Crypto Trading (Official API)¶

pyhood wraps Robinhood's official, documented Crypto Trading API. This is separate from the unofficial API used for stocks and options.

Key Differences¶

	Stocks/Options	Crypto
API	Unofficial (reverse-engineered)	Official (documented)
Auth	OAuth + device approval	ED25519 API keys
Base URL	`api.robinhood.com`	`trading.robinhood.com`
Rate limits	Unknown	100 req/min, 300 burst
Human needed	First login + expired refresh	Never

Setup¶

1. Generate API Keys¶

Go to robinhood.com/account/crypto on web classic and create credentials. You'll get:

API key (starts with rh-api-)
Public key (base64, you upload to Robinhood)
Private key (base64, you keep secret)

You can also generate a keypair with pyhood:

from pyhood.crypto.auth import generate_keypair

private_key, public_key = generate_keypair()
print(f"Private: {private_key}")  # Save securely
print(f"Public:  {public_key}")   # Upload to Robinhood

2. Create a Client¶

from pyhood.crypto import CryptoClient

crypto = CryptoClient(
    api_key="rh-api-your-key-here",
    private_key_base64="your-private-key-base64",
)

Never share your private key

Store it in an environment variable or encrypted file. Never commit it to version control.

Market Data¶

Best Bid/Ask¶

quotes = crypto.get_best_bid_ask("BTC-USD", "ETH-USD")

for quote in quotes:
    print(f"{quote.symbol}: bid=${quote.bid:.2f} ask=${quote.ask:.2f}")

Estimated Price¶

Get the expected execution price including fees:

price = crypto.get_estimated_price("BTC-USD", "buy", 0.001)

print(f"Bid: ${price.bid_price:.2f}")
print(f"Ask: ${price.ask_price:.2f}")
print(f"Fee: ${price.fee:.2f}")

Trading Pairs¶

pairs = crypto.get_trading_pairs("BTC-USD", "ETH-USD")

for pair in pairs:
    print(f"{pair.symbol}: min={pair.min_order_size} max={pair.max_order_size}")

Account & Holdings¶

# Get account info
account = crypto.get_account()
print(f"Account: {account.account_number}")
print(f"Buying power: ${account.buying_power:.2f}")
print(f"Fee tier: {account.fee_tier}")

# Get holdings
holdings = crypto.get_holdings(account.account_number)
for h in holdings:
    print(f"{h.asset_code}: {h.quantity} (available: {h.available_quantity})")

Placing Orders¶

Market Order (by quantity)¶

order = crypto.place_order(
    account_number=account.account_number,
    side="buy",
    order_type="market",
    symbol="BTC-USD",
    order_config={"asset_quantity": "0.001"},
)
print(f"Order {order.order_id}: {order.status}")

Market Order (by dollar amount)¶

order = crypto.place_order(
    account_number=account.account_number,
    side="buy",
    order_type="market",
    symbol="BTC-USD",
    order_config={"notional_amount": "100.00"},  # Buy $100 of BTC
)

Limit Order¶

order = crypto.place_order(
    account_number=account.account_number,
    side="buy",
    order_type="limit",
    symbol="BTC-USD",
    order_config={
        "asset_quantity": "0.001",
        "limit_price": "60000.00",
    },
)

Managing Orders¶

# Get all orders
orders = crypto.get_orders(account.account_number)
for order in orders:
    print(f"{order.symbol} {order.side} {order.status}")

# Get specific order
order = crypto.get_order(account.account_number, "order-id-here")

# Cancel an order
crypto.cancel_order("order-id-here")

Authentication Details¶

Every request is signed with ED25519:

message = f"{api_key}{timestamp}{path}{method}{body}"
signature = ed25519_sign(message, private_key)

Three headers are sent:

Header	Value
`x-api-key`	Your API key
`x-signature`	Base64-encoded ED25519 signature
`x-timestamp`	Unix timestamp (valid for 30 seconds)

pyhood handles all of this automatically.

Rate Limits¶

The official API has documented rate limits:

100 requests per minute per account
300 requests per minute burst capacity
Token bucket with automatic refill

pyhood includes a built-in token bucket rate limiter that tracks your usage and prevents you from hitting limits.