Introduction to Prime APIs

Prime APIs allow institutional investors to programmatically access the breadth of Coinbase’s capabilities, including trading, custody, real-time market data, and account management. Customize secure crypto products to efficiently manage your crypto holdings and/or client-facing crypto offerings at scale.

Institutions with programmatic trading strategies can execute a variety of order types and use Coinbase’s smart order routing technology to ensure the best all-in price across connected liquidity venues. Financial technology firms, brokerages, and others looking to build a crypto offering within their products can integrate with the APIs to manage crypto trading on behalf of their customers. Fund administrators and operations teams can automate critical processes such as settlements, rebalancing, and bookkeeping in a transparent manner.

Key functionality

The following section is an overview and should not be considered comprehensive. Please see the API Reference to review all that is available.
Trading and Order Management: One integration provides full market access for programmatic execution and price optimization through Coinbase’s smart order routing technology.

• Programmatically execute Market, Limit, and TWAP (Time-Weighted Average Price) orders
• Get order fills
• Cancel orders when needed
• Access Websocket and FIX market data

Account Management: Automate reconciliation, trade and transaction tracking, and more.

• View resources across your account hierarchy, at the entity, organization, portfolio, and user levels
• View transactions and positions by portfolio and wallet
• Provide read-only access to your third-party partners for further streamlining.

Custody: Store your assets with a battle-tested crypto custodian.

• Retrieve wallets, corresponding transactions, and deposit instructions
• View balances by type and symbol

Available APIs and feeds

The Prime APIs are separated into three categories and supported globally:

REST APIs

Endpoints for account management, order management, and fundamental market data. Please see the API Reference page for a complete reference.

FIX APIs

Endpoints for institutions using FIX software for high volume order management and/or those interested in doing so. Enter orders, submit cancel requests, and receive fills.

Note: Coinbase recommends beginning with our REST API architecture if you are not familiar with FIX.

Websocket Feeds

Feed of real-time market data updates for orders and trades.

Getting started

In order to access the Prime APIs, you will need a Coinbase Prime account.
If you have a Coinbase Prime account, you can begin using the Prime APIs by creating an API key and authenticating. Additional technical support can be found at our Help Center.

If you do not have a Coinbase Prime account or you’d like to learn more, get started here.