ccxt vs cryptocom api

CCXT vs the Crypto.com Exchange API

The Crypto.com Exchange v1 API covers spot, margin, perpetual swaps, futures and options over REST and WebSocket. What it does not come with is a client library: the crypto-com/crypto-exchange repository was archived in November 2021 and now contains only a pointer to the documentation, and the API reference itself lists no official SDK — it provides reference code samples in JavaScript, Python, C# and Java for you to adapt.

Crypto.com does publish cdcx-cli: a Rust CLI, MCP server and terminal dashboard, dual-licensed MIT/Apache-2.0, covering 95 REST endpoints generated from the exchange's OpenAPI specification plus WebSocket streaming. It is a genuinely useful tool — but it is a binary you run, not a library you import.

So the real comparison is CCXT against your own client, and the question is how much of the signing, throttling and stream plumbing you want to own.

TL;DR

• Write against the raw API if you want field-for-field fidelity with Crypto.com's documentation, or if cdcx-cli already does what you need from a terminal or an AI agent.
• Pick CCXT if you want spot, margin, swaps, futures and options behind one client that handles the signature scheme, per-endpoint rate limits, order-book maintenance and the UAT sandbox — in eight languages, with the same API on 103 other venues.
• Choosing CCXT does not hide anything. All 129 Crypto.com endpoints are generated as implicit methods.

At a glance

	CCXT	Raw Crypto.com Exchange API
Exchanges covered	104 (Crypto.com is one of them)	Crypto.com only
Languages	TypeScript, JavaScript, Python, PHP, C#/.NET, Go, Java, Rust — one API	any; docs give reference samples in JavaScript, Python, C#, Java
Official client library	ccxt — installable from every major package registry	none; cdcx-cli is a Rust CLI/MCP server/TUI, not a library
Products in one client	spot, margin, swap, future, option	one API, but you model each product yourself
Unified market data + trading API	yes — 58 unified capabilities, 26 fetch* methods	Crypto.com's own request/response shapes
WebSockets	yes — 12 watch* methods plus unWatch*, and order entry over the socket	yes — wss://stream.crypto.com/exchange/v1/user and /market, raw
Raw endpoint access	yes — 129 endpoints as implicit methods	it is the whole product
Built-in rate limiter	yes, per-endpoint weights, on by default (rateLimit 10ms)	you model 15 req/100ms on order entry, 1 req/s on history, and more
Unified error types	yes — 41 typed exceptions in one hierarchy	HTTP status plus Crypto.com code values
Testnet / sandbox	exchange.set_sandbox_mode(True) swaps in the UAT hosts	swap uat-api.3ona.co and uat-stream.3ona.co in by hand
Popularity	43.8k GitHub stars · 4.8M PyPI + 494k npm installs/month (one package, every venue)	cdcx-cli 25 stars; community cryptocom-exchange Python library 71 stars
Licence	MIT	cdcx-cli is MIT/Apache-2.0
Support	Discord, Telegram, GitHub issues — usually same-day	Crypto.com developer documentation and support

_{Figures verified September 2026 against CCXT v{{CCXT_VERSION}}, the Crypto.com Exchange v1 API reference, and the crypto-com GitHub organisation's published repositories.}

The same job, written both ways

Fetch a ticker

CCXT

import ccxt

exchange = ccxt.cryptocom()
ticker = exchange.fetch_ticker('BTC/USDT')
print(ticker['last'], ticker['bid'], ticker['ask'], ticker['baseVolume'])

Raw Crypto.com API

import requests

r = requests.get('https://api.crypto.com/exchange/v1/public/get-tickers',
                 params={'instrument_name': 'BTC_USDT'})
data = r.json()['result']['data'][0]
print(data['a'], data['b'], data['k'], data['v'])

Crypto.com's ticker payload uses single-letter keys: i instrument, a last, b bid, k ask, h high, l low, v base volume, vv quote volume, c change, oi open interest, t timestamp. CCXT returns a unified ticker structure with the same names and units you get everywhere else, so nothing downstream needs a Crypto.com-specific decoder ring.

Place a limit order

CCXT

import ccxt

exchange = ccxt.cryptocom({'apiKey': '...', 'secret': '...'})
order = exchange.create_order('BTC/USDT', 'limit', 'buy', 0.001, 60000)
print(order['id'], order['status'])

Raw Crypto.com API

import hashlib, hmac, json, time
import requests

API_KEY, SECRET = '...', '...'

def params_to_str(obj):
    out = ''
    for key in sorted(obj):
        value = obj[key]
        if isinstance(value, dict):
            out += key + params_to_str(value)
        elif isinstance(value, list):
            out += key + ''.join(
                params_to_str(v) if isinstance(v, dict) else str(v) for v in value)
        else:
            out += key + ('' if value is None else str(value))
    return out

request = {
    'id': 1,
    'method': 'private/create-order',
    'api_key': API_KEY,
    'params': {
        'instrument_name': 'BTC_USDT', 'side': 'BUY', 'type': 'LIMIT',
        'price': '60000', 'quantity': '0.001',      # numbers must be strings
    },
    'nonce': int(time.time() * 1000),
}
payload = (request['method'] + str(request['id']) + request['api_key']
           + params_to_str(request['params']) + str(request['nonce']))
request['sig'] = hmac.new(SECRET.encode(), payload.encode(),
                          hashlib.sha256).hexdigest()

r = requests.post('https://api.crypto.com/exchange/v1/private/create-order',
                  json=request)
print(r.json())

Crypto.com's signature is the most intricate in this batch. You sort the parameter keys in ascending order, concatenate them as key + value with no delimiter, then hash method + id + api_key + that parameter string + nonce with HMAC-SHA256 and hex-encode the result. Nested objects and arrays have to be flattened recursively by the same rule — Crypto.com's own reference sample uses recursive helpers for exactly this — and every number in the request must be sent as a quoted string, or the digest the server computes will not match yours.

CCXT implements that once, and switching the same order to a perpetual is a symbol change:

order = exchange.create_order('BTC/USD:USD', 'limit', 'buy', 0.001, 60000)

Stream an order book

CCXT

import ccxt.pro
import asyncio

async def main():
    exchange = ccxt.pro.cryptocom()
    while True:
        orderbook = await exchange.watch_order_book('BTC/USDT')
        print(orderbook['bids'][0], orderbook['asks'][0])

asyncio.run(main())

Raw Crypto.com WebSocket

import json, asyncio, websockets

async def main():
    url = 'wss://stream.crypto.com/exchange/v1/market'
    async with websockets.connect(url) as ws:
        await ws.send(json.dumps({
            'method': 'subscribe',
            'params': {'channels': ['book.BTC_USDT.50']},
            'nonce': 1,
        }))
        async for frame in ws:
            message = json.loads(frame)
            if message.get('method') == 'public/heartbeat':
                await ws.send(json.dumps({
                    'id': message['id'], 'method': 'public/respond-heartbeat',
                }))
                continue
            print(message)      # raw book update, not a merged book

asyncio.run(main())

The raw socket sends a public/heartbeat message that you must answer with public/respond-heartbeat or the connection is dropped — that is the if in the middle of the loop, and forgetting it is the classic first bug. Past that, the messages are book updates, not a book.

	CCXT	raw stream
Answer public/heartbeat on time	done for you	your code
Merge updates into a full order book	done for you	your code
Detect gaps and re-seed from a fresh snapshot	done for you	your code
Reconnect, re-subscribe and keep bounded caches	done for you	your code
Authenticate the user stream and route private messages	done for you	your code

Where the differences actually bite

Rate limits you do not have to model

Crypto.com's limits are per endpoint and not uniform: private/create-order, private/cancel-order and private/cancel-all-orders allow 15 requests per 100ms each, private/get-order-detail allows 30 per 100ms, everything else allows 3 per 100ms — but private/get-trades and private/get-order-history allow 1 request per second. On the socket, the User API accepts 150 requests per second and Market Data 100.

That last one is the trap: a backfill loop written against the general limit will be rejected on history endpoints. CCXT encodes per-endpoint weights in the exchange definition and ships a throttler that is on by default (enableRateLimit = true, rateLimit = 10ms). You call methods in a loop; the library paces them.

Five product lines, one client

Spot, margin, perpetual swaps, futures and options are all served by one ccxt.cryptocom instance. Unified symbols carry the distinction — 'BTC/USDT' for spot, 'BTC/USD:USD' for the USD-settled perpetual — and the method names do not change. Positions, funding rates, funding-rate history, settlement history, leverage and closePosition are unified methods, not per-product code paths.

Order entry over the socket

CCXT Pro implements 12 watch* methods for Crypto.com — watchOrderBook, watchOrderBookForSymbols, watchTicker, watchTickers, watchBidsAsks, watchTrades, watchTradesForSymbols, watchOHLCV, watchOrders, watchMyTrades, watchBalance and watchPositions — plus their unWatch* counterparts for tearing a subscription down without dropping the connection.

It also implements order entry over the same socket: create_order_ws, edit_order_ws, cancel_order_ws and cancel_all_orders_ws. Sending an order on the connection you are already streaming on avoids a second TCP and TLS handshake per request.

exchange = ccxt.pro.cryptocom({'apiKey': '...', 'secret': '...'})
order = await exchange.create_order_ws('BTC/USDT', 'limit', 'buy', 0.001, 60000)

Testnet without a second code path

Crypto.com runs a UAT environment on different hosts — uat-api.3ona.co for REST and uat-stream.3ona.co for both WebSocket endpoints. Written directly, that is a base-URL constant threaded through every module, plus a matching swap for the socket URLs.

exchange = ccxt.cryptocom({'apiKey': '...', 'secret': '...'})
exchange.set_sandbox_mode(True)   # swaps in the UAT REST and WebSocket hosts

One flag, every URL.

One error hierarchy

CCXT maps Crypto.com's numeric code values onto a typed exception tree — InsufficientFunds, InvalidOrder, OrderNotFound, RateLimitExceeded, AuthenticationError, NetworkError, ExchangeNotAvailable and 34 more, all descending from BaseError.

Precision and string math

CCXT loads Crypto.com's market metadata and gives you amount_to_precision, price_to_precision and cost_to_precision, backed by the Precise string-arithmetic class. That matters more here than usual: the API requires numeric fields to be sent as strings, so float formatting is not cosmetic — the same value also feeds the signature.

Nothing is hidden — the implicit API

Alongside the 58 unified capabilities, all 129 endpoints in CCXT's Crypto.com API block are generated as callable implicit methods, with the full signature scheme, nonce handling, throttling and error mapping applied:

response = exchange.v1PublicGetPublicGetTickers({'instrument_name': 'BTC_USDT'})

Browse them on the Crypto.com implicit API page.

What the raw API and cdcx-cli do better

Honest advantages:

• cdcx-cli is a different kind of tool, and a good one. A single ~11MB Rust binary with no runtime dependencies, a full-screen TUI dashboard, a paper-trading engine that needs no credentials, and an MCP server so an AI agent can drive the exchange with safety tiers. CCXT is a library; none of that is in scope for it.
• It is generated from the OpenAPI specification. cdcx-cli exposes 95 REST endpoints derived directly from Crypto.com's spec, so its surface tracks the published contract mechanically rather than through hand-written wrappers.
• Field-for-field fidelity with the docs, and new endpoints on day one. Calling public/get-tickers directly means what the reference says is what you get, and a newly shipped endpoint is callable by URL immediately — a unified CCXT method for it may follow later. CCXT's unified names are a deliberate abstraction, which is one extra hop when debugging against vendor documentation.
• A focused community Python library exists. cryptocom-exchange is an MIT, async-native Python client for the v1 API built on httpx and websockets. If you want one venue, in Python, with a small dependency, it is a real option.

If Crypto.com is your only venue, or you want a terminal dashboard and an MCP endpoint rather than a library, the raw API and cdcx-cli are the better fit.

Migrating from the raw Crypto.com API to CCXT

What you are doing	Raw Crypto.com API	CCXT
Symbols	'BTC_USDT', 'BTCUSD-PERP'	'BTC/USDT', 'BTC/USD:USD'
Instruments	public/get-instruments	load_markets()
Ticker / book / candles	public/get-tickers, public/get-book, public/get-candlestick	fetch_ticker(), fetch_order_book(), fetch_ohlcv()
New order	private/create-order	create_order()
Cancel / amend order	private/cancel-order, private/amend-order	cancel_order(), edit_order()
Open orders	private/get-open-orders	fetch_open_orders()
Balance / positions	private/user-balance, private/get-positions	fetch_balance(), fetch_positions()
Streams	wss://stream.crypto.com/exchange/v1/market and /user	watch_* on ccxt.pro.cryptocom
Sandbox	uat-api.3ona.co + uat-stream.3ona.co	set_sandbox_mode(True)
Anything not listed	the endpoint URL	the same endpoint as an implicit method

FAQ

Does Crypto.com Exchange have an official Python SDK? No. The crypto-com/crypto-exchange repository was archived in 2021 and now only links to the documentation, and the API reference lists no client library — it gives reference code samples in JavaScript, Python, C# and Java. Crypto.com's own current tool is cdcx-cli, a Rust CLI, MCP server and TUI. For a Python, PHP, Go, C# or Java library, CCXT is the maintained option, alongside the community cryptocom-exchange package.

Does CCXT support Crypto.com derivatives? Yes. Spot, margin, perpetual swaps, futures and options are served by one ccxt.cryptocom instance, across 58 unified capabilities including positions, funding rates, settlement history and closePosition.

Can I use the Crypto.com sandbox through CCXT? Yes. exchange.set_sandbox_mode(True) swaps in the UAT hosts — uat-api.3ona.co for REST and uat-stream.3ona.co for the market and user WebSocket endpoints — with no other change to your code.

Do I need CCXT Pro separately for WebSockets? No. CCXT Pro is included in the ccxt package. Use ccxt.pro.cryptocom and call watch* methods — 12 of them here — plus create_order_ws, edit_order_ws, cancel_order_ws and cancel_all_orders_ws for order entry over the same socket.

Why do my hand-signed Crypto.com requests fail authentication? Usually one of three rules: parameter keys must be sorted ascending and concatenated as key + value with no separator, nested objects and arrays must be flattened by the same rule recursively, and every numeric field must be sent as a quoted string. The signed payload is method + id + api_key + parameter string + nonce, hashed with HMAC-SHA256 and hex-encoded. CCXT implements all of it — and applies it to all 129 endpoints exposed as implicit methods.

Is CCXT free? Yes. MIT-licensed, including the WebSocket support.

Next steps

• Install CCXT in your language
• Manual — the unified API, structures and conventions
• cryptocom unified API reference
• cryptocom implicit API — every raw endpoint
• CCXT Pro manual — WebSocket methods
• More comparisons