Coinlayer

Name: Coinlayer API
Brand: Coinlayer
Availability: InStock

✓ Official Vendor SpecFinanceBankingapiKey6 EndpointsREST

For Agents

Look up live, historical, time-series, and converted cryptocurrency exchange rates against fiat or other crypto via a simple JSON REST API.

Quickstart

Get started with Coinlayer in minutes using your preferred integration method.

# Add to your MCP client config (Claude Desktop, Cursor, Windsurf)
{
  "jentic": {
    "url": "https://api.jentic.com/mcp",
    "auth": "oauth"
  }
}

# Then ask your agent:
"get current cryptocurrency exchange rate"

# → Jentic returns the GET /events tool with parameter schema, agent executes.

Capabilities

What an agent can do with Coinlayer API.

Retrieve live exchange rates for any supported cryptocurrency against a chosen target

Pull historical exchange rates for a specific past date

Fetch a daily time-series of rates between two dates for one or more coins

Calculate percentage rate change between two dates for chosen coins

GET STARTED

Start building with Coinlayer API

Explore with Jentic

View OpenAPI Document

Use for: Get the live exchange rate for bitcoin in USD, Retrieve historical bitcoin and ethereum rates on a specific date, Fetch a daily time-series of crypto rates between two dates, Convert 0.5 BTC to EUR using current rates

Not supported: Does not handle order placement, wallet management, or on-chain operations — use for cryptocurrency exchange rate lookups and conversions only.

Coinlayer is a lightweight cryptocurrency exchange-rate API focused on simple, JSON-formatted price data. Six REST endpoints cover live rates, historical rates, time-series data over a date range, percentage change calculations, currency conversion, and the catalogue of supported coins. It is designed for applications that need straightforward crypto pricing without the complexity of full exchange-level data.

Use Cases

Patterns agents use Coinlayer API for, with concrete tasks.

★ Lightweight Crypto Pricing for Apps

Embed live and historical crypto prices in apps, sites, and dashboards without setting up exchange integrations. Coinlayer returns simple flat JSON for the live and historical endpoints, making it trivial to surface a price next to a fiat amount. Integration usually takes well under an hour.

Call GET /live with symbols=BTC,ETH and target=USD and return the rates

Crypto-to-Fiat Currency Conversion

Convert any amount between supported currencies — crypto-to-fiat, fiat-to-crypto, or crypto-to-crypto — in a single call. Useful for invoicing tools, donation widgets, and payment summaries that need to show an equivalent in another currency.

Call GET /convert with from=BTC, to=USD, and amount=0.5 and return the converted value

Historical and Time-Series Crypto Reporting

Build crypto reports and charts using historical and time-series endpoints. Pull daily rates between two dates with /timeframe, or compute percentage change with /change for highlight calculations. Suitable for newsletters, blogs, and monthly reports.

Call GET /timeframe with start_date and end_date and symbols=BTC,ETH to retrieve a daily rate series

AI Currency Assistant via Jentic

Build an AI assistant that converts amounts between crypto and fiat through Jentic. The agent expresses an intent (convert this amount, look up yesterday's rate); Jentic resolves the right Coinlayer endpoint and executes the call with stored credentials. A good fit for low-volume conversion features in chat UIs.

Through Jentic, convert 1 BTC to USD using the live rate and return the value with timestamp

Key Endpoints

6 endpoints — coinlayer is a lightweight cryptocurrency exchange-rate api focused on simple, json-formatted price data.

METHOD

PATH

DESCRIPTION

GET

/live

Get current exchange rates for selected coins

GET

/historical

Get rates for a specific past date

GET

/timeframe

Get daily rate series between two dates

GET

/convert

Convert an amount between two currencies

GET

/list

List supported coins and target currencies

GET

/live

Get current exchange rates for selected coins

GET

/historical

Get rates for a specific past date

GET

/timeframe

Get daily rate series between two dates

GET

/convert

Convert an amount between two currencies

GET

/list

List supported coins and target currencies

Why though Jentic?

Three things that make agents converge on Jentic-routed access.

Credential isolation

Coinlayer access keys are stored encrypted in the Jentic vault. Agents receive scoped execution tokens — the raw access_key value never enters the agent's prompt or query strings.

Intent-based discovery

Agents search Jentic by intent (e.g. convert btc to usd) and Jentic returns the matching Coinlayer operation with its parameter schema, so the agent calls the correct endpoint without browsing docs.

Time to first call

Direct integration: about an hour for auth and parameter handling. Through Jentic: under 30 minutes — search, load schema, execute.

Related APIs

Alternatives and complements available in the Jentic catalogue.

Alternative

CoinGecko API

Broader free crypto data with deeper coin and DeFi coverage

Choose CoinGecko when you need broad coin coverage, DeFi metrics, or trending coin lists not in Coinlayer

Alternative

CoinCap API

Free crypto pricing with simple ranking and history endpoints

Choose CoinCap when you also want ranked asset listings and per-asset markets

Alternative

CoinMarketCap API

Authoritative rankings and market cap data alongside pricing

Choose CoinMarketCap when you need its rankings methodology and broader market metrics

FAQs

Specific to using Coinlayer API through Jentic.

What authentication does the Coinlayer API use?

Coinlayer uses an API access key sent as the access_key query parameter on every request. Through Jentic, the key is stored in the encrypted vault and the agent receives a scoped execution token rather than the raw access_key.

Can I get historical crypto exchange rates with Coinlayer?

Yes. GET /historical accepts a date in YYYY-MM-DD format and one or more symbols, returning the rates for that date. For a continuous range, use GET /timeframe with start_date and end_date instead.

What are the rate limits for the Coinlayer API?

Coinlayer's monthly request quota and feature access depend on the plan tier (Free, Basic, Professional, Enterprise). The OpenAPI spec does not declare per-endpoint rate limits — see the Coinlayer pricing page for the cap on your tier.

How do I convert crypto to fiat through Jentic?

Install the SDK with pip install jentic, search Jentic for convert cryptocurrency to fiat, load the schema for GET /convert, and execute with the from, to, and amount parameters.

Is the live endpoint available on the free Coinlayer plan?

Yes — the /live endpoint is available on the free tier, while /historical, /timeframe, /change, and /convert are typically reserved for paid tiers. Confirm against your active plan in the Coinlayer dashboard.

Which currencies can I use as targets for conversion?

Call GET /list to retrieve the full set of supported coins and target currencies (fiat and crypto). The same target codes can then be passed to /live, /historical, /timeframe, and /convert.