ccxt-mcp — official CCXT MCP server

Connect AI agents (Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code, Windsurf, and any MCP host) to 100+ cryptocurrency exchanges and prediction markets through the unified ccxt API: market data, account balances, order management, and — when you explicitly enable it — trading.

claude mcp add ccxt -- npx -y ccxt-mcp

Security model (read this first)

Your API keys stay on your machine, and the AI model never sees them:

• The server runs locally over stdio. Nothing is hosted; keys never transit any third-party service.
• Credentials are never tool parameters: no tool schema accepts a key, so neither the model nor a prompt-injected page can supply, request, or change them. Tools reference accounts by name ("binance-main").
• Keys leave the process only inside signed HTTPS requests to the exchange itself — the same as any trading bot.
• Every tool result, error, and log line passes a redaction filter holding your loaded secret values (some exchanges echo signed URLs in error bodies — that path is closed). Raw request URLs/headers/bodies are never emitted. verbose is force-disabled.
• Capability tiers are opt-in and file-owned. Out of the box the server does public market data only. Configuring an account enables private reads. trading, funds (withdraw/transfer), and implicitWrites (raw endpoints) must each be enabled per account in the config file — there is no tool that edits config, so a conversation can never grant itself permissions. Unregistered tiers do not even appear in the tool list.
• Writes are previewed and confirmed (native confirmation form where the host supports elicitation, otherwise an explicit preview + confirm-token round-trip), validated against market limits and your notional caps, and journaled to an append-only audit log.

Recommended exchange-side backstops (they hold even if your machine is compromised): create API keys with withdrawal permission disabled and an IP allowlist.

One honest caveat: any local agent with filesystem access could read the config file with its own tools — that is governed by your MCP host's permission model, not by this server. Prefer your host's secret storage where available (see below), keep the file chmod 600, and consider a deny rule for the path in your host's settings.

Install

Requires Node.js ≥ 18. The npm package is ccxt-mcp; the server binary is npx -y ccxt-mcp.

Claude Code

claude mcp add ccxt -- npx -y ccxt-mcp

Or per-project via .mcp.json (safe to commit — no secrets):

{ "mcpServers": { "ccxt": { "command": "npx", "args": ["-y", "ccxt-mcp"] } } }

Claude Desktop

Add to claude_desktop_config.json (Settings → Developer → Edit Config):

{ "mcpServers": { "ccxt": { "command": "npx", "args": ["-y", "ccxt-mcp"] } } }

Cursor

~/.cursor/mcp.json (or .cursor/mcp.json per project):

{ "mcpServers": { "ccxt": { "command": "npx", "args": ["-y", "ccxt-mcp"] } } }

VS Code

.vscode/mcp.json — VS Code's inputs mechanism stores values in encrypted secret storage, the best option for keys among the JSON-config hosts:

{
  "inputs": [
    { "id": "binance-key", "type": "promptString", "password": true, "description": "Binance API key" },
    { "id": "binance-secret", "type": "promptString", "password": true, "description": "Binance API secret" }
  ],
  "servers": {
    "ccxt": {
      "command": "npx", "args": ["-y", "ccxt-mcp"],
      "env": { "BINANCE_APIKEY": "${input:binance-key}", "BINANCE_SECRET": "${input:binance-secret}" }
    }
  }
}

Windsurf

~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json — same mcpServers shape as Claude Desktop; ${env:VAR} interpolation is supported.

Configuration

With no configuration the server serves public market data on all exchanges — that alone is a useful install.

To add accounts, create the config file (path shown by the get_safety_status tool):

• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/ccxt-mcp/config.json
• Linux: ~/.config/ccxt-mcp/config.json
• Windows: %APPDATA%\ccxt-mcp\config.json
• Or point CCXT_MCP_CONFIG at any path (a legacy per-exchange keys.local.json shape also loads).

{
  "accounts": {
    "binance-testnet": {
      "exchange": "binance",
      "apiKey": "…",
      "secret": "…",
      "sandbox": true,          // testnet — recommended first stop
      "trading": true           // true enables SANDBOX/DEMO trading only
    },
    "binance-main": {
      "exchange": "binance",
      "apiKey": "…",
      "secret": "…",
      "trading": "live",        // live trading requires the explicit string "live"…
      "maxOrderValue": 250,     // …and a per-order USD cap you author (null = opt out)
      "maxDailyValue": 1000,    // optional rolling-24h cap
      "allowedSymbols": ["BTC/USDT", "ETH/*"],  // optional strict allowlist
      "confirm": "live"         // always | live (default) | never
    },
    "polymarket-main": {
      "exchange": "polymarket",
      "walletAddress": "0x…",
      "privateKey": "0x…"
    }
  }
}

Account fields: any credential from the exchange's requiredCredentials (apiKey, secret, password, uid, walletAddress, privateKey, …), sandbox/demo, defaultType, options (ccxt constructor options), prediction: true (for exchanges that exist in both the crypto and prediction namespaces, e.g. hyperliquid), and the safety switches below. chmod 600 the file; the server warns otherwise (or refuses with "settings": {"strictPermissions": true}).

Environment variables work too: <EXCHANGEID>_<CREDENTIAL> (e.g. BINANCE_APIKEY, OKX_PASSWORD) fill missing credentials, and the CCXT_MCP_EXCHANGE/CCXT_MCP_APIKEY/CCXT_MCP_SECRET/CCXT_MCP_SANDBOX/CCXT_MCP_TRADING set defines a single account named default.

Claude Desktop (.mcpb bundle): the install form configures one exchange. To use several exchanges (or enable live trading/withdrawals), set the Config file field to a config.json with an accounts map like the one above — or just create it at the default path and leave the form fields blank.

Capability tiers

"trading": true deliberately works only on sandbox/demo accounts; live trading requires typing "trading": "live" and deciding a maxOrderValue (a number, or explicitly null to opt out). The same pattern applies to funds with maxTransferValue. Activating a tier is your responsibility — the server's job is honest gates, confirmation, and the audit journal (<cache-dir>/ccxt-mcp/journal/).

Tools

market — list_exchanges, describe_exchange, describe_method (search/signatures/per-exchange params + docs links), search_markets, get_tickers, get_orderbook, get_ohlcv, get_trades, search_events (prediction markets), call_read_method (any unified fetch*/load* — structurally read-only), call_implicit_get (raw GET endpoints), get_safety_status.

live (WebSocket) — watch_subscribe opens a background ccxt.pro stream; watch_read returns fresh data. State streams are snapshots of "what is X right now" — watchTicker(s), watchOrderBook(ForSymbols), watchOHLCV, watchBalance, watchPositions, watchBidsAsks, watchMarkPrice(s): the server merges live updates into the full current set, so watch_read always returns every subscribed symbol in latest (a multi-symbol stream never shows just the one that last ticked). Event streams are logs — watchTrades and the private watchOrders/watchMyTrades/watch(My)Liquidations (private need an account): watch_read returns new items oldest-first in events with a cursor. Pass waitForChange: true to watch_read to block until the next update (or timeout) instead of polling — the efficient way to wait for a fill or position change. watch_unsubscribe stops it; watch_list shows active streams. The long-lived server holds the socket so the agent always has fresh data; idle streams auto-stop after 10 minutes.

read — list_accounts, get_balance, get_orders, get_my_trades, get_positions.

trading — create_order, edit_order, cancel_order, cancel_all_orders, set_leverage, set_margin_mode, call_write_method (allowlisted long tail: margin/position/batch-cancel ops).

funds — withdraw, transfer, get_deposit_address. implicitWrites — call_implicit_write.

Every list result is capped and paginated to fit host context limits (with in-band truncation notices); the raw info payload is stripped by default. Prediction exchanges use the same tools with outcome handles (from search_events) in the symbol position.

Troubleshooting

• "Trading is not enabled for account …" — edit the config file (see tiers above); this is not something the conversation can change.
• AUTH_FAILED on a sandbox account — testnet keys come from the exchange's testnet portal, not your live account (and vice versa).
• HTTP 451 / geo-blocks — some exchanges block cloud/VPN/US IPs; set a proxy via account options if needed.
• Slow first call on a big exchange — the initial loadMarkets() can take seconds; it is cached on disk for 24h afterwards.
• npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector npx -y ccxt-mcp opens an interactive tool console.

Development (inside the ccxt monorepo)

npm run mcp.ts          # run the server from live TypeScript sources (tsx)
cd mcp && npm test      # unit + schema + integration tests
cd mcp && npm run build # tsc + regenerate js/data/method-docs.json

See DESIGN.md for the architecture, the prior-art analysis this server is built on, and the decision log.