Bitcoin Exchange Trading API - All You Need to Know

Do more with the HitBTC Trading API

We’re very proud of the HitBTC trading platform. We think it’s a great product that offers traders, new and experienced alike, everything they need to successfully trade cryptocurrencies.

But not every trader is the same and we understand that. While many traders are happy to use one, web-based trading platform, there are also many others who want to use bespoke or off-the-shelf tools to allow them to trade with a greater deal of flexibility than a web-based platform can offer.

This is why we developed our API.

What is an API?

Many people interested in this article may already have an understanding of what an API is. If that’s you feel free to skip to the next section. But if you’re interested, stick around and I will briefly explain what an API is.

 An API or “Application Programming Interface”, fundamentally, allows two (or more) pieces of software to communicate with one another in a standardised way, making for a much improved flow of information and commands.Although an API is not required for two pieces of software to communicate, it does dramatically improve the efficiency of that communication. Let’s look at an example:

 Without an API: an application gets current cinema times by opening cinema.com, interpreting the content on that page as a human would.With an API: an application uses the cinema.com API to send a structured request to the site and then recieves the appropraite information back in a structured way.

 The advantage of using an API to get different pieces of software to talk to each other is that by having that means of communication standardized and documented you make the flow of information much more robust and straightforward.

The HitBTC Trading API

So, let’s take a look at our own offerings.

 If you’re a trader or a software developer looking to build trading software, our APIs allow you to quickly and easily integrate HitBTC. You can request information from the HitBTC exchange, such as tickers and recent trades. You can also use the API to perform trading operations from within your own custom software.

 Right now, the HitBTC API has several interfaces, giving you plenty of flexibility to choose how to implement it into your own trading software. These are…

• RESTful API – allows you to access market data, perform trades and manage funds.
• socket.io protocol – allows you to receive market data.
• Streaming API – allows you to get market data and performing trading operations.

 If you’re looking to dive right in and starting using the HitBTC API in your own software, you can read our API guide for all the detailed technical specifications.

HitBTC trading API

Algorithmic Trading

Not only do we offer our API for integrating the HitBTC API into custom software, but we also offer support for algorithmic trading on the HitBTC exchange using the FIX protocol.

 FIX (Financial Information eXchange) is a communication standard used by the electronic trading industry which has revolutionised that sector over the last decade. It’s used the globally, by some of the biggest names in finance: UBS, Goldman Sachs, the London Stock Exchange. And now, HitBTC.

The FIX protocol is quite a complex beast, so if you’re looking for somewhere to build up your knowledge, I suggest you check out their homepage. If you already know what you’re doing and want to get started right away, you can view our own FIX specification details here.