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

Gate vs HTX trading API

Gate scores 56.4 (C) on agent readiness against HTX trading API's 43.3 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Both do exchange market data.

Best crypto exchange APIs and MCP servers for AI agents · All 210 exchanges comparisons

Which one, for what

Gate C

Best for An agent trading spot, futures and earn products in a person's Gate account outside the 35 restricted locations, with a keyless MCP for research and an OAuth MCP or scoped key for trading.

Ahead on

  • Schema & documentation, 70 against 40
  • Security & auth, 60 against 51
  • Payments & pricing, 35 against 15
  • Maintenance & community, 77 against 57
  • Transparency & trust, 49 against 25

Also in its favour

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

Watch for

No status page, incident history or SLA; the terms give no uptime guarantee and cap liability at three months of fees

HTX trading API E

Best for Spot and USDT-margined derivatives for agents that can hold an HTX key, with no MCP server and no testnet.

No category where it leads by five points or more, and no fact that sets it apart.

Watch for

No official MCP server; the only one in the MCP registry is a third party's read-only ticker server

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 Gate +30

Gate 70

No public OpenAPI file was found, though the SDKs are generated and the MCP tools carry typed parameters per the tool reference; the hosted tools' JSON Schema could not be read without a session (12 of 25). The whole REST and WebSocket documentation is downloadable as Markdown and the agent guide is a plain page (10). The tool reference gives one line and the main parameters per tool, the API reference a description per endpoint, no when-not-to-use guidance (12 of 20). Required flags, enums for side, type and time_in_force (11 of 15). Examples per endpoint and a labelled error body with a fixed label list the docs tell you to branch on instead of messages (13 of 15). A versioned changelog, v4.106.177 on 2 November 2026 (12 of 15, since entries are terse). 70.

HTX trading API 40

No OpenAPI or other machine-readable contract found in the docs or the GitHub accounts (0). No llms.txt on htx.com, and the readable reference is a static page (0). Each endpoint states its purpose and parameters, without when-to-use guidance (12 of 20). Parameter tables carry types, required flags and enums for order types and states (10 of 15). Request and response examples throughout and error-code tables with messages (11 of 15). Versions v1 and v2 are mixed in one reference whose last changelog entry is 24 June 2022, while HTX's newer docs on htx.com couldn't be read (7 of 15). 0 + 0 + 12 + 10 + 11 + 7 = 40.

Transparency & trust Gate +24

Gate 49

The editorial half. A closed hosted service with a clear user agreement that names no company; the MCP packages are MIT (12 of 30). The privacy policy names a DPO address and categories of recipients, with no retention numbers and no named subprocessors (12 of 30). The changelog records breaking changes such as the amend endpoint path move of 16 October 2026 with no notice period or policy (8 of 20). Transfers outside the user's jurisdiction are disclosed with no locations or provider names (5 of 20). 37.

HTX trading API 25

The editorial half. A closed service whose user agreement exists but couldn't be read (script-drawn pages), so the licence clarity is unknown rather than unclear (10 of 30). The privacy policy was not read (0 of 30, unchecked). The testnet shutdown and the 2022 changelog entries are dated, with no deprecation policy (5 of 20). No subprocessor or data-location statement read (0 of 20). 10 + 0 + 5 + 0 = 15.

Payments & pricing Gate +20

Gate 35

No machine payment protocol (0). The fee page's table loads after login; help centre and learn articles give the VIP 0 spot rates (15 of 20). Market data over REST and the public MCP needs no account and no card (20). A person registers, verifies identity and mints the key or approves the grant in a browser (0). 35.

HTX trading API 15

No machine payment protocol (0). The fee schedule at htx.com/fee is drawn by script and answered no text, so no price is recorded first-hand (0 of 20, unchecked). Public market data needs no key, card or account; trading needs a verified and funded account. Judgement call (15 of 20). A person must sign up in a browser and pass identity checks (0). 0 + 0 + 15 + 0 = 15.

Maintenance & community Gate +20

Gate 77

Read as a hosted service with open-source MCP packages. The API changelog's latest entry is 2 November 2026 and gate-skills was pushed 3 November (30). 40 dated changelog entries since 5 August 2026 (20). developer@gate.com, a help centre and issue trackers on gate-mcp and gate-skills, replies not checked (12 of 25). In the official MCP registry under io.github.gateio-dev, a GitHub namespace rather than gate.com, and official SDKs current (10 of 15). The local package has a publish workflow and no test workflow in CI, and its last tag is 16 April 2026 (5 of 10). 77.

HTX trading API 57

Read as a closed service. The readable changelog ends on 24 June 2022, but the official contract SDKs were pushed on 21 October 2026 and the spot SDKs in April and July 2026, so the API surface is still being maintained; judgement call (20 of 30). SDK pushes on 30 July, 23 August and 21 October 2026 are commits, not releases (10 of 20). A Telegram group for API support and a support centre, neither tested; GitHub issues not read (8 of 15). Official SDKs in five languages (15). No CI seen, dependencies not checked (4 of 10). 20 + 10 + 8 + 15 + 4 = 57.

Security & auth Gate +9

Gate 60

Gate OAuth 2 for the hosted trading MCP with eight scopes per the protected-resource metadata and revocation on the API management page, and API keys with disabled, read-only or read-write per product group, a separate withdrawal group and an IP allow-list of 20 addresses (30). A read-only key and a GATE_READONLY switch exist, and the guide says fund-moving actions need the person's confirmation in the client, with no server-side cap documented (15 of 20). The news and info servers return third-party content with no guidance on treating it as untrusted (5 of 15). Key changes and OAuth grants are visible on the API management page; no per-call log found (5 of 15). No security.txt, no disclosure policy or bounty on a page we read, a proof-of-reserves repository (5 of 20). 60.

HTX trading API 51

HMAC-signed keys with Read, Trade and Withdraw permissions, sub-user keys without Withdraw, up to 20 bound IPs, revocation in the account and a 90-day expiry without IP binding. The AccessKeyId and the HMAC signature travel as query parameters; the secret does not, so no deduction for a secret in the URL (24 of 30). Read-only keys and withdraw-free keys exist; no server-side confirmation for orders or withdrawals (14 of 20). The API returns the exchange's own data, no untrusted content (10). No per-call log or key-use history found for the operator (3 of 15). No security.txt, disclosure policy or certification found on the pages that loaded (0 of 20). 24 + 14 + 10 + 3 + 0 = 51.

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runGateHTX trading APIEdge
Reliability16%204238Gate +4
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.27040Gate +30
Agent ergonomics13%16.26669HTX trading API +3
Security & auth14%17.56051Gate +9
Payments & pricing10%12.53515Gate +20
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.87757Gate +20
Transparency & trust7%8.84925Gate +24
Negative events≤1500
TotalC 56.4/100E 43.3/100

Facts side by side

FactGateHTX trading API
KindHTTP APIHTTP API
VendorGateHTX
Hosted endpointhttps://api.gatemcp.ai/mcpno (local only)
TransportsStreamable HTTP, stdio
AuthOAuth or keyAPI key
PricingPay per usePay per use
x402nono
Tools exposed580
Read-only variant documentedyesno
llms.txtnono
MCP registryio.github.gateio-dev/gate-mcpnot listed
Last release2026-11-022026-10-21
Terms last updated2026-07-22no date given
Privacy policy last updatedno date givenno document linked
Customer content may train modelsnot found in the textnot found in the text
Terms restrict automated accessyesnot found in the text
Terms restrict benchmarkingnot found in the textnot found in the text
Terms or service can change without noticeyesyes
Arbitration or class-action waiveryesyes
Popularity44 stars684 stars

Verdicts

Gate

Gate runs official hosted MCP servers with keyless market data and OAuth-scoped trading, a local stdio server with a read-only switch, per-endpoint rate limits with headers and a futures testnet. There is no status page, SLA or OpenAPI file, the fee table needs a login, the MCP host is a separate domain, and the terms name no company.

HTX trading API

HTX's API has per-endpoint rate limits, read, trade and withdraw key permissions with IP binding, and SDKs in five languages. No official MCP server exists, the testnet is closed, the public reference is still Huobi's with a 2022 changelog, and the fee schedule, terms and restricted countries are on script-drawn pages we couldn't read.

Before you call either

Gate

  1. Start on https://api.gatemcp.ai/mcp for prices and order books with no credential; switch to /mcp/exchange only when the person has approved the OAuth grant with the narrowest scopes
  2. For a key-based route, create a key on a dedicated sub-account with read-only on every group but the one the task needs, withdrawal disabled and an IP allow-list; changes take up to 5 minutes
  3. Put a unique text value starting with t- on every spot order and reuse it on the retry; read the order back before placing again
  4. Read X-Gate-RateLimit-Requests-Remain and stop at zero; spot order placement is capped at 10 a second and withdrawals at 1 per 3 seconds
  5. Rehearse futures logic on api-testnet.gateapi.io with TestNet keys; there is no spot testnet

HTX trading API

  1. Ask the operator for a key with Read and Trade only and bound to your IP addresses; a key without IP binding expires after 90 days
  2. Send a fresh client-order-id of up to 64 characters with every order and reuse it only on retry; a repeat within 8 hours answers invalid.client.order.id
  3. Watch X-HB-RateLimit-Requests-Remain and pace at under 100 order calls per 2 seconds per UID; limits are shared by every key on the account
  4. There is no testnet; try order logic with the smallest size the market allows
  5. Confirm the person's country is served before trading; the restricted list in the user agreement couldn't be read here

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Gate or HTX trading API?

Gate scores 56.4 (C) on agent readiness against HTX trading API's 43.3 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories.

Do Gate and HTX trading API need an API key?

Gate takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in. HTX trading API needs an API key.

Can an agent call Gate and HTX trading API without installing anything?

Gate has a hosted endpoint at https://api.gatemcp.ai/mcp. No hosted endpoint is listed for HTX trading API.

Other comparisons with Gate or HTX trading 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.