Quickstart
The Cardano Price API provides comprehensive access to historical and real-time Cardano token data following the TradingView Brokerage Integration specification. With it, you can query endpoints for price history, symbol information, current prices, and streaming data across 17,000+ Cardano tokens from all major DEXs.
In most production environments, you will rarely manually construct HTTP requests and parse JSON responses as demonstrated here. Instead, you would typically integrate our API endpoints into your existing TradingView-compatible applications or build custom solutions using the standardized format.
By following the manual steps below, you will gain an understanding of how the Cardano Price API works and how to integrate Cardano token data into your applications.
Authenticate Your Request
Before you can access Cardano Price data, you need your unique API key.
Obtaining Your API Key
-
Sign up or log in to your Charli3 account. If you don’t have a subscription yet choose the plan.
-
Visit your Dashboard to find your API key.
-
Keep your API key secure and do not share it publicly.
You can include your API key using the Authorization header:
Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY
Note: Replace YOUR_API_KEY
with your actual API key from your dashboard.
Making Your First API Request
Let’s start by discovering what DEXs and token pairs are available. At your terminal, make a simple request using the curl command to the /groups
endpoint to list available DEXs.
curl "https://api.charli3.io/api/v1/groups" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"
This command retrieves all available DEX groups (protocols) like MinswapV2, SundaeSwap, and the special “Aggregate” group that provides combined data across all DEXs.
Getting Symbol Information
Once you know the available groups, you can get symbol information for a specific DEX. Let’s get the available trading pairs for MinswapV2:
curl "https://api.charli3.io/api/v1/symbol_info?group=MinswapV2" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"
This returns detailed information about all trading pairs available on MinswapV2, including:
- Symbol names and descriptions
- Base and quote currencies (policy IDs)
- Exchange information
- Price scale and formatting details
- Unique ticker identifiers for data requests
Fetching Historical Price Data
Now let’s get historical price data for a specific token pair. Using a ticker from the previous response:
curl "https://api.charli3.io/api/v1/history?symbol=TICKER_ID&resolution=60min&from=1735689600&to=1735776000" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"
Parameters:
symbol
: The unique ticker ID from the symbol_info responseresolution
: Time interval (1min, 5min, 15min, 60min, 1d)from
: Start time as Unix timestampto
: End time as Unix timestampinclude_tvl
: Optional boolean to include Total Value Locked data
Getting Current Token Prices
For real-time pricing, use the current price endpoint with a token’s policy ID and name:
curl "https://api.charli3.io/api/v1/tokens/current?policy=279c909f348e533da5808898f87f9a14bb2c3dfbbacccd631d927a3f534e454b" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"
This returns the current price & stats for the specified token (SNEK in this example).
Understanding the API Response
All Cardano Price API endpoints return data in a structured JSON format consistent with TradingView standards:
Groups Response
{
"s": "ok",
"d": {
"groups": [
{"id": "MinswapV2"},
{"id": "SundaeSwap"},
{"id": "Aggregate"}
]
}
}
Historical Data Response
{
"s": "ok",
"t": [1735689600, 1735693200, 1735696800],
"o": [0.004056, 0.004012, 0.003998],
"h": [0.004089, 0.004056, 0.004023],
"l": [0.003995, 0.003987, 0.003976],
"c": [0.004012, 0.003998, 0.004001],
"v": [1250.5, 987.3, 1456.7]
}
Where:
s
: Status (“ok” or “error”)t
: Timestamps (Unix time)o
: Open pricesh
: High pricesl
: Low pricesc
: Close pricesv
: Volumetvl
: Total Value Locked (if requested)
Understanding Aggregate Data
The “Aggregate” group provides special functionality by combining data across all DEXs for more accurate pricing:
- Token reserves from all pools of a given pair are summed together
- Acts like a “weighted average” across the entire Cardano ecosystem
- More representative of global token pricing
- Reduces single-DEX volatility and discrepancies
Available Resolutions
The API supports multiple time intervals for historical data:
1min
: 1-minute bars5min
: 5-minute bars15min
: 15-minute bars60min
: 1-hour bars1d
: Daily bars
More use-case tailored guides to read
Full API spec
Rate Limits and Best Practices
- Use appropriate time ranges to avoid large payloads
- Leverage the
group
parameter to filter symbol_info requests - Use aggregate data for general pricing, specific DEX data for detailed analysis
- Monitor streaming connections for health check pings every 20 seconds
- Cache symbol information to reduce API calls
Next Steps
With your first successful API requests and an understanding of the TradingView-compatible JSON format, you are prepared to:
- Integrate with TradingView: Use the API as a data source for TradingView charts and analysis
- Build Custom Applications: Create DeFi dashboards, trading bots, or portfolio trackers
- Historical Analysis: Analyze price trends and volume patterns across Cardano DEXs
- Real-time Monitoring: Set up live price alerts and streaming data feeds
Check out our detailed API documentation for additional parameters, advanced filtering options, and comprehensive endpoint specifications. The consistent TradingView format makes it easy to integrate with existing financial applications and charting libraries.
Common Use Cases
DeFi Applications
- Portfolio tracking across multiple DEXs
- Arbitrage opportunity detection
- Liquidity pool analysis
Trading and Analytics
- Technical analysis with OHLCV data
- Multi-DEX price comparison
- Volume trend analysis
Integration Projects
- TradingView chart integration
- Mobile app price feeds
- Custom dashboard development