# Coinbase Advanced Trade API vs dYdX

> dYdX scores 69.5 (B) to Coinbase Advanced Trade's 61.7 (C) for exchange derivatives. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/coinbase-advanced-trade-vs-dydx
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/coinbase-advanced-trade-vs-dydx.md (~5,400 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: 2026-11-04

dYdX scores 69.5 (B) on agent readiness against Coinbase Advanced Trade API's 61.7 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Coinbase Advanced Trade API leads on schema & documentation, agent ergonomics and transparency & trust. Both do exchange derivatives.

- Coinbase Advanced Trade API: grade C, 61.7/100, rank #537 of 1349. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/coinbase-advanced-trade.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/coinbase-advanced-trade.json
- dYdX: grade B, 69.5/100, rank #222 of 1349. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/dydx.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/dydx.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

### Coinbase Advanced Trade API (C)

Good for: An agent trading a person's or a treasury's Coinbase account with its own key, where the person wants sandbox tests and portfolio scoping.

Ahead on:
- Schema & documentation, 80 against 58
- Agent ergonomics, 73 against 66
- Transparency & trust, 67 against 50

Also in its favour:
- Free to start without a card

Watch for: No REST rate limit numbers found; the old rate-limits page answers 404 and only the WebSocket limit of 8 per second per IP is published

### dYdX (B)

Good for: An agent trading perpetuals from its own Cosmos wallet or through a permissioned key on an owner's account, outside the US, Canada and UK.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 83 against 58
- Security & auth, 78 against 68
- Payments & pricing, 60 against 20
- Maintenance & community, 83 against 57

Also in its favour:
- Open source

Watch for: No official MCP server; the one registry entry is a third party's analytics server


## Why the edge

### Payments & pricing: dYdX +40

- Coinbase Advanced Trade API (20): No machine payment protocol on the API (0). The fee schedule answered a bot check on 3 November 2026, so no per-trade price was read, and the docs give none (0 of 20, unchecked). Six public market endpoints and the sandbox need no key or card (20). A person signs up, passes verification and mints a key in the portal (0). 0 + 0 + 20 + 0 = 20.
- dYdX (60): No machine payment protocol (0). Fees public per tier without login (20). Testnet with a faucet and no card anywhere (20). No signup; an agent with a funded wallet trades, subject to the geographic terms (20). Total 60.

### Maintenance & community: dYdX +26

- Coinbase Advanced Trade API (57): Read as a closed hosted service. The last change to the API itself is the Global Derivatives gateway and INTX retirement of 1 October 2026, 33 days before this check; the Python SDK's v2.0.0rc1 is from 30 September (20 of 30). Dated changes in 90 days are the 1 October migration and the agents entries of 17 and 21 August, which run through Advanced Trade (12 of 20). A public changelog and a CDP Discord; SDK issues not read (8 of 15). Official Python SDK current, the rest samples (12 of 15). SDK CI not read (5 of 10). 20 + 12 + 8 + 12 + 5 = 57.
- dYdX (83): Read on the clients and the chain. v4-clients was pushed on 29 October 2026 and protocol v9.8.0 shipped on 12 October (30). Protocol v9.7 on 11 September, v9.8.0 on 12 October, v4-client-js tags 3.5.0 and 3.6.0, three or more in 90 days (20). A Discord, a help centre and 36 open issues on v4-clients whose replies couldn't be read (12 of 25). Official SDKs current, the TypeScript client at 3.6.0 and the Python client at 1.1.6 from February 2026 (12 of 15). CI workflows for lint, test, publish and audit, with trusted publishing and provenance on npm (9 of 10). Total 83.

### Reliability: dYdX +25

- Coinbase Advanced Trade API (58): Read with the hosted lines. status.coinbase.com is a Statuspage site with Coinbase Advanced Trade, API, US Derivatives and International Derivatives components (20). The incidents feed we could read runs from 16 September to 3 November 2026. In it Advanced Trade was degraded for 25 minutes on 21 September, the website had a 3-minute major on 14 October, converts were down 1 hour 4 minutes on 26 October, and no incident named the API; 5 August to 15 September was beyond the feed, so minor only for the seven weeks read (15 of 30). No REST rate limit with numbers was found; the older rate-limits page answers 404 and llms.txt lists none, while the WebSocket page gives 8 connections and 8 unauthenticated messages per second per IP (5 of 15). Orders take a client_order_id, but no 429 or Retry-After guidance was found for Advanced Trade (8 of 15). No SLA (0). REST and WebSocket are generally available; the Global Derivatives gateway is a month old and not marked beta (10). 20 + 15 + 5 + 8 + 0 + 10 = 58.
- dYdX (83): Read with the hosted lines on the indexer API and the chain endpoints the clients submit to. status.dydx.trade is an Atlassian Statuspage with Frontends, dYdX Chain, Indexer, Order Gateway and Client Libraries components and an RSS history (20). From 1 August to 3 November 2026 the feed has eight items, seven scheduled maintenance windows of 29 minutes to 2 hours (indexer on 9 September, 8 and 15 October, protocol v9.7 on 11 September and v9.8.0 on 12 October, WebSocket compression on 26 and 28 October) and one degraded instant-deposit path through an onboarding partner from 24 to 29 September, outside the trading API. Clean or trivial (30). Rate limits documented with numbers for the indexer, the block limits and the public nodes (15). No 429 shape or Retry-After for the indexer; short-term orders expire by `goodTilBlock` and client IDs let an agent find an order after a timeout (8 of 15). No SLA (0). Mainnet generally available; the Order Entry Gateway is marked testnet-only (10). 20 + 30 + 15 + 8 + 0 + 10 = 83.

### Schema & documentation: Coinbase Advanced Trade API +22

- Coinbase Advanced Trade API (80): Public OpenAPI 3.1 spec (45 paths, 51 operations) and an AsyncAPI document (25). llms.txt and a Markdown twin of every docs page (10). Every operation has a summary and description, some one line, several with multi-sentence guidance for equities (14 of 20). Enums on product_type, granularity, order_status, time_in_forces, order_types, order_side and sort_by, with defaults (13 of 15). Examples in the docs and the sandbox's simulated errors, but the spec documents only a default error referencing grpc.gateway.runtime.Error, with no 4xx or 429 shapes (8 of 15). Paths carry /api/v3, the CDP changelog is dated, and the INTX retirement was announced with a date, but the spec's info.version is 0.1 and the October gateway change has no changelog entry (10 of 15). 25 + 10 + 14 + 13 + 8 + 10 = 80.
- dYdX (58): No OpenAPI file found for the indexer; the docs publish a types reference of about 200 pages (OrderSide, TimeInForce, OrderStatus and the rest) and the chain's protobuf messages are in the clients (8 of 25). llms.txt and Markdown docs (10). Endpoint pages describe each call and the guides say when to use short-term against long-term orders and the indexer against the node, but descriptions are short (12 of 20). Enums and types on every field in the reference, with pagination and cursor parameters typed (11 of 15). Examples in Python, TypeScript and Rust for each step; errors are described by HTTP status (400 malformed, 404 not found) with no code list (9 of 15). A /v4 path, protocol releases dated on the status page, deprecated rate-limit fields marked, but no API changelog (8 of 15). Total 58.

### Transparency & trust: Coinbase Advanced Trade API +17

- Coinbase Advanced Trade API (67): The editorial half. A closed service whose user agreement answered a bot check; the OpenAPI spec is public and the Python SDK is open on GitHub (12 of 30). Privacy facts per the coinbase-cdp-agentkit check of 1 October 2026 (Coinbase, Inc., processing countries, retention tied to need without numbers), not re-read (10 of 30). INTX endpoints retired on 1 October 2026 with a dated notice and a read-only grace period (12 of 20). Processing countries and provider categories per the same earlier check, no subprocessor list (8 of 20). 12 + 10 + 12 + 8 = 42.
- dYdX (50): The editorial half. Clients AGPL-3.0 with a terms-bound use condition, the chain under a custom licence, two terms documents (dYdX Trading Inc.'s v4 terms of 12 March 2026 and dYdX International Ltd's of 6 June 2025) that are clear about who runs nothing (22 of 30). The privacy policy of 6 June 2025 names dYdX International Ltd, keeps technical data until no longer necessary with no periods, and names no subprocessors; nothing covers the unnamed indexer operator (12 of 30). Protocol upgrades and the WebSocket compression change were posted as dated maintenance notices, deprecated rate-limit fields are marked, but no deprecation policy or notice period is stated (10 of 20). The policy says data may be processed in the EEA and elsewhere, with no subprocessor list (6 of 20). Total 50.

### Security & auth: dYdX +10

- Coinbase Advanced Trade API (68): CDP keys with view, trade and transfer permissions, a portfolio restriction, an optional IP allowlist, revocation in the portal, ES256 JWTs that expire after 2 minutes, and OAuth2 with wallet:* scopes for other people's accounts; no key expiry (28 of 30). View-only keys and portfolio scoping limit an agent, and transfer is a separate permission, but no withdrawal address allow-list for API keys and no confirmation step were found (14 of 20). The API returns no untrusted content (10). key_permissions reports a key's scope and account activity shows in the app, but no per-call log was found (6 of 15). HackerOne bug bounty named in a security.txt that expired on 1 June 2024; certifications unread behind a bot check (10 of 20). 28 + 14 + 10 + 6 + 10 = 68.
- dYdX (78): Orders are signed by the account key or by a permissioned key the owner adds as an authenticator, limited by message type, subaccount and market with AllOf or AnyOf, and revoked by `remove_authenticator`; no shared secret and nothing in a URL (28 of 30). A key can be confined to placing and cancelling orders on one subaccount with withdrawals and transfers excluded, though not to a position or order size, and the interface's default API wallet trades all cross-margin pairs (16 of 20). The API returns no untrusted content (10). Every action is a chain transaction and the indexer lists fills, orders and transfers per subaccount, and authenticators can be listed; no per-key log (10 of 15). A Cantina bug bounty up to $1,000,000 sponsored by dYdX Trading Inc. over the protocol, indexer, web client and SDKs, an Informal Systems audit; no security.txt and no certification (14 of 20). Total 78.

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Coinbase Advanced Trade API | dYdX | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 58 | 83 | dYdX +25 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 80 | 58 | Coinbase Advanced Trade API +22 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 73 | 66 | Coinbase Advanced Trade API +7 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 68 | 78 | dYdX +10 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 20 | 60 | dYdX +40 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 57 | 83 | dYdX +26 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 67 | 50 | Coinbase Advanced Trade API +17 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **61.7 · C** | **69.5 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Coinbase Advanced Trade API | dYdX |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Coinbase, Inc. | dYdX Trading Inc. |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports |  |  |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Pay per use |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary hosted service under the Coinbase User Agreement, which answered a bot check and wasn't read. The official Python SDK coinbase-advanced-py is on GitHub | The clients are AGPL-3.0 with a use condition tied to the v4 Terms of Use; the chain software (dydxprotocol/v4-chain) carries a custom licence GitHub cannot classify. The hosted indexer at indexer.dydx.trade and the front end are run by third parties, not dYdX Trading Inc. |
| Tools exposed | none | 0 |
| Read-only variant documented | yes | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-01 | 2026-10-29 |
| Terms last updated | couldn't be read | 2026-03-12 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-05-27 | 2025-06-06 |
| Customer content may train models | couldn't be read | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | couldn't be read | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | couldn't be read | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | couldn't be read | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | couldn't be read | yes |
| Popularity | none | 119 stars, 86k npm/wk |

## Verdicts

**Coinbase Advanced Trade API.** Advanced Trade has a public OpenAPI spec, keys limited to view, trade or transfer and to one portfolio, and a keyless static sandbox. No REST rate limit is published, the fee schedule, user agreement and country list sit behind a bot check, and an agent that wants an MCP route uses the separate coinbase-mcp listing.

**dYdX.** dYdX gives an agent keyless indexer reads, permissioned keys limited by message type, subaccount and market, a Statuspage with a clean 90 days, published fees and a testnet with a faucet. There is no official MCP server or OpenAPI file, orders are chain transactions signed by the clients, and no one entity operates the hosted endpoints.

## Before you call either

### Coinbase Advanced Trade API

1. Mint a fresh ES256 JWT for every request; tokens expire after 2 minutes and Ed25519 keys are rejected
2. Send a unique client_order_id on every order and reuse it on retry so a dropped connection does not place a second order
3. Develop against api-sandbox.coinbase.com first; its responses are static, so do not read prices or fills from it
4. Use a key with view only, or trade without transfer, and restrict it to a portfolio funded for the agent
5. For perpetuals call the Global Derivatives JSON-RPC gateway at drb.coinbase.com; the /intx/* endpoints are retired

### dYdX

1. Ask the account owner for an authenticator limited to `/dydxprotocol.clob.MsgPlaceOrder` and `MsgCancelOrder` on one subaccount, and keep its private key out of prompts
2. Set a unique 32-bit `clientId` on every order and look it up on `/v4/orders` after a timeout; short-term orders expire with `goodTilBlock` (at most 20 blocks ahead)
3. Stay under 2 stateful orders a block and 20 per 100 blocks; failed placements count, so use short-term orders for active trading
4. Enable permessage-deflate on the indexer WebSocket; since 26 October 2026 connections without compression may be refused with 426
5. Check `/v4/geo` and the compliance screen before trading for a person, since the terms exclude the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Coinbase Advanced Trade API or dYdX?

dYdX scores 69.5 (B) on agent readiness against Coinbase Advanced Trade API's 61.7 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Coinbase Advanced Trade API leads on schema & documentation, agent ergonomics and transparency & trust.

### Do Coinbase Advanced Trade API and dYdX need an API key?

Both take an API key or an OAuth sign-in.

### Can an agent call Coinbase Advanced Trade API and dYdX without installing anything?

No hosted endpoint is listed for Coinbase Advanced Trade API. No hosted endpoint is listed for dYdX.

### Are Coinbase Advanced Trade API and dYdX open source?

No open-source release is listed for Coinbase Advanced Trade API. dYdX is open source (The clients are AGPL-3.0 with a use condition tied to the v4 Terms of Use; the chain software (dydxprotocol/v4-chain) carries a custom licence GitHub cannot classify. The hosted indexer at indexer.dydx.trade and the front end are run by third parties, not dYdX Trading Inc.).


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with Coinbase Advanced Trade API or dYdX

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