canonical: https://jentic.com/apis/coinmarketcap.com/coinmarketcap

# CoinMarketCap API

Jentic publishes the only available OpenAPI specification for CoinMarketCap API, keeping it validated and agent-ready. CoinMarketCap is the most widely cited cryptocurrency rankings and market cap source - the Pro API exposes 23 endpoints covering listings, quotes (latest and historical), OHLCV candles, market pairs, exchange data, global metrics, trending coins, categories, fiat mappings, and a price conversion tool. Trading platforms, news sites, and analytics tools rely on it for benchmark pricing.

## For AI agents

Look up authoritative crypto rankings, prices, OHLCV history, exchange data, and global market metrics across thousands of assets through CoinMarketCap's Pro API.

## Scope

Does not handle order placement, wallet management, or on-chain transactions - use for crypto rankings, quotes, OHLCV, and global metrics only.

## Capabilities

- Retrieve latest and historical listings of cryptocurrencies ranked by market cap
- Pull latest and historical price quotes for one or many coins in any supported quote currency
- Fetch OHLCV candles for cryptocurrencies over chosen time intervals
- Browse market pairs for a coin to see where it trades and at what volumes
- List exchanges and look up per-exchange info, listings, and quotes
- Retrieve global market metrics including total market cap and BTC dominance
- Surface trending coins, top gainers and losers, and convert amounts between two currencies

## Use cases

### Authoritative Rankings and Market Cap Display

Render the canonical ranked list of cryptocurrencies by market cap that users recognise from coinmarketcap.com. The /v1/cryptocurrency/listings/latest endpoint returns paginated coins with rank, price, market cap, and 24-hour change. Useful for explorers, exchanges, and market overview pages.

Example prompt: Call GET /v1/cryptocurrency/listings/latest with limit=100 and convert=USD and return the ranked list

### OHLCV-Based Charting

Render OHLCV candles for a coin over chosen intervals using the v2 OHLCV endpoints. Supply latest or historical date ranges to power line and candlestick charts in trading dashboards or research tools.

Example prompt: Call GET /v2/cryptocurrency/ohlcv/historical with id, time_start, time_end, and interval=daily and return the candle series

### Trending and Discovery Feeds

Power discovery surfaces (newsletter highlights, homepage carousels, alert feeds) using the trending and gainers-losers endpoints. They return short ranked lists CoinMarketCap publishes itself, so the data matches what readers see on the site.

Example prompt: Call GET /v1/cryptocurrency/trending/gainers-losers with time_period=24h and return the top five gainers

### AI Market Briefing Agent via Jentic

Build an agent that produces a daily crypto market briefing using CoinMarketCap data through Jentic. The agent expresses an intent (give me a market briefing); Jentic resolves the right combination of listings, global metrics, and trending endpoints, then executes them with stored credentials. Cost-aware for assistants needing authoritative pricing without managing the X-CMC_PRO_API_KEY secret in agent context.

Example prompt: Through Jentic, fetch global metrics, top 10 listings, and top 5 gainers in 24h, then return a brief market summary

## Key endpoints

| Method | Path | Description |
| --- | --- | --- |
| GET | /v1/cryptocurrency/listings/latest | List ranked coins by market cap |
| GET | /v2/cryptocurrency/quotes/latest | Get latest price quotes for one or many coins |
| GET | /v2/cryptocurrency/ohlcv/historical | Retrieve historical OHLCV candles |
| GET | /v1/cryptocurrency/market-pairs/latest | List market pairs for a coin |
| GET | /v1/global-metrics/quotes/latest | Get global crypto market metrics |
| GET | /v1/cryptocurrency/trending/gainers-losers | Get top gainers and losers |
| GET | /v1/tools/price-conversion | Convert an amount between two currencies |

## Key resources

- **Cryptocurrency** — Map, info, listings, quotes, OHLCV, market pairs, categories, and trending
- **Exchange** — Exchange map, info, listings, and quotes
- **Global Metrics** — Aggregated market metrics latest and historical
- **Tools** — Price conversion utility
- **Fiat** — Supported fiat currency mapping
- **Key** — API key usage and limits

## Why Jentic

- **Setup:** Wiring CoinMarketCap by hand means setting the X-CMC_PRO_API_KEY header on the pro-api.coinmarketcap.com host and handling credit-based rate limits and pagination across its listings, quotes, and OHLCV endpoints yourself. Through Jentic you install once, import CoinMarketCap from the API Directory, store the key once, and your agent calls it.
- **Permission scoping:** CoinMarketCap serves read-only rankings and quotes, so you scope by choosing the operations the agent may call: limit it to what it needs, such as reading latest listings or a price conversion, and heavier calls like historical OHLCV are not included unless you add them.
- **Credential handling:** Your CoinMarketCap Pro API key is stored once, encrypted, by your own Jentic One instance and set on the request at execution time. It never enters the agent's prompt, logs, or context.
- **Discovery method:** Agents search Jentic by intent such as 'get top crypto by market cap' or 'convert a price between currencies', and Jentic returns the matching CoinMarketCap operation with its input schema so the agent calls the right endpoint without browsing the reference docs.

## Related APIs

- **CoinGecko API** — Closest competitor with broader free-tier coverage and DeFi data
- **CoinAPI Market Data REST API** — Per-exchange OHLCV, trades, and order book data with normalized symbology
- **CoinCap API** — Lightweight free crypto pricing without market cap rankings

## FAQ

### Why is there no official OpenAPI spec for CoinMarketCap API?

CoinMarketCap publishes interactive Pro API documentation but does not distribute a machine-readable OpenAPI specification. Jentic generates and maintains this spec so that AI agents and developers can call CoinMarketCap API via structured tooling. It is validated against the live API and kept up to date. Get started with Jentic One, the self-hosted execution layer.

### What authentication does the CoinMarketCap API use?

The Pro API requires an API key sent in the X-CMC_PRO_API_KEY header. Through Jentic, the key is stored in the encrypted vault and the agent receives a scoped execution token rather than the raw key string.

### Can I retrieve historical OHLCV candles with the CoinMarketCap API?

Yes. GET /v2/cryptocurrency/ohlcv/historical accepts an id or symbol along with time_start, time_end, and interval (e.g. daily, weekly), returning OHLCV records suitable for charting and backtesting.

### What are the rate limits for the CoinMarketCap API?

CoinMarketCap charges in monthly call credits and per-minute throughput that depend on the plan tier (Basic, Hobbyist, Startup, Standard, Professional, Enterprise). The OpenAPI spec does not declare exact thresholds; check your plan and call /v1/key/info to see the current usage.

### How do I convert an amount between two currencies through Jentic?

Install the SDK with pip install jentic, search Jentic for convert cryptocurrency amount, load the schema for GET /v1/tools/price-conversion, and execute with amount, symbol, and convert parameters.

### Does the API expose CoinMarketCap categories and tags?

Yes. GET /v1/cryptocurrency/categories returns all category groupings, and GET /v1/cryptocurrency/category returns the coins inside a specific category - useful for thematic dashboards (DeFi, gaming, layer-1 etc.).

### Can I limit what my agent is allowed to do with the CoinMarketCap API?

Yes. Because you run Jentic One yourself, you decide which CoinMarketCap operations your agent may call, so you can allow only what a task needs, such as reading the latest market-cap listings or running a price conversion. The API is read-only, so scoping is about picking operations rather than write access, and heavier calls like historical OHLCV candles stay off limits until you explicitly add them. Your Pro API key is set on the request at execution time and never enters the agent's prompt or logs.