Head to head · Exchange market data · October 2026 research run
Bitstamp API vs Bybit
Bybit scores 57.3 (C) on agent readiness against Bitstamp API's 50.4 (D), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Bitstamp API leads on reliability. Both do exchange market data.
Best crypto exchange APIs and MCP servers for AI agents · All 210 exchanges comparisons
Which one, for what
Best for An agent that needs a long-running regulated spot venue in the EU, UK and US with a sandbox and per-endpoint key permissions, and can do its own signing.
Ahead on
- Reliability, 63 against 45
Watch for
No official MCP server, SDK, llms.txt or OpenAPI file; the registry's Bitstamp servers are third parties proxying public market data
Bybit C
Best 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
- Schema & documentation, 73 against 51
- Agent ergonomics, 66 against 58
- Payments & pricing, 40 against 20
- Maintenance & community, 66 against 28
Also in its favour
- Runs on your own machine
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
Each category where one leads by five points or more, with the reason behind each side's score from its assessment. The numbers are in the table below; this is what they stand for.
Maintenance & community Bybit +38
Bitstamp API 28
Read as a closed service. The last dated API change is 28 August 2026, 67 days before the check (20). Only one dated entry in the last 90 days, after 1 July and 12 June (0). No public repository or issue tracker, support pages did not load and support.bitstamp.net did not resolve; a changelog exists (8 of 25). No official SDKs and no MCP registry presence of Bitstamp's own (0). No package to assess (0). 20 + 0 + 8 + 0 + 0 = 28.
Bybit 66
Read as a hosted service with an open-source MCP server. The MCP package shipped 2.1.26 on 30 October 2026 and the V5 changelog's latest entry is 29 October (30). 31 npm versions since 16 April 2026, 11 of them in the last 90 days, and 24 changelog entries in the same window (20). The trading-mcp repository has 4 open issues and 18 forks; whether issues get answers was not checked, and the API has no public forum we could read (10 of 25). Not in the official MCP registry (0). The package has four dependencies, no install scripts, a publish workflow and no test workflow (6 of 10). 66.
Schema & documentation Bybit +22
Bitstamp API 51
No OpenAPI or other machine-readable contract was found on the API page or elsewhere (0). No llms.txt or Markdown docs (0). The single documentation page describes each endpoint's purpose and parameters, with notes such as the 10-second cache on open orders and the Travel Rule fields, but not when to use one endpoint over another (14 of 20). Parameters are typed with enumerations (margin mode CROSS or ISOLATED, margin multiplier 1 to 25, order types) and required fields marked (11 of 15). Signing examples in Python, Java and C++, and error families with numbered codes and explanations (13 of 15). Version v2 in the path and header, a dated changelog from 7 April 2023 to 28 August 2026, and a 410.001 code for deprecated endpoints, with no stated notice period (13 of 15). 0 + 0 + 14 + 11 + 13 + 13 = 51.
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.
Payments & pricing Bybit +20
Bitstamp API 20
No machine payment protocol (0). The fee schedule page loaded empty, the API's fee endpoints need a key, and no rate could be read, so fees are scored as not published (0, unchecked). The API is free, public endpoints need no key and the sandbox needs no money (20). A person must sign up in a browser with identity checks and mint the key (0). 0 + 0 + 20 + 0 = 20.
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 Bitstamp API +18
Bitstamp API 63
Read with the hosted lines on the HTTP API v2 at www.bitstamp.net/api/v2/. status.bitstamp.net is a Statuspage site with component history (20). Its feed for 5 August to 3 November 2026 has 17 entries, among them withdrawals failing on 14 networks for about 3 hours on 21 August, database maintenance with login failures and intermittent trading interruptions for about 1 hour 44 minutes on 23 September, a 39-minute halt of all markets on 5 August, and delistings and single-asset suspensions. One major (10). Rate limits with numbers, 400 a second and 10,000 per 10 minutes (15). Limit errors are named (400.002, 400.067, 400.068) but there is no Retry-After or backoff guidance, duplicate client order ids are allowed, and the only retry guidance is to check the order after a 500.016 timeout (8 of 15). No SLA found (0). Generally available (10). 20 + 10 + 15 + 8 + 0 + 10 = 63.
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.
Agent ergonomics Bybit +8
Bitstamp API 58
Graded on the REST API. Order book grouping and transaction time windows size responses, but there is no field selection and no MCP surface (15 of 25). Offset, limit, since and sort on transaction history, until_id windows on order-data replay (14 of 20). response_code and response_explanation name the failure, such as 400.009 insufficient balance, 403.004 trading blocked and 500.025 insufficient liquidity (16 of 20). No idempotency, since client_order_id duplicates are allowed since November 2023 and the docs say only to check the order id after a timeout; the kill switch limits damage (8 of 20). Few required parameters, but no official SDK in any language (5 of 15). 15 + 14 + 16 + 8 + 5 = 58.
Bybit 66
Read for the API with the MCP server beside it. The MCP server has 398 tools in one list with no toolset, module or read-only switch (5 of 25, nothing added back). V5 reads take limit and cursor and category filters (15 of 20). retCode and retMsg on every response with a code list an agent can branch on, though create-order answers before the order is final and the docs say to confirm over WebSocket (14 of 20). orderLinkId makes order retries safe and every MCP tool carries readOnlyHint and destructiveHint (17 of 20). Five required fields on an order, official SDKs in Python, Go, Java and .NET (15). 66.
Score by category
| Category | Weight this run | Bitstamp API | Bybit | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reliability | 16%20 | 63 | 45 | Bitstamp API +18 |
| Performance | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13%16.2 | 51 | 73 | Bybit +22 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13%16.2 | 58 | 66 | Bybit +8 |
| Security & auth | 14%17.5 | 60 | 60 | even |
| Payments & pricing | 10%12.5 | 20 | 40 | Bybit +20 |
| Task success | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7%8.8 | 28 | 66 | Bybit +38 |
| Transparency & trust | 7%8.8 | 53 | 51 | Bitstamp API +2 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| Total | D 50.4/100 | C 57.3/100 |
Facts side by side
| Fact | Bitstamp API | Bybit |
|---|---|---|
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Bitstamp Ltd. | Bybit |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports | stdio | |
| Auth | API key | API key |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Pay per use |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary hosted API under Bitstamp's terms of use, which our reader couldn't load | none |
| Tools exposed | none | 398 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | yes |
| llms.txt | no | no |
| Last release | 2026-08-28 | 2026-10-30 |
| Terms last updated | couldn't be read | couldn't be read |
| Privacy policy last updated | couldn't be read | 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 | none | 43 stars |
Verdicts
Bitstamp API
Bitstamp documents its v2 API on one static page with numeric rate limits, per-endpoint key permissions, an IP allow-list, a kill switch and a sandbox. There is no official MCP server, duplicate client order ids are allowed, and the fee schedule, terms, privacy policy and country list render by script and could not 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
Bitstamp API
- Mint a key with only the endpoint permissions the task needs and an IP allow-list; keep
revoke_all_api_keysin reach as a kill switch - Treat
client_order_idas a label, not a guard. On a timeout (500.016) fetch the order by client id before resending, because duplicates are accepted - Use a fresh 36-character nonce and a timestamp within 150 seconds of server time on every request, or expect API0004 and API0017
- Stay under 400 requests a second and 10,000 per 10 minutes; 400.002 and 400.067 mean back off, and open-orders answers are cached for 10 seconds
- Start on sandbox.bitstamp.net with the same paths, and read the fee schedule in a browser before quoting costs, since it is unreadable to a plain fetch
Bybit
- 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
- Send a unique orderLinkId on every order and reuse it when amending or cancelling, since create-order is asynchronous and confirmed over WebSocket
- 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
- Test on api-demo.bybit.com with a demo key from the production account, not on testnet demo mode, which the docs call meaningless
- 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, Bitstamp API or Bybit?
Bybit scores 57.3 (C) on agent readiness against Bitstamp API's 50.4 (D), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Bitstamp API leads on reliability.
Do Bitstamp API and Bybit need an API key?
Both need an API key.
Can an agent call Bitstamp API and Bybit without installing anything?
No hosted endpoint is listed for Bitstamp API. Bybit runs on your own machine, with no hosted endpoint listed.
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Machine-readable
- This page as Markdown
/compare/bitstamp-vs-bybit.md· slim.min.md· JSON.json(or sendAccept: text/markdown) - Each listing in full
/api/v1/tools/bitstamp.json·/api/v1/tools/bybit.json - From a terminal
anchor compare bitstamp bybit(the CLI) - Over MCP
compare_tools {"a": "bitstamp", "b": "bybit"}at/mcp, no key