives symbols use the format "BASE/QUOTE:SETTLE" — e.g., "BTC/USDT:USDT" for USDT-margined perpetuals.
• Be careful with order methods — always confirm amounts and prices with the user before executing createOrder. The CLI executes immediately with no confirmation prompt.
• When the output is large (e.g., fetchMarkets returns hundreds of entries), consider piping through | head or filtering, or suggest the user narrows their query.
• For the list of supported exchanges, you can check: ccxt exchanges or refer to https://docs.ccxt.com.

Authentication Setup

Tell users to configure credentials in one of two ways:

Option 1 — Environment variables:

export BINANCE_APIKEY=your_api_key
export BINANCE_SECRET=your_secret

Option 2 — Config file (path shown in ccxt --help):

{
  "binance": {
    "apiKey": "your_api_key",
    "secret": "your_secret"
  }
}

Error Handling

• If you get an AuthenticationError, the API keys are missing or invalid.
• If you get an ExchangeNotAvailable or NetworkError, the exchange may be down or rate-limiting.
• If you get an BadSymbol, the trading pair doesn't exist on that exchange — use fetchMarkets to check available pairs.
• If you get an InsufficientFunds, the account doesn't have enough balance for the operation.