CoinDesk Data API by CoinDesk Data (formerly CCData / CryptoCompare)

# Fix list: CoinDesk Data API

From Anchor Terminal's listing at https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/coindesk-data-api, the October 2026 research run, assessed 1 October 2026. Grade D, 46.9 out of 100.

This is everything the published grade says the listing lacks, the biggest possible gain to the total first. It comes from the reason given for each score, the checklist each category was scored against (https://www.anchorterminal.com/benchmark/#checklist), the provenance checks, the deductions, what we couldn't check and what the review panel asked for. A fix counts at the next check, once it's public.

For a coding agent working on CoinDesk Data API: work through the items below in the product, its docs and its public pages. Each category gives the reason for its score, with the points each checklist item earned, and the checklist itself, so the gap is the items that earned less than their points. Change the product, not the wording, and keep a note of what you changed and where it's published.

## 1. Payments & pricing, 0 out of 100, up to 12.5 more on the total

Why it scored 0: No x402, MPP or L402 (0). The pricing page at developers.coindesk.com renders only in a browser, the 26 September check couldn't read plan figures either, and data.coindesk.com asks new customers to book a call for a trial. Judgement call, the brief scores unread pricing as absent, so 0 here, and we'd raise it if the plans turn out to be public (0 of 20). The free tier was retired on 2026-05-21 with 34 days' notice and nothing replaced it (0). A person has to sign up, and the MCP page tells people without an account to register interest. A keyless request to the CADLI tick endpoint returned 401 on 2 October (0).

The checklist (https://www.anchorterminal.com/benchmark/#checklist-payments):

The published rubric, also on the [x402 page](https://www.anchorterminal.com/x402/).

- 40, a machine payment protocol (x402, MPP or L402) on the tool's own endpoints. 10 to 30 when it covers only some endpoints or only goes through a third party, and the note says which.
- 20, per-call or per-unit pricing published without a login. 10 for public plan-only pricing, 0 for "contact sales" or prices behind a login.
- 20, a free tier or trial that doesn't need a card.
- 20, autonomous onboarding, meaning an agent can get access without a person signing up in a browser (keyless use, x402, a programmatic key API).

Payment platforms and agent wallets rarely charge for their own API over a machine protocol, so the first line has steps for them, and the highest one that applies counts. 40 when x402, MPP or L402 runs on all their own endpoints, 30 when it runs on part of their own API, 25 when their merchants can accept one, 20 for running a facilitator, 15 for paying as a buyer, and 0 when the only protocol is their own. Merchant acceptance sits above a facilitator because the platform's own customers can charge agents through it, while a facilitator settles for sellers who wire up the protocol themselves. The counter-argument (a facilitator does more for the protocol as a whole) has a point. Each note says which step applied.

Open-source software you run yourself is scored on its hosted or paid option if it has one. A free, self-hosted package with nothing to buy gets 20, 20 and 20 for the last three lines, and 0 to 40 for the first only if it ships a payment protocol.

## 2. Reliability, 43 out of 100, up to 11.4 more on the total

Why it scored 43: Status page at status.coindesk.com, titled CoinDesk API Status and linked from data.coindesk.com, but it renders only in a browser, /history is the same empty shell and /api/v2/incidents.json returns 404, so it isn't a Statuspage site and we couldn't confirm component history on 1 or 2 October. We gave the same 15 as Open-Meteo's monitor-only page (15 of 20). No incident history we could read (5). The official OpenAPI says limits are enforced per second, minute, hour, day and month, but the per-plan numbers sit on a pricing page we couldn't read (5 of 15). The same document says a 429 means the key's limit is spent and names the reset windows, with no Retry-After guidance found (8 of 15). The API licence agreement disclaims uninterrupted supply and names no SLA, and the pricing page where a plan SLA would sit is unreadable (0). Generally available since 2014 (10).

The checklist (https://www.anchorterminal.com/benchmark/#checklist-reliability):

Hosted APIs, MCP servers, models and platforms.

- 20, a public status page with component history (Statuspage, Instatus, BetterStack or the vendor's own).
- 0 to 30, the incident record for the last 90 days on that page. 30 for a clean record or trivial incidents only, 20 for minor incidents only, 10 for one major outage (an hour or more of a core API down, or errors across the board), 0 for several. 5 when there's no history we could read, and the note says so.
- 15, rate limits documented with numbers.
- 15, documented 429 or overload handling (Retry-After, backoff guidance), and idempotency keys or safe-retry guidance where writes are involved.
- 10, an SLA published for any paid tier.
- 10, the surface agents use is generally available, not beta or preview.

Local packages, SDKs, frameworks and stdio MCP servers.

- 20, installs from an official package with supported runtimes stated.
- 25, a public CI and test suite, passing on the default branch.
- 0 to 25, open crash or regression issues relative to activity (25 for few and handled, 0 for many, old and unanswered).
- 15, semver discipline and breaking changes called out in a changelog.
- 15, version 1.0 or later, or declared stable.

Protocols are read from their reference implementations, the public facilitators or servers, spec stability and test vectors.

## 3. Security & auth, 45 out of 100, up to 9.6 more on the total

Why it scored 45: A plain account key with no scopes found. The 26 September check found the docs accept it as `Authorization: Apikey` or as an `api_key` query parameter, so a documented URL option (20 less 10, so 10). The hosted MCP wraps the key in OAuth 2.0 with PKCE and keeps it server-side. Read-only data (15 of 20). The news endpoints return third-party articles and the on-chain endpoints return DEX token names, with no guidance found on treating either as untrusted (5 of 15). No request log or usage view found in anything we could read (0 of 15). data.coindesk.com cites ISO 27001 certificate 23073, and the CoinDesk privacy notice links a Bugcrowd bug bounty. security.txt returns 404 on www.coindesk.com. Same 15 as CoinGecko's SOC 2 plus bug bounty without security.txt (15 of 20).

The checklist (https://www.anchorterminal.com/benchmark/#checklist-security):

- 0 to 30, the credential model. 30 for OAuth 2.1 with scopes, or scoped and revocable keys with rotation. 20 for plain revocable API keys. 10 for one all-powerful key. 10 off when a secret can travel in a URL query string as a documented option.
- 0 to 20, read-only or least-privilege modes, and confirmation or approval for destructive actions.
- 0 to 15, prompt-injection posture where the tool returns untrusted content (documented mitigations or guidance). A tool that returns no untrusted content gets 10.
- 0 to 15, audit logs or per-call visibility for the operator.
- 0 to 20, a security programme. security.txt or a disclosure policy, a bug bounty, SOC 2 or ISO 27001, advisories handled in public.

Models are read for retention, whether API data trains models (and whether that's off by default), zero-retention options and certifications. Frameworks for telemetry defaults, approval hooks, guardrails and sandboxing.

## 4. Maintenance & community, 23 out of 100, up to 6.7 more on the total

Why it scored 23: No public changelog. The newest dated product post is the Gemini Enterprise integration on 25 August 2026. Judgement call, we counted that as a published change, as we count CoinGecko's changelog entries, which puts it inside 90 days (20). One dated product post in the last 90 days (0). A support page exists, and we found no public channel where questions get answers (3 of 15). No official SDK found (0). No package to judge (0).

The checklist (https://www.anchorterminal.com/benchmark/#checklist-maintenance):

- 0 to 30, time since the last release, or the last published model or API change for a closed service. 30 within 30 days, 20 within 90, 10 within 180, 0 older.
- 20, at least three releases or dated changelog entries in the last 90 days.
- 0 to 25, responsiveness. Issues and pull requests answered on GitHub (the open issues and how recent the replies are). For closed services, a public changelog and a support or community channel that answers, 0 to 15.
- 15, presence in the official MCP registry under a verified namespace (MCP servers), or current official SDKs (APIs and models).
- 10, package health, current dependencies and CI.

Models are read for deprecation notice periods and model churn rather than release counts.

## 5. Agent ergonomics, 70 out of 100, up to 4.9 more on the total

Why it scored 70: A `groups` parameter selects field groups and `limit` caps points, per a third-party reconstruction of the spec by API Evangelist. We couldn't confirm it in the vendor docs (20 of 25). `limit`, `to_ts` for walking history backwards, and `page` on lists, from the same source (15 of 20). Error responses defined from 400 to 503 with an `Err` object carrying a type, message and status, per the official spec and third-party probes (15 of 20). Read-only GETs (15 of 20). No official SDK found on GitHub or in the docs we could reach. The hosted MCP server isn't an SDK (5 of 15).

The checklist (https://www.anchorterminal.com/benchmark/#checklist-ergonomics):

- 0 to 25, context cost. For MCP, the number and size of the tool definitions (25 for ten or fewer compact tools, 15 for 11 to 30, 5 for more than 30, plus up to 10 back for toolsets, dynamic loading or read-only subsets). For APIs, whether responses can be sized (field selection, limits, summaries).
- 20, pagination, filtering and output-size controls.
- 20, actionable, documented error responses, codes and messages an agent can recover from.
- 20, idempotency or safe retries, and for MCP the `readOnlyHint` and `destructiveHint` annotations.
- 15, sensible defaults, few required parameters, and official SDKs in at least two languages.

Models are read for tool use, structured output, prompt caching, context length, batch and SDKs. Frameworks for how much code and how many defaults a tool-calling agent with MCP needs.

## 6. Schema & documentation, 72 out of 100, up to 4.6 more on the total

Why it scored 72: Official OpenAPI 3.0.3 document, version 2.1.2417, served at data-api.coindesk.com/info/v1/openapi. Our fetch truncated after the index endpoints, so we couldn't confirm it covers spot, derivatives, news and on-chain. Judgement call, 3 off for that doubt, where CoinGecko lost 10 because its spec has no x402 paths at all (22 of 25). developers.coindesk.com/llms.txt returns the docs app shell, and every docs page renders only in a browser, so a model with a plain fetch can't read them (0). Operation descriptions name use cases and target users (16 of 20). Enums with required flags, for example the `market` parameter on index ticks (13 of 15). Parameter examples and 400, 401, 403, 404, 405, 429, 500, 502 and 503 responses with error schemas (14 of 15). Versioned /v1 and /v2 paths and a spec version number, but no public changelog, and the blog's monthly product updates stopped after July 2025 (7 of 15).

The checklist (https://www.anchorterminal.com/benchmark/#checklist-schema):

APIs and MCP servers.

- 25, a machine-readable contract (a public OpenAPI file or similar; for MCP, typed JSON Schema inputs on every tool).
- 10, llms.txt or Markdown docs served for agents.
- 0 to 20, descriptions that say what a tool is for, when to use it and when not to, read from the tool definitions in the source or the API reference.
- 0 to 15, typed inputs with enums, constraints and required fields, and no free-form JSON blobs.
- 0 to 15, examples and documented error responses.
- 15, versioning and a public changelog.

Models are read from the API reference, the OpenAPI file, llms.txt, the structured-output and tool-use docs and the model cards. Frameworks from docs a model can follow, typed interfaces, examples and the API reference.

## 7. Transparency & trust, 61 out of 100, up to 3.4 more on the total

Made of editorial 42, provenance 80.

Why it scored 61: Closed service under an API licence agreement updated 22 April 2026, licensor CC Data Limited, trading as CoinDesk Data, England and Wales company 10966788 (15). The CoinDesk privacy notice, updated 8 June 2026, doesn't mention API customers, gives no retention periods beyond 'as long as necessary', and links no subprocessor list (10 of 30). The free-tier retirement got 34 days' notice (announced 17 April for 21 May) and the licence promises 'typically 30 days' notice of changes, but there's no deprecation policy or dated notice list (12 of 20). Transfers outside the US, UK and EEA under standard contractual clauses are disclosed, with analytics and ad partners named but no subprocessors for the data service (5 of 20).

The checklist (https://www.anchorterminal.com/benchmark/#checklist-transparency):

- 0 to 30, source availability and licence clarity. 30 for open source under an OSI licence, 15 for closed with clear terms, 0 for unclear terms.
- 0 to 30, data handling and retention statements that agree with each other (privacy policy, DPA, retention periods, subprocessors).
- 0 to 20, a deprecation policy or notices with dates.
- 0 to 20, telemetry disclosed with an opt-out (local software), or subprocessors and data locations disclosed (hosted).

The other half of Transparency and trust is the provenance score, computed from checked facts (below). The category score is the mean of the two.

Provenance checks not met in full (half of this category, computed from checked facts):

- Changelog: not found (0 of 10)
- security.txt: not found (0 of 10)

## What we couldn't check

What we couldn't read counted as absent. Publishing it on a page a plain HTTP fetch can read (not only in a browser) lets the next check count it.

- unchecked: plan prices and rate-limit numbers. developers.coindesk.com/pricing renders only in a browser on 1 and 2 October, and data.coindesk.com/pricing returns 404
- unchecked: incident history on status.coindesk.com. The page and /history render only in a browser and the Statuspage JSON path returns 404
- unchecked: whether the official OpenAPI covers spot, futures, options, news and on-chain. Our reader still stops after 8 /index paths, and the MCP page's 39 tools across those groups suggest the API does
- unchecked: whether the `api_key` query parameter is still documented. The visible operations reference a scheme named `api_key`, the components block that would say header or query is past our reader's cut-off, and the legacy min-api documentation returns 401
- The listing said the MCP server had 50+ tools. Its own page lists 39, and we've corrected the notable and details lines
- The listing's OpenAPI link pointed to a third-party reconstruction. We've replaced it with the official document
- A person should read the pricing page (developers.coindesk.com/pricing) and the status page (status.coindesk.com) in a browser and record the plans, prices and incident history they show, with the date. Our reader got only app shells on 1 and 2 October, so the pricing and status marks rest on the brief's rule for pages we couldn't read

## Weaknesses

- No free or trial access since 2026-05-21, and no x402, so a person has to buy a plan before an agent gets data
- Docs portal, llms.txt, pricing page and status page all render only in a browser
- No public changelog since the monthly product updates stopped in July 2025
- The `api_key` query parameter is still accepted, so keys can leak into logs
- No official SDK found

## What costs an agent a turn today

The notes we give agents before they call it. Each one is a workaround an agent shouldn't need.

- Read the OpenAPI at `https://data-api.coindesk.com/info/v1/openapi` rather than the docs site, which a plain fetch can't render
- Send the key as `Authorization: Apikey <key>` and never in the query string
- Use `groups` to ask for only the field groups you need on tick endpoints
- Back off on 429 until the window resets, since limits apply per second, minute, hour, day and month
- For reference prices, call the CADLI or CCIX index endpoints rather than one exchange's spot tick

## What the review panel asked for

- spec version changelog
- a dated plan for min-api
- static llms.txt
- readable pricing page

## When it's done

Send what changed and where it's published as a dispute (https://www.anchorterminal.com/builders/#disputes, or `POST https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/contact` with `"kind": "dispute"`). Disputes are answered in public, and the listing is checked again by the same checklist. Paying for an audit or a listing claim changes nothing here.