The market looks deeper than it really is.
BlackForge is a crypto market-data API. It streams live order-book and trade data from every pair on 9 spot exchanges, ~11,800 pairs in all, and publishes 120 measurement columns per pair per closed 5-minute window. Raw market microstructure for your dashboard or your agents, never trade calls.
We measure what's really there. Every order book on 9 spot exchanges, every trade, every 5 minutes.
Bid depth to −5% fell on three pairs in the last four hours. ARB on Bybit lost 62% of it, and its median level lifetime is down to 210 ms.
Scroll to run it
9 exchanges, one set of numbers
Every exchange publishes its order book differently. Four steps turn all 9 into the same row.
An open stream to the full order book and trade feed on each of the 9 venues. Every pair, nothing filtered out, nothing sampled on the way in.
Venues stamp their events differently. Every update is snapped to the same five-minute grid so one row means the same thing everywhere.
120 columns per pair per closed window: depth bands, order ladders, book churn, trade flow, outsized trades, enrichment and context. Measurements only, never scores.
A dashboard for people; REST, MCP and a CLI for code. The same row behind every one of them.
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What each number actually tells you
Depth bands
How much money is resting on the book within a given distance of the current price. In plain terms: how much you could sell into before the price starts moving against you.
Bands are percentage moves, not basis points: bid depth to −5%, −10%, −15%, −20%, ask depth to +30% and out to +400%, plus the full book on both sides.
Order ladders
A depth band gives you one total. The ladder gives you the shape of it: how much money is stacked right against the price, and how much sits far enough out that it will never be touched.
Two pairs can carry the same depth and behave nothing alike. Depth on its own will not tell you which of them you can actually sell into.
Book churn
Liquidity added and removed on each side during the window, how many price levels changed, and how long a level survives before it is pulled.
This is how a book can look deep and still behave thin. Median level lifetime and the flicker count separate resting size from size that leaves when you reach for it.
Trade flow
What actually traded: taker buy versus sell volume, trade counts, average trade size and average price on each side, and the single largest print of the window.
Resting size is intent; this is execution. Read it against the depth bands to see whether the book absorbed the flow or moved out of its way.
Outsized trades
Trades that came in far above the pair's own recent average size, counted and totalled at four thresholds (1.5×, 2×, 3× and 6×), split by side.
Each threshold is relative to that pair on that venue, so a big print on a thin altcoin and a big print on BTC are both caught. Counts, not conclusions.
68 of 120 columns. The other 52 carry candles, trade timing, enrichment, market context and row quality.
Your agent can read the same numbers
Connect BlackForge to Claude, Cursor or anything that speaks the Model Context Protocol, and ask about the market there instead. Same rows, same entitlements, one API key.
Every tool returns the same JSON the REST API returns.
Software can pay for one request
Normal API access works the way you expect: request access, get a key, call the endpoint. There is also a second way in, for programs nobody gave an account to.
Call with no key and the answer is HTTP 402, the status code for “payment required”, carrying a price and an address. Settle $0.005 in USDC, repeat the request, get the rows. That exchange is the x402 standard.
USDC on Base. Up to 100 rows a call, all 120 columns, a 90-day window. No account, no API key, no minimum.
Every plan reads the same market
What changes is how far back you can look, how fine the windows are, how many columns you can query, how much you can pull at once, and how much you can ask the agent.
- Binance, MEXC and Gate
- Daily granularity, 2-week window
- 39 columns per pair
- Dashboard access
- A taste of the agent
- All 9 venues
- Hourly granularity, 3-month window
- 73 columns per pair
- REST API and MCP connector
- Agent included
- Native 5-minute granularity
- 1-year window
- All 120 columns
- 50M rows a month, 3 seats
- 5× Pro's agent usage
- Everything in Max
- Full archive, 500M rows a month
- 10 seats
- Scheduled delivery
- 20× Pro's agent usage
- No account, no API key
- Paid in USDC on Base over HTTP 402
- All 120 columns, up to 100 rows a call
- 90-day window
History windows are entitlements, not retention. The archive is kept forever. CSV export, the CLI and the agent skill are on every plan, Free included. While BlackForge is in private beta, every plan starts with a request for access.
Straight answers
What is BlackForge?
BlackForge is raw market data for crypto. It streams live order-book and trade data from nine spot venues, every pair (about 11,800 of them in a typical closed 5-minute window), and publishes 120 measurement columns per pair: volume, trade flow, order-book depth bands and ladders, book churn, new listings and more. Humans read it through a dashboard and API; autonomous agents read the same data through a single pay-per-call endpoint over x402. These are raw measurements, not trade calls.
What is the x402 protocol, and how does pay-per-call work?
x402 is HTTP 402 Payment Required, put to work. An agent requests data, gets a price back over HTTP instead of a paywall, settles a stablecoin micropayment on-chain (USDC on Base), and receives the data in the same round trip. No account, no API key, no subscription. Roughly $0.005 per call.
Which exchanges does BlackForge cover?
Nine spot venues, streamed in real time: Binance, Bybit, OKX, Coinbase, Kraken, KuCoin, Bitget, Gate and MEXC. Every pair on those venues is covered, nothing filtered out, long tail included, and every new pair is tracked from its first trade.
Do you cover perpetuals and derivatives?
Spot markets across nine venues today. Derivatives are not covered yet.
How fast is the data?
Data is streamed live from the venues as events happen and consolidated into a 5-minute bar per pair, so every column is at most five minutes old. Agents paying over x402 get their response in the same request, typically well under a second including on-chain settlement.
Do I need an account or API key?
It depends who you are. For humans, dashboard access is in private beta right now, so you request access and we set you up with the dashboard and webhooks. Agents need neither: they point at one endpoint and pay per call over x402, with no account, no API key and no onboarding.
How much does BlackForge cost?
There are four plans plus pay-per-call. Free covers Binance, MEXC and Gate at daily granularity, with a 2-week history window and 39 columns per pair. Pro ($29/month, $290/year) opens all nine venues at hourly granularity, with a 3-month window and 73 columns. Max ($99/month, $990/year) is the full product: native 5-minute granularity, a 1-year window and all 120 columns. Ultra ($399/month, $3,990/year) scales Max to the full archive, 500M rows a month, 10 seats and scheduled delivery. Agents can skip plans entirely: $0.005 per call over x402, up to 100 rows per call, all 120 columns and a 90-day window, paid in USDC on Base with no account or API key. History windows are entitlements, not retention. The archive is kept forever. While BlackForge is in private beta, every plan starts with a request for access.
Is this financial advice?
No. BlackForge provides raw market data, not investment advice or a recommendation to trade. Crypto markets are volatile and you trade at your own risk. We give you the raw numbers; the decision is yours.
See it on the pairs you actually trade
Tell us which exchanges and pairs you watch. We open a dashboard with your history already loaded. Private beta, no card.
9 exchanges · ~11,800 pairs · 120 columns per pair · 5-minute windows