# What happens to a pair's data when an exchange delists it

Whether a bot can see a delisting coming, what the API says afterwards, where the history goes, and why the pair drops out of a backtest universe.

*https://cryptomarkets.tools/guides/what-happens-to-data-after-a-delisting · background to Crypto Trading Bots*

**Answer:** A delisted pair rarely disappears from an exchange's API; it changes status and stops trading. On 23 October 2026 Binance returned BTCBUSD, which stopped trading in December 2023, with status BREAK, an empty order book and its candle history. The spot delist schedule needs an API key, so Freqtrade reads it only in live trading. Libraries treat non-trading pairs as inactive and drop them from pair lists, which quietly removes them from backtests.

A delisting is an exchange decision with a date on it. For a person it is an announcement to read.
For a bot or a backtest it is a change of state in an API, and the state the API reports is not
always the one its name suggests. This page follows one Binance spot pair from scheduled to delisted
to archived, and then the two places downstream — a bot's pair list and a coin aggregator — where
the pair's history either survives or quietly drops out.

It does not repeat [what a crypto backtest assumes](https://cryptomarkets.tools/guides/what-a-crypto-backtest-assumes) about
fills, fees and funding. This is about which pairs the backtest runs on in the first place.

## How it works

Three things happen to a pair, usually on different days.

1. **It is scheduled.** The exchange announces a delist time.
2. **Trading stops.** The order book empties and no new candles form.
3. **The record stays.** The pair keeps its symbol in the exchange's metadata, its candles in the
   API and its files in the archive, under a status that downstream code must interpret.

Each step is visible through a different endpoint, and each library downstream makes its own choice
about what the status means.

## Before: the delist schedule

Binance publishes upcoming spot delistings at `GET /sapi/v1/spot/delist-schedule`. Its wallet change
log dates the endpoint to 15 January 2024. The reference page, read on 23 October 2026, gives the
shape: an object with `delistTime`, a millisecond timestamp, and `symbols`, a list of pair names. It
is marked MARKET_DATA, costs 100 of IP weight, and requires an `X-MBX-APIKEY` header — so although it
describes public market structure, an anonymous call cannot read it.

That requirement shapes what a framework does with it. In Freqtrade's Binance module, read at the
commit of 23 October 2026, `check_delisting_time` returns nothing at all unless the bot is in a
trading run mode; for spot pairs the lookup returns nothing unless the run mode is live, with the
comment "Endpoint only works in live mode as it requires API keys". The schedule is cached for 300
seconds. For Binance futures the same function reads each contract's delivery date and treats a
date equal to BTC/USDT perpetual's as "never delisted".

Freqtrade's documentation says the same in user terms: its `DelistFilter`, which removes pairs due
to be delisted, works on Bybit futures, Bitget futures and Binance, "where Binance Futures will work
for both dry and live modes, while Binance Spot is limited to live mode", and it "does not support
backtesting mode". A dry run on Binance spot therefore does not see the schedule.

## After: what the API says about a delisted pair

Binance's spot documentation lists five symbol statuses: `TRADING`, `END_OF_DAY`, `HALT`, `BREAK` and
`CANCEL_ONLY`, the last added in the changelog entry of 1 July 2026. The English file gives no
definitions. The Chinese edition does: `HALT` is "交易终止(该交易对已下线)" — trading terminated, the
pair has been taken offline — and `BREAK` is "交易暂停", trading paused.

What the API returned on 23 October 2026, at about 19:04 UTC and again at 19:46 UTC, for BTCBUSD, a pair whose last candle
is dated 15 December 2023:

- **exchangeInfo** returned the symbol with `"status":"BREAK"` — not `HALT` — alongside
  `"isSpotTradingAllowed":true` and its full set of filters.
- **depth** returned an empty book: no bids, no asks.
- **klines** returned history. The last daily candle opened at 00:00 UTC on 15 December 2023 and
  closed at 04:59:59.999, five hours into the day, at 42,769.40.
- **ticker/price** returned 42,769.40, with no timestamp.
- **ticker/24hr** returned the same last price, zero bid and ask, and a 24-hour window dated 5 to 6
  October 2026.

Across the whole spot list, exchangeInfo returned 3,736 symbols at both reads: 1,383 `TRADING`,
2,353 `BREAK`, and none `HALT`.

So on Binance spot the label a delisted pair carries is the one the documentation's Chinese edition
describes as a pause, and nothing in exchangeInfo separates a pair resuming tomorrow from one that
stopped in 2023. The price endpoints keep answering. A bot that reads `ticker/price` for a symbol it
holds in a list will get a number for a pair that has not traded for almost three years.

## Where the history goes

**The REST API keeps serving it.** Candle history for BTCBUSD was retrievable through klines on 23
October 2026, back to its first daily candle on 19 September 2019 when the request asked for a
start time of zero.

**The archive keeps it as files.** Binance Vision listed 52 monthly files of BTCBUSD daily candles,
from September 2019 to December 2023, and the December file downloaded. The archive's licence, which
is narrower than its openness suggests, is covered in
[what exchange API terms let you do](https://cryptomarkets.tools/guides/exchange-api-terms).

**Aggregators keep the coin, under another status.** CoinGecko's coins list "Returns the full list of
active coins by default"; coins "no longer listed on CoinGecko" come back only with `status=inactive`,
which needs the Analyst plan or above. CoinMarketCap's Listings Criteria define an Inactive Listing as
one set inactive for "absence of market data on at least one CMC-supported exchange or cessation of
operations", and reactivate it only with material volume "on at least two CMC-supported exchanges".
Its delisting policy, section E, reserves the right to delist a pair, an exchange or an asset
"without prior notice". Keeping those IDs is covered in
[mapping a ticker to one coin](https://cryptomarkets.tools/how-to/map-a-ticker-to-one-coin).

## Why the pair drops out of a backtest universe

The universe a backtest runs on is usually today's market list, filtered — and the filter is where
a delisted pair goes.

**CCXT turns status into a boolean.** Its Binance market parser, read at the commit of 22 October
2026, sets `active = (status == 'TRADING')`, and sets it false for spot symbols carrying the
`TRD_GRP_003` permission. `BREAK`, `HALT`, `END_OF_DAY` and `CANCEL_ONLY` all become `active: false`.

**Freqtrade drops inactive markets from the pair list, in backtests too.** Its pair-list base class
removes a pair that is not in the loaded markets, and logs "Ignoring {pair} from whitelist. Market is
not active." for one whose market is inactive. `StaticPairList` runs that check whatever the run
mode, and in backtesting and hyperopt it caches the result for the run. The documentation's answer is an option on the static list: "By default,
only currently enabled pairs are allowed. To skip pair validation against active markets, set
`"allow_inactive": true`", which it describes as "useful for backtesting expired pairs".

**Dynamic lists cannot look back.** Freqtrade's `VolumePairList` and `DelistFilter` are among the
handlers its documentation marks as not supporting backtesting. A universe chosen by today's volume
is chosen from today's survivors.

The result is mechanical, not a choice anyone made: with Freqtrade's defaults, a backtest of 2023 run
in October 2026 on Binance spot keeps only the pairs that CCXT marked active — trading — in October
2026.

## What it costs

The schedule and the history are free; the cost is an API key and a plan.

- **Delist schedule:** no charge beyond having a Binance account and an API key; 100 of IP weight
  per call.
- **Exchange history:** klines and Binance Vision files are free to fetch, under the licence terms of
  each.
- **Aggregator history of inactive coins:** on CoinGecko, the inactive list needs the Analyst plan or
  above, priced on the [CoinGecko API](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/coingecko-api) card.

## What you can do about it

**Do not read `BREAK` as temporary on Binance spot.** Treat any status other than `TRADING` as "not
tradable now", and decide separately, from the schedule or from the date of the last candle, whether
it will come back.

**Check the age of every price you act on.** `ticker/price` carries no timestamp and keeps answering
for a delisted pair. Read the close time of the last kline, or the trade time of the last trade, and
refuse a price older than your own threshold.

**Read the delist schedule in the process that trades.** It needs a key, so put the call where the
key already is. In Freqtrade on Binance spot, that means the live bot; a dry run will not see it.

**Freeze the universe when you build it.** For a backtest, save the pair list of the period you are
testing — from the archive's file listing or your own snapshot of exchangeInfo — and pass it as a
static list with `allow_inactive` set, rather than asking the exchange for today's list.

**Keep inactive IDs.** Store CoinGecko and CoinMarketCap IDs for coins that stopped trading, flagged
rather than deleted, so that a series still joins to its coin after the coin has gone.

**Download the archive before you need it.** History was still served on 23 October 2026 for a pair
delisted in December 2023. Neither the API documentation nor the archive promises that it always
will be.

## Tools this bears on

- [Freqtrade](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/freqtrade.md) — Write the strategy in Python, backtest it, then run the same class live.
- [Binance Market Data API](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/binance-api.md) — One venue's own tape — prices, books, trades and funding, free and unkeyed.
- [CCXT](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/ccxt.md) — One MIT client for 104 crypto exchanges, 76 of them over websocket.
- [CoinGecko API](https://cryptomarkets.tools/tools/coingecko-api.md) — Prices, market data and onchain DEX data for 18,000+ coins, via REST, websocket or MCP.

## FAQ

### How does a trading bot know a pair is about to be delisted on Binance?

Binance publishes a schedule at GET /sapi/v1/spot/delist-schedule, added on 15 January 2024, which returns a delist time and a list of symbols. It needs an API key in the request header and costs 100 of IP weight. Freqtrade reads it for spot pairs only when running live; for Binance futures it reads each contract's delivery date instead.

### Can I still download candles for a delisted Binance pair?

On 23 October 2026, yes for BTCBUSD: the klines endpoint returned daily candles from its history, the last one cut off at 05:00 UTC on 15 December 2023, and Binance Vision held 52 monthly files of daily candles from September 2019 to December 2023. What the archive's licence lets you do with them is a separate question.

### Why did my backtest skip a pair I listed?

Most likely because the library checked your pair list against the exchange's markets as they are today. CCXT marks a Binance market active only when its status is TRADING, and Freqtrade drops a pair whose market is not active with the log line Ignoring pair from whitelist. Its StaticPairList has an allow_inactive option for backtesting such pairs.

### Does CoinGecko keep data for coins that stopped trading?

It keeps them as inactive. The coins list returns active coins by default; status=inactive returns coins no longer listed on CoinGecko, and that parameter needs the Analyst plan or above. CoinMarketCap marks such pages Inactive Listings and reactivates one only with material volume on at least two supported exchanges.

## Sources

1. [Enum definitions — symbol status (enums.md)](https://github.com/binance/binance-spot-api-docs/blob/f4a9c0be68235f758b46f571f7313c63d1306b25/enums.md) — Binance, on GitHub, read 2026-10-23
2. [Enum definitions, Chinese edition — symbol status with descriptions (enums_CN.md)](https://github.com/binance/binance-spot-api-docs/blob/f4a9c0be68235f758b46f571f7313c63d1306b25/enums_CN.md) — Binance, on GitHub, read 2026-10-23
3. [Spot API changelog, entry of 2026-07-01 (CANCEL_ONLY symbol status)](https://github.com/binance/binance-spot-api-docs/blob/f4a9c0be68235f758b46f571f7313c63d1306b25/CHANGELOG.md) — Binance, on GitHub, read 2026-10-23
4. [Spot REST API — Exchange information (GET /api/v3/exchangeInfo)](https://github.com/binance/binance-spot-api-docs/blob/f4a9c0be68235f758b46f571f7313c63d1306b25/rest-api.md) — Binance, on GitHub, read 2026-10-23
5. [Wallet REST API — Get Spot Delist Schedule (GET /sapi/v1/spot/delist-schedule)](https://developers.binance.com/en/docs/catalog/core-trading-wallet/api/rest-api/others) — Binance, read 2026-10-23
6. [Wallet change log, entry of 2024-01-15](https://developers.binance.com/en/docs/products/wallet/change-log) — Binance, read 2026-10-23
7. [Binance Vision public data — spot monthly klines, BTCBUSD 1d](https://data.binance.vision/?prefix=data/spot/monthly/klines/BTCBUSD/1d/) — Binance, read 2026-10-23
8. [freqtrade/exchange/binance.py — check_delisting_time and _get_spot_pair_delist_time](https://github.com/freqtrade/freqtrade/blob/12e0878f8554eb0726a626ca16c0c23129a897e5/freqtrade/exchange/binance.py) — Freqtrade, on GitHub, read 2026-10-23
9. [Freqtrade documentation source — pairlists (StaticPairList allow_inactive, DelistFilter)](https://github.com/freqtrade/freqtrade/blob/12e0878f8554eb0726a626ca16c0c23129a897e5/docs/includes/pairlists.md) — Freqtrade, on GitHub, read 2026-10-23
10. [freqtrade/plugins/pairlist/IPairList.py — _whitelist_for_active_markets](https://github.com/freqtrade/freqtrade/blob/12e0878f8554eb0726a626ca16c0c23129a897e5/freqtrade/plugins/pairlist/IPairList.py) — Freqtrade, on GitHub, read 2026-10-23
11. [freqtrade/plugins/pairlist/StaticPairList.py — gen_pairlist](https://github.com/freqtrade/freqtrade/blob/12e0878f8554eb0726a626ca16c0c23129a897e5/freqtrade/plugins/pairlist/StaticPairList.py) — Freqtrade, on GitHub, read 2026-10-23
12. [python/ccxt/binance.py — parse_market, the active flag](https://github.com/ccxt/ccxt/blob/baa6df0105c958a2a81ae8614e23b7da3881ae1c/python/ccxt/binance.py) — CCXT, on GitHub, read 2026-10-23
13. [Coins List (ID Map) — GET /coins/list](https://docs.coingecko.com/reference/coins-list) — CoinGecko, read 2026-10-23
14. [Listings Criteria, sections B(3) and E, updated 29 September 2026 (Internet Archive capture of 11 October 2026)](https://web.archive.org/web/20261011191547id_/https://support.coinmarketcap.com/hc/en-us/articles/360043659351-Listings-Criteria) — CoinMarketCap, read through the Internet Archive, 2026-09-29

*Last updated 2026-10-23. A reference page, corrected in place — not a dated post.*