Crypto Overview

At Polygon.io, we provide real-time streaming access to the global cryptocurrency market through WebSockets. Our feeds include trades, quotes, time-based aggregates (per-minute and per-second), Level 2 (L2) order book data, and Fair Market Value (FMV) for supported crypto pairs. By leveraging these streaming endpoints, developers, traders, and analysts can monitor dynamic market conditions, inform algorithmic trading strategies, and power responsive dashboards, without the need for repetitive requests.

Market Hours and Timezone

Unlike traditional markets, cryptocurrency trading operates continuously, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, across multiple global exchanges. This around-the-clock activity enables you to engage with markets at any time, from anywhere.

All crypto data is standardized to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). This global alignment simplifies time-sensitive analytics, ensuring consistent data integration and interpretation, regardless of your geographic location or the exchanges you track.

Infrastructure and Reliability

Our WebSocket infrastructure is engineered to handle the decentralized, high-volume nature of cryptocurrency trading. We connect directly to multiple leading exchanges, ensuring minimal latency and maximum data integrity. Redundant systems, load balancing, and scalable architecture enable stable, low-latency data delivery even during periods of heightened market activity.

This robust framework supports latency-sensitive applications, such as automated trading bots, real-time order book visualizations, and high-frequency analytical models.

Data Flow: From Exchanges to You

Cryptocurrency data originates from numerous global exchanges, each with its own market structure and liquidity. Polygon.io aggregates this information, normalizes differing data formats, and streams the unified data set over WebSockets. As soon as trades occur, quotes shift, or order book levels update, this information is relayed directly to your subscribed channels, ensuring you remain closely aligned with evolving market conditions.

Available WebSocket Feeds for Crypto

Our WebSocket channels deliver a comprehensive range of crypto data streams, offering real-time insights into both price action and market depth:

  • Aggregates (Per Minute): Receive OHLC (Open, High, Low, Close) bars aggregated every minute. Ideal for intraday trend analysis, short-term strategy refinement, and timely market monitoring.
  • Aggregates (Per Second): Obtain second-level OHLC bars for more granular, high-resolution analysis. Perfect for algorithmic traders and analysts who need rapid insights into market microstructure.
  • Trades: Stream every executed crypto trade in real-time, including price, size, and exchange details. Useful for tick-level analyses, order flow studies, and ultra-responsive trading algorithms.
  • Quotes: Access top-of-book bid/ask quotes from multiple exchanges, enabling you to monitor evolving liquidity conditions, track spreads, and identify short-term opportunities in a fragmented market.
  • Level 2 Book: Stream L2 order book data, providing visibility into market depth at multiple price levels. Ideal for assessing liquidity, analyzing supply/demand imbalances, and informing order placement strategies.
  • Fair Market Value (FMV): For eligible subscribers on Business plans, stream our proprietary FMV metric for crypto pairs. This real-time, algorithmically derived estimate of a pair’s fair market price supports advanced valuation techniques and risk management.

By subscribing to these feeds, you gain a continuous, event-driven flow of market intelligence, eliminating the overhead of polling and ensuring your applications remain in sync with global crypto markets.

Next Steps

Explore our documentation to seamlessly integrate these WebSocket feeds into your applications. With a flexible subscription model, you can focus on the crypto pairs and data streams most relevant to your objectives, enabling tasks such as:

  • Powering live market dashboards with up-to-the-second data
  • Supporting algorithmic models that respond instantly to changing conditions
  • Enhancing trading strategies with deep, order book-driven insights
  • Conducting real-time risk assessments and liquidity analysis

By utilizing Polygon.io’s crypto WebSocket feeds, you unlock a continuous stream of actionable market data, positioning your applications to excel in the fast-paced, global cryptocurrency arena.

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