# dYdX vs MEXC API

> dYdX scores 69.5 (B) to MEXC's 56.3 (C) for exchange derivatives. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/dydx-vs-mexc
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/dydx-vs-mexc.md (~4,950 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

dYdX scores 69.5 (B) on agent readiness against MEXC API's 56.3 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. MEXC API leads on schema & documentation and transparency & trust. Both do exchange derivatives.

- dYdX: grade B, 69.5/100, rank #221 of 1349. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/dydx.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/dydx.json
- MEXC API: grade C, 56.3/100, rank #791 of 1349. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/mexc.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/mexc.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

### 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 43
- Security & auth, 78 against 65
- Payments & pricing, 60 against 31
- Maintenance & community, 83 against 75

Also in its favour:
- Open source

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

### MEXC API (C)

Good for: Spot and futures for agents in served countries that want a vendor-built MCP server with read-only and confirmation modes.

Ahead on:
- Schema & documentation, 64 against 58
- Transparency & trust, 58 against 50

Also in its favour:
- Runs on your own machine

Watch for: No sandbox or testnet; only an order-validation endpoint


## Why the edge

### Reliability: dYdX +40

- 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.
- MEXC API (43): Read with the hosted lines. No status page found; status.mexc.com does not resolve and llms.txt points to a maintenance-updates feed (0). No readable incident history (5). Rate limits documented with numbers, 300 weight per 10 seconds per IP, 500 per UID, 12 order requests a second per UID, 100 WebSocket messages a second (15). 429 and 418 carry Retry-After with ban lengths stated, a 5xx is to be treated as unknown rather than failed, an order-test endpoint exists, and newClientOrderId is optional with no idempotency promise (13 of 15). No SLA found (0). Spot and futures are generally available, futures order placement having reopened on 31 March 2026 after being closed since July 2022 (10). 0 + 5 + 15 + 13 + 0 + 10 = 43.

### Payments & pricing: dYdX +29

- 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.
- MEXC API (31): No machine payment protocol (0). Fees published without login on MEXC's own fee guide (20 October 2026) and a 2024 announcement, with a separate API futures schedule; the fee page itself is drawn by script (16 of 20). Public market data needs no key or card; trading needs a verified and funded account. Judgement call (15 of 20). A person must sign up in a browser, and futures need identity verification (0). 0 + 16 + 15 + 0 = 31.

### Security & auth: dYdX +13

- 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.
- MEXC API (65): Granular permissions (account read, trade, withdraw, transfer), per-pair restriction, up to 10 linked IPs, 90-day expiry without an IP, renewal and revocation in the account, 30 keys per account (26 of 30). A read-only MCP mode that hides write tools, a confirmation step before orders and transfers in the CLI and MCP, and --yes that agents are told not to add; nothing server-side confirms an API order (17 of 20). The API returns exchange data, and the CLI security page warns that agents may be led by web pages or files into unwanted actions (12 of 15). CLI confirmations are logged and reported to MEXC with no operator access described; an apiKeyInfo endpoint shows key settings (6 of 15). No security.txt, disclosure policy or bug bounty found; a proof-of-reserves page exists (4 of 20). 26 + 17 + 12 + 6 + 4 = 65.

### Maintenance & community: dYdX +8

- 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.
- MEXC API (75): Read as a closed service. Last dated change 23 October 2026 in both the spot and futures logs (30). Spot entries on 14 August, 24 August, 11 September and 23 October 2026, futures on 1 September, 11 September, 19 October and 23 October (20). An API support Telegram group, a ticket form and dated changelogs; GitHub issues not read (10 of 15). The official SDK repository was last pushed in February 2024 while the CLI is current (10 of 15). The CLI ships platform binaries with no dependencies and no public repository or CI; the SDK is stale (5 of 10). 30 + 20 + 10 + 10 + 5 = 75.

### Transparency & trust: MEXC API +8

- 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.
- MEXC API (58): The editorial half. A closed service with a dated user agreement naming MEXC (Comoros) Ltd; the CLI is UNLICENSED on npm (15 of 30). The privacy policy names no entity, states no retention periods and relies on standard contractual clauses for transfers (10 of 30). The changelog flags endpoints as "will be discontinued soon" without dates and the futures log records removals (8 of 20). Third parties are named by category only, with no subprocessor list or data locations (5 of 20). 15 + 10 + 8 + 5 = 38.

### Schema & documentation: MEXC API +6

- 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.
- MEXC API (64): No OpenAPI found; a Postman collection and the CLI's 25 capability reference files are the nearest machine-readable contract (5 of 25). llms.txt on mexc.com, written for assistants and pointing at the API docs and legal pages (7 of 10). Per-endpoint pages with purpose, parameters and permissions, without when-not-to-use guidance (13 of 20). Typed parameters with enums for order types, statuses and intervals (11 of 15). Examples on each endpoint and a separate error-code page with numeric codes and messages (13 of 15). Versioned API (v3) with a dated changelog of 72 entries to 23 October 2026 (15). 5 + 7 + 13 + 11 + 13 + 15 = 64.

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | dYdX | MEXC API | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 83 | 43 | dYdX +40 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 58 | 64 | MEXC API +6 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 66 | 64 | dYdX +2 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 78 | 65 | dYdX +13 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 60 | 31 | dYdX +29 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 83 | 75 | dYdX +8 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 50 | 58 | MEXC API +8 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **69.5 · B** | **56.3 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | dYdX | MEXC API |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | dYdX Trading Inc. | MEXC (Comoros) Ltd |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports |  | stdio |
| Auth | OAuth or key | API key |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Pay per use |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | 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. | none |
| Tools exposed | 0 | 299 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | yes |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-29 | 2026-10-23 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-03-12 | 2026-10-13 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2025-06-06 | 2026-06-01 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | yes | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes | yes |
| Popularity | 119 stars, 86k npm/wk | 315 stars |

## Verdicts

**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.

**MEXC API.** MEXC publishes granular key permissions, per-pair key limits, weighted rate limits with Retry-After and a dated changelog, and its official CLI runs a read-only-capable MCP server with confirmation before any fund movement. There is no sandbox or status page, API futures orders pay a higher fee schedule, and the user agreement excludes the US, UK, EU members and others.

## Before you call either

### 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

### MEXC API

1. Use a key limited to SPOT_ACCOUNT_READ and SPOT_DEAL_WRITE, the pairs you trade and your IP addresses; keys without a linked IP expire after 90 days
2. Start the MCP server as `mexc mcp spot --read-only` unless the task trades, and never pass `--yes`; orders and transfers wait for the person's confirmation
3. Call POST /api/v3/order/test before a live order, since there is no sandbox
4. On 429 or 418 wait for Retry-After; order placement and cancellation share 12 requests a second per UID, and repeated breaches ban the IP for up to 3 days
5. Treat a 5xx on an order as unknown, not failed, and query the order before retrying; set newClientOrderId so the order can be found

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, dYdX or MEXC API?

dYdX scores 69.5 (B) on agent readiness against MEXC API's 56.3 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. MEXC API leads on schema & documentation and transparency & trust.

### Do dYdX and MEXC API need an API key?

dYdX takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in. MEXC API needs an API key.

### Can an agent call dYdX and MEXC API without installing anything?

No hosted endpoint is listed for dYdX. MEXC API runs on your own machine, with no hosted endpoint listed.

### Are dYdX and MEXC API open source?

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.). No open-source release is listed for MEXC API.


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with dYdX or MEXC API

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