ccxt

What it is and what it does

CCXT is a multi-language cryptocurrency exchange trading library that abstracts away the differences between individual exchange APIs into a unified interface. For Python developers, it provides normalized access to market data (tickers, order books, trade history) and trading operations (placing orders, checking balances) across more than 100 exchanges and prediction markets. The library supports both REST and WebSocket connections, with optional data normalization for cross-exchange analytics and arbitrage strategies.

It is designed for developers, traders, data scientists, and financial analysts building trading algorithms, bots, and analytical tools. The library handles the complexity of exchange-specific authentication, rate limiting, and API versioning, allowing you to write exchange-agnostic trading logic. With 23 runtime dependencies including cryptography, aiohttp for async operations, and specialized libraries like coincurve for elliptic curve cryptography, it provides a complete toolkit for algorithmic trading workflows.

Use it for:

• Fetch real-time market data (tickers, OHLCV candles, order books) from multiple exchanges with a single normalized API
• Build algorithmic trading bots that can execute orders across different exchanges without rewriting exchange-specific code
• Implement arbitrage strategies by comparing prices across multiple exchanges simultaneously
• Backtest trading strategies using historical market data collected from exchanges via CCXT
• Monitor cryptocurrency prices and market conditions across prediction markets like Polymarket and Kalshi

Worth the install?

AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page — verify before relying

CCXT is a unified API library for connecting to and trading on more than 100 cryptocurrency exchanges and prediction markets, supporting both REST and WebSocket protocols with normalized cross-exchange data access.

Yes. CCXT is actively maintained, widely used (top 5000 PyPI packages with millions of monthly downloads), has no known security vulnerabilities, and provides genuine value for anyone building crypto trading tools or analytics. The MIT license is permissive, and install friction is low. Start with it if you need multi-exchange access; the unified API saves significant integration work.

Install

ccxt on PyPI

pip install ccxt

uv add ccxt

poetry add ccxt

Installing ccxt

Before you install

Low install friction with a pure Python wheel distribution. Active maintenance with a release 3 days old and 43625 repository stars. Requires Python 3.10 or later and pulls in 23 runtime dependencies including cryptography, aiohttp, and exchange-specific libraries like coincurve.

License in practice

MIT license (permissive) means you can use, modify, and distribute this library freely in commercial and private projects with minimal restrictions—just retain the license notice.

Quickstart

pip install ccxt

import ccxt
exchange = ccxt.binance()
ticker = exchange.fetch_ticker('BTC/USDT')
print(ticker['last'])

Requires Python 3.10 or later. Some exchanges require API keys for private trading operations (fetching account balances, placing orders).

Verify before relying

• Whether all 100+ exchanges are equally well-maintained or if some have degraded API support
• Performance characteristics when handling high-frequency data across multiple exchanges simultaneously
• Whether WebSocket support is available for all listed exchanges or only a subset

Package facts

Evidence: ccxt-4.5.73-py3-none-any.whl

Keywords: algorithmic, algotrading, altcoin, altcoins, api, arbitrage, backtest, backtesting, bitcoin, bot, btc, crypto, cryptocurrency, crypto currency, crypto market, currency, currencies, darkcoin, dash, digital currency, doge, dogecoin, e-commerce, etc, eth, ether, ethereum, exchange, exchanges, eur, framework, invest, investing, investor, library, light, litecoin, ltc, market, market data, markets, merchandise, merchant, minimal, ohlcv, order, orderbook, order book, price, price data, pricefeed, private, public, ripple, strategy, ticker, tickers, toolkit, trade, trader, trading, usd, volume, websocket, websockets, web socket, web sockets, ws, xbt, xrp, zec, zerocoin

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