Coinbase API Guide: How To Use Your Coinbase API Key in 2023

Luckily for you, we have just the thing to balance it out! It’s called application programming interface, or API. This is an interface software that we can use to connect to another software entity. APIs allow users to program their own code, automating their online trading capacity – or to use the readily available Coinbase trading bots that are built to utilize the Coinbase API.

What Is The Coinbase API?

The Coinbase platform offers users a powerful and intelligent API that features several benefits for traders. It is called the REST API and allows users to trade automatically without any manual involvement. This is done by programming the code to follow and replicate certain movements depending on the set conditions. Coinbase API functions on community-built libraries such as Coinbase API python. 

Using Coinbase API has several advantages apart from programming and automating your trading activities. First of all, the Coinbase API interface is simple to understand and use. The API offers integration for more than 25 different cryptocurrencies along with helpful customer support. What’s more, Coinbase API provides the user with informative materials, which is very helpful to new traders. 

Coinbase API offers several beneficial tools that make the entire process easier and more convenient. One such example is the Coinbase connect or OAuth2, which lets users connect to 3rd party applications. It does this without sharing any personal data such as login credentials or API keys. OAuth2 is slightly more complicated than the API key authentication method, but it offers more flexibility. 

Considering all of the above, we highly recommend using Coinbase API as it helps give you an edge. After all, why trade manually when you can use AI to boost things up? Moreover, the quick reaction times and the ability to trade 24×7 are great advantages for any trader.

Types Of Accounts In The Coinbase API

The Coinbase API offers three unique and useful accounts which offer significant advantages. Each type of account is distinct from the other and has its own set of advantages. The average minimum deposit for a Coinbase account is $1; however, that amount may increase depending on the account type. So without further ado, let’s take a look at the three types of Coinbase API accounts.

The first type of account offered here is the basic Coinbase API account. This has all the simple features of Coinbase API, such as generating and storing crypto coins. Coinbase API can also acquire real-time price and historical price data, as well as wallets and addresses. Finally, the API can automatically send, receive, buy, and sell crypto coins by following the AI code.

Moving on to the second account type, we have Coinbase Pro API. Unlike the basic Coinbase API, Coinbase Pro API is meant to be used by experienced traders. It offers several tools such as a portfolio overview, order book, limit and market orders, and candlestick chart. These tools are quite intuitive by design and offer several benefits to the Coinbase trader. 

The third type of account offered by Coinbase Api is the Coinbase Prime API. This is an advanced API account specifically designed for professional use. Coinbase Pro API offers access to several liquidity pools for any products on the Coinbase platform. It is primarily used by traders who represent companies, banks, and other institutional entities. Therefore, it is safe to assume that Coinbase Prime API is primarily used by institutional traders. 

How To Use Coinbase API

Coinbase API allows traders to tap into several features and functions depending on the specific requirement. This includes sending and receiving, selling and buying, stopping orders, retrieving spot price and real-time price data, etc. Let us take a detailed overview of achieving each of these functions using Coinbase API.

Creating your account and getting started

Before we get to the more complex functions, let us start by creating an account on the Coinbase platform. Follow these simple steps to finish the process.

1. Head over to the Coinbase website.
2. Click on the ‘Get started‘ button located on the top right corner of the screen to open the account creation page.
3. Enter your complete name and valid email address and click on ‘Create account‘ to register a Coinbase account.
4. Go through the two-step authentication method by verifying your email and providing a mobile number. 
5. Log into your account and then click on your profile icon on the top right corner of the screen.
6. Once the drop-down menu appears, click on Settings.
7. Now click on API and then the ‘New API Key‘ option.

Once you’ve done this, you will be greeted with a page that lists your accounts. You will then have to select the type of accounts and permissions that you want to use. Choose the particular accounts and permissions you want to allow from the list by clicking on the tick boxes. 

You will be taken to a new window where you must enter your notification URL and input allowed IP addresses. Click ‘Create‘ to receive your API key and API secret, both of which will appear as unique codes. Once that is done, you can now use python to install Coinbase API by typing the command ‘pip install Coinbase‘. This will officially install Coinbase API and let you use its features. 

Using Coinbase API to buy and sell bitcoins

Coinbase API allows us to program the AI using codes to automate the function of trading bitcoins. Note that you should have ample coding knowledge to program the Coinbase API. That being said, we will briefly guide you through the process of using automatic buying and selling functions. 

1. The first step is to import your library and authorize your API key.
2. Run a verification check on your payment method before attempting anything else.
3. Run a check on the prices of bitcoin in the crypto market
4. Create price checks for the particular threshold you want.
5. Lastly, create the ‘If‘ statement, which will carry out the buying or selling function.

Coinbase API will automatically check the price of Bitcoin and compare it with your threshold settings. The API will automatically buy or sell bitcoin when these thresholds are crossed, depending on its programming. 

For example, let’s say you have set the buy threshold at 500 Euros. This means that Coinbase API will buy bitcoin when the price crosses 500 Euros. Similarly, if you have set the sell threshold at 650 Euros, the API will run the sell function when it crosses the threshold. 

What Is An API Key In Coinbase?

The full form of the API key is the application programming interface key. It is a unique line of characters that is used to authorize a secure and private connection between two platforms. You could say that it is similar to a username which is used to verify and allow data transmission. 

As mentioned earlier, API keys are generated after you have chosen your desired settings. API keys are used along with API secret, which can be considered as the password for the authentication. You can use API keys to establish a connection to third-party applications and perform various functions via that app. The third-party app will import the API keys and follow the available data and settings.

Since API keys hold all your valuable settings, it is very important to safeguard them at all costs. Note that your API keys can be stolen by other users who want to copy your personal strategy. 

Hackers can intercept the HTTPS request and secretly access the data exchange between you and the platform. What’s more, the hacker can also feed wrong and harmful information without being detected. This process is called a Man in the middle attack, or MITM attack. 

What are the API settings in Coinbase Pro?

API settings contain all the data, functions, and instructions set while generating your API key. Once created, you can carry out these same set of functions via a third-party app. You can do this by importing the API key into the third-party software. 

Importing your API settings allows you to conveniently select your personal settings for any platform or app. By replicating the set of instructions and data, you avoid the lengthy process of having to input everything over and over again.

Coinbase API FAQs