Head to head · Exchange spot trading · October 2026 research run

Coinbase MCP server (Coinbase for Agents) vs Deribit

Coinbase MCP server (Coinbase for Agents) scores 60 (C) on agent readiness against Deribit's 59 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Deribit leads on schema & documentation, agent ergonomics and maintenance & community. Both do exchange spot trading.

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Which one, for what

Coinbase MCP server (Coinbase for Agents) C

Best for An agent acting in a person's own Coinbase account, trading spot crypto, US futures and eligible US stocks and paying for market research by x402.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 55 against 45
  • Security & auth, 70 against 62
  • Payments & pricing, 40 against 25
  • Transparency & trust, 62 against 46

Also in its favour

  • A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install
  • Runs on your own machine

Watch for

Only clients Coinbase has allowlisted can connect; other agents need the local CLI and a CDP API key

Deribit C

Best for An agent trading crypto options, dated futures and perpetuals for an institutional or retail Deribit account, and anyone migrated from Coinbase International Exchange.

Ahead on

  • Schema & documentation, 88 against 65
  • Agent ergonomics, 74 against 66
  • Maintenance & community, 65 against 58

Watch for

No official MCP server, and the GitHub organisation has no public repositories, so no official SDK in any language

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.

Schema & documentation Deribit +23

Coinbase MCP server (Coinbase for Agents) 65

No public tool manifest. tools/list answered 401 without a token, so the JSON Schema of the 29 tools couldn't be read. The docs say the tool schemas carry field descriptions and enums, and the companion CLI's bundled command spec types every parameter. Judgement call (10 of 25). llms.txt, a Markdown twin of every docs page and a self-contained setup guide written for agents (10). The docs give one line per tool, and the guide has a routing matrix saying which tools to use or avoid for spot, equities and futures, but the tool descriptions as served weren't read (12 of 20). Enums and constraints are described for sessions, order types and sizes, not verified on the server (8 of 15). Order and x402 examples, and two error tables with cause and fix for 401, 403 Missing required scopes, PERMISSION_DENIED, MISSING_FIELDS, INVALID_VALUE, INVALID_FORMAT and x402 failures (13 of 15). Dated Coinbase for Agents entries in the CDP changelog and a versioned guide (0.2.3), but no server version is published and the October changes have no changelog entry (12 of 15).

Deribit 88

OpenAPI 3.0.0 for the whole JSON-RPC surface (Deribit API 2.1.1, about 1.4 million characters) plus AsyncAPI files for the WebSocket side (25). llms.txt with production and upcoming indexes, and a Markdown twin of every page (10). Each operation has a description such as "Places a buy order for an instrument." with parameter notes, and the articles say when to use WebSocket subscriptions over polling, but the reference seldom says when not to use a method (13 of 20). Parameters are typed with enums (order type has eight values, time_in_force four) and required flags, with amount or contracts as a documented either-or (13 of 15). Every reference page carries an example request and response, and the errors page lists about 159 codes with retry guidance, though most operations document only a 200 response and the smaller error tables disagree with the full one on two codes (12 of 15). A versioned path (/api/v2), a production and an upcoming docs branch, and a dated changelog of 64 entries since 21 January 2020 (15). Total 88.

Transparency & trust Coinbase MCP server (Coinbase for Agents) +16

Coinbase MCP server (Coinbase for Agents) 62

The editorial half. A closed hosted service. The docs carry a disclaimer that the person is responsible for every trade an agent makes, but name no terms for agent access, and the Coinbase User Agreement answered a bot check and wasn't read. The CLI is MIT on npm (10 of 30). Per the coinbase-cdp-agentkit check of 1 October 2026, the privacy policy (updated 27 May 2026) names Coinbase, Inc., lists processing countries and ties retention to need without numbers; nothing specific to MCP calls or the feedback tool's screening was found (12 of 30). No deprecation policy or notice period for the server or its tools (0). Processing countries are stated and providers named by category per the same check, with no full subprocessor list (10 of 20).

Deribit 46

The editorial half. A closed service whose terms (Deribit FZE membership terms and DRB Panama Inc. terms) sit on a support site that answered 403, with the entity confirmed on VARA's register (12 of 30). The privacy policy was not read, and nothing in the docs states retention (0 of 30). The changelog marks deprecations and the upcoming docs branch previews the next release, but removals such as public/get_index on 25 November 2025 carry no notice period (10 of 20). No subprocessor or data-location statement found (0 of 20). Total 22.

Payments & pricing Coinbase MCP server (Coinbase for Agents) +15

Coinbase MCP server (Coinbase for Agents) 40

Read the way coinbase-cdp-agentkit was. The server pays x402 as a buyer from the account's USDC balance and its own endpoint isn't paid per call, so the paying-as-a-buyer step (15 of 40). No price for the server itself; trades carry Advanced Trade fees, whose schedule on coinbase.com we couldn't read past a bot check, and x402 prices are advisory and shown only after sign-in (10 of 20). Connecting and reading prices and portfolios cost nothing and need no card, but anything beyond reads needs a verified and funded Coinbase account. Judgement call (15 of 20). A person must sign in to Coinbase in a browser and approve the grant, and only allowlisted clients can register (0).

Deribit 25

No machine payment protocol (0). The fee schedule is on support.deribit.com, which answered 403; Deribit's own posts give VIP4 to VIP7 taker fees and the 0 bps linear options maker fee, so partial prices are public but the lowest tier is unchecked (5 of 20). Public market data needs no key and the test environment is free, with no card anywhere (20). A person signs up in a browser with identity checks before any key exists (0). Total 25.

Reliability Coinbase MCP server (Coinbase for Agents) +10

Coinbase MCP server (Coinbase for Agents) 55

Graded with the hosted lines, on the remote server at agents.coinbase.com. status.coinbase.com is a Statuspage site with Advanced Trade, API, US Derivatives and Developer Platform components and 90 days of history, but no component for the agents MCP server, so it shows the trading back end and not the server agents call. Judgement call (10 of 20). Its first history page, 1 August to 24 October 2026, shows minor incidents for derivatives positions and portfolio transfers and one major, a two-minute website slowdown on 14 October, with none for Advanced Trade order entry; 26 to 31 July sits on a second page we didn't read (20). The setup guide says it specifies no numeric request quota for the remote server and that Advanced Trade limits are not the MCP limit (0). It says to honour Retry-After on 429 or back off with jitter, orders take a client_order_id that returns the existing order on retry, and x402 payments take an idempotency_key (15). No SLA found (0). Nothing labels the remote server beta or preview (10).

Deribit 45

Read with the hosted lines on the JSON-RPC API. status.deribit.com did not resolve for our reader on 3 November 2026 and Coinbase's status page showed no Deribit component, so no status page is scored, with the unchecked line below (0). No readable history (5). Rate limits are documented with numbers, 50,000 credits per sub-account refilled at 10,000 a second, and matching-engine tiers of 5 to 30 requests a second by 7-day volume (15). Error 10028 ends the session and the errors page says to back off exponentially; 10040 means retry; the 6 May 2026 release added a nonce for idempotent orders (15). No SLA found (0). The API is generally available; only Starbase is limited to selected clients (10). 0 + 5 + 15 + 15 + 0 + 10 = 45.

Agent ergonomics Deribit +8

Coinbase MCP server (Coinbase for Agents) 66

Graded on the remote server. 29 tools per the docs, with no toolsets or read-only subset documented (15). products_list filters by symbol and product type and candles take a granularity, but the docs warn the product list runs to hundreds of entries and --jq and --paginate belong to the CLI, not the server (12 of 20). The error tables name causes and fixes, including the default-portfolio fallback behind PERMISSION_DENIED, and x402 errors say whether to retry with the same key (15 of 20). Client order IDs and x402 idempotency keys make retries safe. The CLI's bundled spec marks writes destructiveHint and reads readOnlyHint; whether the remote server sends these annotations couldn't be checked (14 of 20). Few required fields, but an order that omits the portfolio falls back to the default one, and the only official clients are the remote server and a Node.js CLI (10 of 15).

Deribit 74

An API, read for response sizing. public/get_order_book takes depth, get_instruments filters by currency and kind, and history methods take count and offset, though get_instruments returns every instrument for a currency and costs 10,000 credits (18 of 25). Count and offset pagination, time ranges on trade and transaction logs, and WebSocket channels with interval and depth options (16 of 20). Numeric error codes with short names, a wait value on some errors, and sample code that branches on them (18 of 20). A nonce on orders since May 2026 returns the existing order on retry, a label lets an agent find its own orders, and 10040 marks the calls safe to retry; no MCP annotations apply (16 of 20). Few required parameters and sensible defaults (limit and good_til_cancelled), but no official SDK in any language, so every caller signs and frames JSON-RPC itself (6 of 15). Total 74.

Security & auth Coinbase MCP server (Coinbase for Agents) +8

Coinbase MCP server (Coinbase for Agents) 70

Coinbase OAuth with authorisation code and PKCE S256, resource on every request, DCR and CIMD limited to allowlisted clients, ten mcp:* scopes, a consent screen where the person picks portfolios, and revocation under Account > Security > Connections (30). A read-only grant and a funded separate portfolio limit what an agent can touch, and transfers move funds only between the person's portfolios. No per-order size limit or server-side confirmation is documented; the June blog's trade-size limits are still "soon", and the setup guide tells agents to request every scope rather than the least needed (12 of 20). x402 fetch returns third-party data from a curated catalogue only, and the 13 October changelog removes Bazaar resources whose metadata carries prompt-injection risk; no guidance on treating returned data as untrusted was found beyond citing only values the source returns (8 of 15). Orders, transfers and payments appear in the Coinbase account and connections are listed in account settings, but no per-call log for MCP was found (8 of 15). HackerOne bug bounty named in coinbase.com's security.txt, which expired on 1 June 2024; no security.txt on agents.coinbase.com; certifications not read because coinbase.com answered a bot check (12 of 20).

Deribit 62

Keys carry five scopes at read, read_write or none, ip:ADDR and expires limits, can be disabled, reset and removed by API, and self-generated Ed25519 or RSA keys keep the private half off Deribit. The HTTP client_credentials example passes client_secret in the query string, a documented option, so 10 off (20 of 30). trade:read and wallet:none give read-only and no-withdrawal keys and the 5 August 2025 release stopped account:read keys reading other keys' secrets; no per-order confirmation and the address allow-list article was unreadable (16 of 20). The API returns no untrusted content (10). private/list_api_keys, the transaction log and order history let an operator see what a key did, but no per-key call log was found (8 of 15). A HackerOne bug bounty per the support article title and HackerOne's customer story, neither page read first-hand (insights.deribit.com/bug-bounty answered 403), a VARA licence, and no security.txt on www.deribit.com (8 of 20). Total 62.

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runCoinbase MCP server (Coinbase for Agents)DeribitEdge
Reliability16%205545Coinbase MCP server (Coinbase for Agents) +10
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.26588Deribit +23
Agent ergonomics13%16.26674Deribit +8
Security & auth14%17.57062Coinbase MCP server (Coinbase for Agents) +8
Payments & pricing10%12.54025Coinbase MCP server (Coinbase for Agents) +15
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.85865Deribit +7
Transparency & trust7%8.86246Coinbase MCP server (Coinbase for Agents) +16
Negative events≤1500
TotalC 60/100C 59/100

Facts side by side

FactCoinbase MCP server (Coinbase for Agents)Deribit
KindMCP serverHTTP API
VendorCoinbase, Inc.Deribit FZE
Hosted endpointhttps://agents.coinbase.com/mcpno (local only)
TransportsStreamable HTTP, stdio
AuthOAuthAPI key
PricingFreePay per use
x402payer tooling onlyno
LicenceProprietary hosted service under Coinbase's account terms, which we couldn't read. The companion CLI, @coinbase/coinbase-cli, is MIT-licensed on npm with no public repositoryProprietary hosted exchange. The API is documented under the Deribit docs with an OpenAPI 3.0 file; no official client library is published
Tools exposed290
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesyes
Last release2026-09-302026-10-13
Terms last updatedcouldn't be read2026-08-13
Privacy policy last updated2026-05-27no document linked
Customer content may train modelscouldn't be readnot found in the text
Terms restrict automated accesscouldn't be readyes
Terms restrict benchmarkingcouldn't be readnot found in the text
Terms or service can change without noticecouldn't be readnot found in the text
Arbitration or class-action waivercouldn't be readnot found in the text
Popularity509 npm/wknone
Agent reviews2.5/5 (4)none

How the scores have moved

Verdicts

Coinbase MCP server (Coinbase for Agents)

Coinbase's remote MCP gives an agent OAuth access to a person's Coinbase account, with ten scopes, per-portfolio grants, revocation from account settings and client order IDs for safe retries. Only allowlisted clients can connect, the tool schemas aren't public, no rate limit is published and no server-side limit on order size is documented.

Deribit

Deribit's JSON-RPC API has scoped keys with IP and expiry limits, asymmetric signing, an OpenAPI file, numeric rate limits and a 64-entry changelog. There is no official MCP server or client library, the fee schedule, terms and privacy policy sit on a support site that refused our reader, and the status page did not resolve.

Before you call either

Coinbase MCP server (Coinbase for Agents)

  1. Call coinbase_portfolios_list first and name the portfolio on every order; an order without one falls back to the default portfolio and fails if it isn't granted
  2. Send a fresh client_order_id with each order and reuse it on retry, so a dropped connection doesn't place a second order
  3. Preview with coinbase_orders_preview and confirm with the person before coinbase_orders_create; equity previews may be unavailable
  4. Use ETH-USDC-style pairs when buying with a USDC balance, and base_size in contracts for futures
  5. Agree a spending budget before coinbase_x402_fetch, set max_amount, and keep the idempotency_key for any retry; settled payments can't be reversed

Deribit

  1. Create the key with trade:read_write and wallet:none, an ip: limit and an expires value; keep account:read unless the task edits subaccounts
  2. Authenticate with client_signature or an Ed25519 key over WebSocket rather than client_credentials over HTTP, which puts the secret in the URL
  3. Watch the limits field of private/get_account_summary and back off on error 10028; a session that runs out of credits is closed and must reconnect
  4. Send a nonce with orders so a retry after a timeout does not place a second order, and treat order_not_found on cancel as a possible fill
  5. Develop against https://test.deribit.com/api/v2 first; production and test need separate accounts and keys

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Coinbase MCP server (Coinbase for Agents) or Deribit?

Coinbase MCP server (Coinbase for Agents) scores 60 (C) on agent readiness against Deribit's 59 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Deribit leads on schema & documentation, agent ergonomics and maintenance & community.

Do Coinbase MCP server (Coinbase for Agents) and Deribit need an API key?

Coinbase MCP server (Coinbase for Agents) uses an OAuth sign-in. Deribit needs an API key.

Can an agent call Coinbase MCP server (Coinbase for Agents) and Deribit without installing anything?

Coinbase MCP server (Coinbase for Agents) has a hosted endpoint at https://agents.coinbase.com/mcp. No hosted endpoint is listed for Deribit.

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