# What to use instead of Cryptowatch

Kraken shut Cryptowatch down on 30 September 2023 and cryptowat.ch now redirects to kraken.com. What in this catalogue covers the pieces it did.

*https://cryptomarkets.tools/alternatives/cryptowatch*

## The subject

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Product | Cryptowatch |
| Status | retired |
| Stopped serving | 2023-09-30 |
| Website | https://cryptowat.ch |
| Category | Crypto Market Data APIs |

Kraken's multi-venue charting terminal and market-data API — candles, aggregated order books and trades from dozens of exchanges on one screen and behind one key.

## Replacements

*Ordered by how much of the original’s job each one covers, closest first. Paid placement does not affect this order.*

1. [CCXT](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/ccxt.md) — One MIT client over 104 exchanges — candles, books, trades and order entry. The closest thing to Cryptowatch's multi-venue surface, if you run it yourself.
2. [CoinAPI Market Data API](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/coinapi.md) — The hosted version of that job — 400+ venues behind one symbol scheme, over REST and WebSocket. Nothing to run, but metered, and there is no free plan.
3. [Velo](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/velo.md) — The only screen on this list — cross-venue charts over five venues, free to look at. Derivatives rather than the spot books Cryptowatch was known for.
4. [Tardis.dev](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/tardis-dev.md) — Replaces the history rather than the live view: tick trades and L2/L3 books from 64 exchange feeds since 2019, downloaded and replayed.

## The product

Cryptowatch was a charting terminal for people who watched more than one exchange. Kraken
acquired it in 2017 and ran it as web, desktop and mobile apps: candles and aggregated order
books drawn from dozens of venues side by side, a trade feed, alerts, order entry against
exchange keys you connected yourself, and a chat layer called Cryptowatch Social. Underneath the
apps sat the Cryptowatch API — a plain REST and WebSocket surface over the same markets, with one
naming scheme across exchanges and a credit allowance you could start on for nothing. That API is
why it turns up in so many Python and R wrapper packages: it was the easiest way to get
comparable candles from several venues without writing an integration per venue.

On **31 July 2023** Kraken published the sunset notice. In its words, "Cryptowatch Web, Desktop
and Mobile products will sunset. This includes Cryptowatch Social and Cryptowatch API." The
schedule was three lines: new and existing subscriptions stopped on **1 August 2023**; Desktop,
Mobile and Web were discontinued on **30 September 2023**; outstanding purchased credit was
refunded after that. The stated reason was focus — "as we focus our attention and resources on
enhancing Kraken's core range of products and services" — and existing users were pointed at
Kraken Pro, Kraken's own trading interface, with a note that some Cryptowatch technology would
be folded into it. Kraken Pro is a single-venue exchange front end, which is not the job
Cryptowatch was hired for.

Three years on, the shutdown is complete in the way shutdowns usually are not. Checked on
**19 September 2026**: `cryptowat.ch` and `www.cryptowat.ch` both return a 301 to
`www.kraken.com`, and `api.cryptowat.ch` and `docs.cryptowat.ch` have no DNS record at all. The
apex still resolves because somebody kept the redirect; the API host does not resolve, which is
the more useful fact — code pointed at it fails at name resolution, before any HTTP status a
client could branch on.

One note on sourcing: the announcement is Kraken's own, but the live blog URL refuses automated
requests with a 403, so the wording above was read from an Internet Archive capture of that page
taken on 2 October 2023.

## What to use instead

**Say the awkward part first: this catalogue cannot replace the front end.** The categories that
would hold a multi-venue terminal or a charting platform — trading terminals, charting platforms
— are still drafts here, so the honest answer for "I want that screen back" is that the list
below does not contain it. Four cards cover four separable pieces of what Cryptowatch did, and
all four are the data rather than the view.

**If what you had was the API, and you can run code.** [CCXT](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/ccxt) is the closest match
in this catalogue and it is first on the list for that reason. One interface over 104 exchanges,
MIT-licensed, covering candles, order books, trades and — unlike Cryptowatch's read-only
endpoints for most users — order entry with your own exchange keys. The difference that matters
is architectural: Cryptowatch was a hosted aggregate you called once, CCXT is a client that calls
each exchange for you. You inherit every exchange's rate limits, outages and schema changes
instead of somebody else's.

**If what you had was the API, and you do not want to run anything.**
[CoinAPI](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/coinapi) is the hosted form — one symbol scheme across 400+ venues over REST,
WebSocket and FIX, normalised on their side. It is the nearest thing in shape to what Cryptowatch
sold. It is also the one that will surprise you on price: there is no free plan, entry is a card
on file, and REST is metered in credits while WebSocket is metered in gigabytes. Budget before
you port.

**If what you actually miss is the screen.** [Velo](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/velo) is the only card on this list that
is a thing you look at rather than a thing you call — cross-venue charts over Binance, Bybit, OKX,
Deribit and Hyperliquid, free to use in the browser, with a CSV API on the paid tier. It is a
derivatives product: open interest, funding, basis, liquidations. It is not a spot charting
terminal and it does not draw an aggregated spot book. If your Cryptowatch layout was four spot
pairs across four exchanges, the nearer answer is [Tealstreet](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/tealstreet), which is free
and charts every venue you hold a key for — though it, too, draws them side by side rather than
merging the books.

**If what you had was the history.** [Tardis.dev](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/tardis-dev) sells exactly the archive
Cryptowatch never really had — tick-by-tick trades and L2 and L3 order books from 64 exchange
feeds back to 2019, delivered as files to replay rather than as a live feed. Anyone whose
Cryptowatch use was actually a backfill script should start here, not with a real-time API.

## What you give up

**The terminal, with nothing in this catalogue standing in for it.** This is the loss and it is
not a small one. Cryptowatch put several exchanges' books and candles on one screen with one
layout, and the two categories here that would list a replacement are not open yet. Kraken Pro is
one venue's own front end; Velo is five derivatives venues; CCXT and CoinAPI are things you write
code against. If you need the picture rather than the numbers, the honest answer is that this
page does not have it.

**The aggregated order book across spot venues.** Cryptowatch's signature view merged several
exchanges' books into one depth chart. [CoinGlass](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/coinglass) publishes cross-venue L2 and
L3 books, but on roughly thirty **futures** venues, which is a different tape and a different
question. No card in this catalogue does the spot version, which is why CoinGlass is not on the
list above — it would be a pick chosen to make the list longer rather than to answer the question.

**A free tier that started as a tier and not as a trial.** Cryptowatch's API had a credit
allowance you could use without a card. Of the four picks, CCXT is free because it is a library
and you supply the infrastructure, Velo is free to look at but not to export, Tardis.dev's free
tier is a sample of days rather than a reduced rate, and CoinAPI has no free plan at all.

**The wrapper libraries.** A decade of `cryptowatchR`, Python clients and community bindings went
with it, and because the API host no longer resolves, they do not degrade — they throw at the DNS
layer. Anything in your dependency tree that imports one is dead weight, not a fallback.

## Migration notes

**Nothing here is a port. Cryptowatch's response shapes, market identifiers and allowance model
have no successor**, so a migration is a rewrite of the data layer and should be planned as one.

- **Market identifiers.** Cryptowatch used `exchange:pair` strings with its own normalisation
  (`kraken:btcusd`). CCXT uses its own unified symbols (`BTC/USD`) mapped onto each exchange's
  native market ids, and CoinAPI uses its own `EXCHANGE_SPOT_BASE_QUOTE` scheme. In all three
  cases the mapping table is yours to build and maintain, and it is where a migration quietly
  loses a venue.
- **Candle boundaries and periods.** Cryptowatch returned candles keyed by period in seconds.
  Exchange APIs use string intervals with their own vocabularies, and not every exchange aligns a
  4-hour candle to the same boundary. Two providers' `4h` bars for the same market are often not
  the same bars, and the gap shows up as a phantom signal rather than an error.
- **Rate limits change kind, not just size.** Cryptowatch metered a credit allowance per account
  against a hosted service. Going to CCXT means each exchange's own limit, usually per IP and
  often weighted per endpoint, enforced by somebody who does not know you migrated. Going to
  CoinAPI means credits for REST and gigabytes for WebSocket, which are two meters to watch
  instead of one.
- **Aggregated depth has to be assembled.** If you were reading Cryptowatch's merged book, that
  merge was a product feature. Rebuilding it means subscribing to each venue's book stream,
  keeping each one in sync separately, and deciding what to do when one goes stale — which is a
  piece of engineering, not a configuration option.
- **Order entry moves to the exchanges.** Cryptowatch brokered orders through connected exchange
  keys. CCXT does the same job locally, but the keys, the permissions and the failure handling
  are now in your process, and so is anything you were relying on Cryptowatch to retry.
- **Check the shutdown date against your data.** Anything stamped after 30 September 2023 that
  claims Cryptowatch as its source did not come from Cryptowatch.

The rest of the field is in [Crypto Market Data APIs](https://cryptomarkets.tools/categories/market-data-apis).

## FAQ

### When did Cryptowatch shut down?

Kraken announced the sunset on 31 July 2023. New and existing Cryptowatch subscriptions stopped on 1 August 2023, and Cryptowatch Desktop, Mobile and Web were discontinued on 30 September 2023, with outstanding purchased credit refunded after that date. The announcement said the sunset also covered Cryptowatch Social and the Cryptowatch API.

### Is the Cryptowatch API still up?

No, and it is further gone than the website. As of 19 September 2026 cryptowat.ch and www.cryptowat.ch both return a 301 to www.kraken.com, but api.cryptowat.ch and docs.cryptowat.ch have no DNS record at all — a client pointed at the old API host fails to resolve rather than getting an error it can read. Any wrapper library still pinned to it is dead code.

### Did Kraken replace Cryptowatch with anything?

Kraken pointed users at Kraken Pro, its own trading interface, and said it would fold some Cryptowatch technology into it. That is a single-venue exchange front end rather than a multi-venue terminal, and it is not a public market-data API. This catalogue does not list exchange front ends, so it is named here and not carded.

### Is there a drop-in replacement for the Cryptowatch API?

No. Nothing serves Cryptowatch's response shapes, its market identifiers or its credit-based allowance. The closest single move is CCXT, which gives one interface over many exchanges but talks to each exchange directly rather than to one hosted aggregate, so you run it, rate-limit it and keep it updated yourself.