Cryptocurrency APIs: State of Developer Experience 2021

The cryptocurrency market has gained significant interest from institutional investors, publicly listed companies, and government institutions, leading to the emergence of a crypto ecosystem comprising thousands of cryptocurrencies and digital-native assets. Cryptocurrency adoption is increasing, with payment providers such as CashApp, Square, Paypal, Visa, and Mastercard laying the groundwork for financial transactions using cryptocurrencies. Electronic payments giants are partnering with cryptocurrency exchanges like Binance, Crypto.com, and Coinbase to launch debit cards, allowing users to pay with cryptocurrency at over 70 million merchants globally. Cryptocurrency exchanges remain the largest stakeholders in the crypto market, providing public APIs to allow programmatic access to their services, which is facilitating the growth of the industry. However, most major exchanges have limited developer experience, with many relying on community-built libraries that are often neglected over time, highlighting the need for better SDKs and code samples to enhance developer experience.