# Bithumb Open API vs Bybit

> Bybit scores 57.3 (C) to Bithumb Open's 50.6 (D) for exchange market data. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bithumb-vs-bybit
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bithumb-vs-bybit.md (~3,600 tokens)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (the key docs and every listing in one file, at most 16 MB, about 4 million tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (the whole catalogue as tools, no key)
- DNS: dig +short TXT <slug>.grade.anchorterminal.com (the grade as a DNS TXT record, for a sandbox with no HTTP where names still resolve; also top., best.<category>. and <a>.vs.<b>. under the zone, and the same under grade.letme.dev)
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)
- Updated: 2026-11-03

Bybit scores 57.3 (C) on agent readiness against Bithumb Open API's 50.6 (D), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Both do exchange market data.

- Bithumb Open API: grade D, 50.6/100, rank #999 of 1349. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/bithumb.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/bithumb.json
- Bybit: grade C, 57.3/100, rank #745 of 1349. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/bybit.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/bybit.json
- Best crypto exchange APIs and MCP servers for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/crypto-exchanges/index.md
- All 210 exchanges comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crypto-exchanges/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Bithumb Open API (D)

Good for: KRW-market trading for agents acting for a verified Korean account, with a vendor-built MCP server, CLI and skills.

Watch for: No sandbox or testnet; every order uses real funds

### Bybit (C)

Good for: An agent trading spot, perpetuals, futures and options in a person's Bybit account outside the excluded jurisdictions, with a demo environment to rehearse on.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 45 against 34
- Schema & documentation, 73 against 64
- Payments & pricing, 40 against 15

Watch for: No status page, incident history or SLA was found; the terms say the API is not guaranteed to be available


## Why the edge

### Payments & pricing: Bybit +25

- Bithumb Open API (15): No machine payment protocol (0). The fee page timed out on every attempt, so no price is recorded (0 of 20, unchecked). Public market data needs no key, card or account; trading needs a verified Korean account. Judgement call (15 of 20). A person must sign up, pass identity checks and issue keys in the browser (0). 0 + 0 + 15 + 0 = 15.
- Bybit (40): No machine payment protocol (0). The fee schedule is public without login, with VIP 0 maker and taker rates per product and the tier criteria (20). Reading market data needs no key and the demo environment costs nothing, no card is asked for at sign-up (20). A person must register, pass identity verification and mint the key in a browser (0). 40.

### Reliability: Bybit +11

- Bithumb Open API (34): Read with the hosted lines. No status page found on apidocs.bithumb.com or in llms.txt; wallet-status and notices endpoints stand in (0). No readable incident history, though two notices record a public WebSocket interruption and a brief service break (5). Rate limits documented per category with numbers, updated 27 October 2026 (15). A breach is described only as a temporary restriction, with no status code, header or Retry-After, and no client order id or idempotency key is documented; 422 order_not_ready and 500 server_error say to retry later (4 of 15). No SLA found (0). The API is generally available; the MCP server and CLI are at 0.8.5 (10). 0 + 5 + 15 + 4 + 0 + 10 = 34.
- Bybit (45): Graded with the hosted lines on the V5 API at api.bybit.com. No status page found (status.bybit.com does not resolve, the docs link none), so 0 for the page and 5 for no readable history. Rate limits are published per endpoint and per UID with numbers, plus a 600 per 5 second IP limit (15). Every response carries X-Bapi-Limit, X-Bapi-Limit-Status and X-Bapi-Limit-Reset-Timestamp, retCode 10006 and HTTP 403 are documented with a wait rule, and orders take a unique orderLinkId that amend and cancel accept (15). No SLA (0). V5 is the current production API, not a beta (10). 45.

### Schema & documentation: Bybit +9

- Bithumb Open API (64): No OpenAPI found; the reference is a readme.io site with Markdown twins, and the MCP tool schemas weren't read since the server's source isn't published (5 of 25). llms.txt on apidocs.bithumb.com (10). Reference pages state purpose and the skills say when to use each module and when not to (15 of 20). Typed parameters with enums for side, order type and time in force (10 of 15). Examples in several languages and an error-code page with names, statuses and meanings (12 of 15). Versions per endpoint (v1, v2, v2.1.5) and notices with effective dates (12 of 15). 5 + 10 + 15 + 10 + 12 + 12 = 64.
- Bybit (73): No OpenAPI or other machine-readable contract for the REST API; the MCP server's 398 tools have zod schemas turned into JSON Schema, so the contract exists for the MCP surface only (12 of 25). No llms.txt; the docs are a public Docusaurus repository (bybit-exchange/docs) whose MDX source an agent can read (5 of 10). The MCP tool descriptions state purpose, rules and an agent hint per tool, and the API reference gives one page per endpoint (15 of 20). Parameters are typed with enums such as category and orderType and required flags (12 of 15). Request and response examples on each endpoint page and an error code page of about 750 codes with text (14 of 15). A dated changelog with 24 entries in the last 90 days, versioned V3 to V5 (15). 73.

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Bithumb Open API | Bybit | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 34 | 45 | Bybit +11 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 64 | 73 | Bybit +9 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 67 | 66 | Bithumb Open API +1 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 60 | 60 | even |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 15 | 40 | Bybit +25 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 69 | 66 | Bithumb Open API +3 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 47 | 51 | Bybit +4 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **50.6 · D** | **57.3 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Bithumb Open API | Bybit |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Bithumb Co., Ltd. | Bybit |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports | stdio | stdio |
| Auth | API key | API key |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Pay per use |
| x402 | no | no |
| Tools exposed | 41 | 398 |
| Read-only variant documented | yes | yes |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| Last release | 2026-10-13 | 2026-10-30 |
| Terms last updated | couldn't be read | couldn't be read |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | couldn't be read |
| Customer content may train models | couldn't be read | couldn't be read |
| Terms restrict automated access | couldn't be read | couldn't be read |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | couldn't be read | couldn't be read |
| Terms or service can change without notice | couldn't be read | couldn't be read |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | couldn't be read | couldn't be read |
| Popularity | 6 stars | 43 stars |

## Verdicts

**Bithumb Open API.** Bithumb runs an official local MCP server with 41 tools, module selection and a read-only flag, beside a CLI with per-profile read-only gating and six agent skills, over an API with scoped one-year keys and a mandatory IP list. There is no sandbox, no status page, no documented 429 behaviour, and the fees and terms couldn't be read.

**Bybit.** Bybit publishes per-endpoint rate limits, a demo environment, scoped keys with a read-only flag and IP binding, and an official stdio MCP server whose 398 tools carry read-only and destructive annotations. There is no status page, no OpenAPI file, no SLA, the MCP server has no toolsets, and the global terms and privacy pages are drawn by script.

## Before you call either

### Bithumb Open API

1. Ask for a key with asset and order inquiry plus order placement only, never withdrawals, with your IP registered; keys expire after one year and a wrong IP answers 401 NotAllowIP
2. Start the server with `--modules market,account,trade --read-only` for analysis and drop `--read-only` only when the person asks to trade; deposit and withdraw modules stay off
3. Prefer the `bithumb` CLI for writes, as the skills do, and check `bithumb config show --json` for a read-only profile before any order
4. Keep the ticker's markets parameter at 200 or fewer, batch orders at 30 and cancels at 30 per request, and stay under 140 private calls a second per category
5. Retry 422 order_not_ready and 500 server_error after a pause; there is no sandbox, so start with the smallest order the market allows

### Bybit

1. Create a key with only the permission groups the task needs, set readOnly for research keys, leave Withdraw off and bind an IP, or the key expires after 90 days
2. Send a unique orderLinkId on every order and reuse it when amending or cancelling, since create-order is asynchronous and confirmed over WebSocket
3. Read X-Bapi-Limit-Status before bursts and wait until X-Bapi-Limit-Reset-Timestamp on retCode 10006; on HTTP 403 stop all sessions for at least 10 minutes
4. Test on api-demo.bybit.com with a demo key from the production account, not on testnet demo mode, which the docs call meaningless
5. Run the MCP server with BYBIT_TESTNET=true first, and only in a client that shows a per-call approval, because the server has no read-only mode of its own

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Bithumb Open API or Bybit?

Bybit scores 57.3 (C) on agent readiness against Bithumb Open API's 50.6 (D), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories.

### Do Bithumb Open API and Bybit need an API key?

Both need an API key.

### Can an agent call Bithumb Open API and Bybit without installing anything?

Bithumb Open API runs on your own machine, with no hosted endpoint listed. Bybit runs on your own machine, with no hosted endpoint listed.


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bithumb-vs-bybit.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bithumb-vs-bybit.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "bithumb", "b": "bybit"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare bithumb bybit`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/bithumb.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/bybit.json

## Other comparisons with Bithumb Open API or Bybit

- [Bitfinex API vs Bithumb Open API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bitfinex-vs-bithumb.md)
- [Bitfinex API vs Bybit](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bitfinex-vs-bybit.md)
- [Bitget vs Bithumb Open API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bitget-vs-bithumb.md)
- [Bitget vs Bybit](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bitget-vs-bybit.md)
- [Bithumb Open API vs Bitstamp API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bithumb-vs-bitstamp.md)
- [Bithumb Open API vs Coinbase Advanced Trade API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bithumb-vs-coinbase-advanced-trade.md)
- [Bithumb Open API vs Coinbase MCP server (Coinbase for Agents)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bithumb-vs-coinbase-mcp.md)
- [Bithumb Open API vs Crypto.com Exchange API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bithumb-vs-crypto-com-exchange.md)
- [Bithumb Open API vs Deribit](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bithumb-vs-deribit.md)
- [Bithumb Open API vs dYdX](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bithumb-vs-dydx.md)
- [Bithumb Open API vs Gate](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bithumb-vs-gate-io.md)
- [Bithumb Open API vs Gemini Exchange API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bithumb-vs-gemini-exchange.md)
- [Bithumb Open API vs HTX trading API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bithumb-vs-htx.md)
- [Bithumb Open API vs Hyperliquid](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bithumb-vs-hyperliquid.md)
- [Bithumb Open API vs Kraken API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bithumb-vs-kraken.md)
- [Bithumb Open API vs KuCoin](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bithumb-vs-kucoin.md)
- [Bithumb Open API vs MEXC API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bithumb-vs-mexc.md)
- [Bithumb Open API vs OKX API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bithumb-vs-okx.md)
- [Bithumb Open API vs Uniswap Trading API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bithumb-vs-uniswap.md)
- [Bithumb Open API vs Upbit Open API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bithumb-vs-upbit.md)
- [Bitstamp API vs Bybit](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bitstamp-vs-bybit.md)
- [Bybit vs Coinbase Advanced Trade API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bybit-vs-coinbase-advanced-trade.md)
- [Bybit vs Coinbase MCP server (Coinbase for Agents)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bybit-vs-coinbase-mcp.md)
- [Bybit vs Crypto.com Exchange API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bybit-vs-crypto-com-exchange.md)
- [Bybit vs Deribit](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bybit-vs-deribit.md)
- [Bybit vs dYdX](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bybit-vs-dydx.md)
- [Bybit vs Gate](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bybit-vs-gate-io.md)
- [Bybit vs Gemini Exchange API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bybit-vs-gemini-exchange.md)
- [Bybit vs HTX trading API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bybit-vs-htx.md)
- [Bybit vs Hyperliquid](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bybit-vs-hyperliquid.md)
- [Bybit vs Kraken API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bybit-vs-kraken.md)
- [Bybit vs KuCoin](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bybit-vs-kucoin.md)
- [Bybit vs MEXC API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bybit-vs-mexc.md)
- [Bybit vs OKX API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bybit-vs-okx.md)
- [Bybit vs Uniswap Trading API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bybit-vs-uniswap.md)
- [Bybit vs Upbit Open API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bybit-vs-upbit.md)
- [Binance API vs Bithumb Open API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/binance-vs-bithumb.md)
- [Binance API vs Bybit](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/binance-vs-bybit.md)

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Query this catalogue directly over MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (Streamable HTTP, no key). How: https://www.anchorterminal.com/agents/#mcp