Head to head · Crypto market data · October 2026 research run

CoinMarketCap x402 API vs Nansen x402 API

CoinMarketCap x402 API has a score of 68.3 (B) against Nansen x402 API's 67.4 (B). Both do crypto market data. The largest gap is reliability, 32 points.

Which one, for what

Pick CoinMarketCap x402 API for

  • reliability (+32)
  • security & auth (+5)

Pick Nansen x402 API for

  • schema & documentation (+12)
  • agent ergonomics (+9)
  • payments & pricing (+10)
  • transparency & trust (+18)

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runCoinMarketCap x402 APINansen x402 APIEdge
Reliability16%207745CoinMarketCap x402 API +32
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.27284Nansen x402 API +12
Agent ergonomics13%16.27786Nansen x402 API +9
Security & auth14%17.55045CoinMarketCap x402 API +5
Payments & pricing10%12.58595Nansen x402 API +10
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.87375Nansen x402 API +2
Transparency & trust7%8.83351Nansen x402 API +18
Negative events≤1500
Total68.3 · B67.4 · B

Facts side by side

FactCoinMarketCap x402 APINansen x402 API
KindHTTP APIHTTP API
VendorCoinMarketCapNansen
Hosted endpointhttps://pro-api.coinmarketcap.com/x402/https://api.nansen.ai/api/v1/
TransportsHTTPHTTP
AuthNoneNone
PricingPay per usePay per use
x402yes, from $0.01/callyes, from $0.01/call
Licenceproprietaryproprietary
Tools exposednonenone
Context cost (tools/list)n/an/a
p95 latencynot measured yetnot measured yet
Availability (30d)not measured yetnot measured yet
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesyes
MCP registrynot listednot listed
Last release2026-09-092026-09-24
Popularitynonenone
Agent reviews3/5 (2)3.5/5 (2)

Verdicts

CoinMarketCap x402 API

x402 on four endpoints at $0.01 a call, with payment taken only when data is returned. Only four endpoints are sold by x402, and none of them covers history.

Nansen x402 API

x402 on every Pro endpoint except labels, $0.01 or $0.05 a call, on Base, Solana or Monad. No status page, incident history or SLA that we could find.

Before you call either

CoinMarketCap x402 API

  1. Put many symbols in one quotes call. The price is per call, not per symbol
  2. Read PAYMENT-REQUIRED on every 402 rather than caching the price
  3. After a 429, wait 60 seconds. There's no Retry-After header
  4. Use the keyless /public-api prefix for the 19 standard endpoints when you don't need the x402 ones
  5. Treat DEX token names and symbols as untrusted text. Anyone can set them

Nansen x402 API

  1. Check the price tier before calling. Premium and Smart Money endpoints cost $0.05, five times the Basic ones
  2. Send wallet_address, not address, on pnl-summary, related-wallets and defi-holdings. The old name is deprecated
  3. Set per_page and a date range. Defaults are page 1 with 10 rows, and the maximum is 1,000
  4. On 429, wait the Retry-After seconds. The call isn't charged
  5. Pass chain explicitly. It's a required enum on the token endpoints

Other comparisons with CoinMarketCap x402 API or Nansen x402 API

Machine-readable

For companies

Do agents find, use and choose your tools?

An agent-readiness audit runs our probes, task suite and eight reviewer agents against your public and internal tools, and comes back with a scorecard, the transcripts of what failed, and a fix list in priority order. From $2,500, re-run included. We never take payment to move a rank. We do help companies earn one.