An order book is a list containing all outstanding buy or sell orders for a specific currency pair, organized by price level. An order book identifies the amount of the currency pair being bid or offered at a specific price, known as the market depth. An order to buy is called a ‘bid’ and an order to sell is called an ‘ask’. The exchange’s matching engine pairs up bids and asks, resulting in a trade.
You can browse our full pairs and historical coverage using our instrument explorer here. Kaiko provides cryptocurrency order book snapshots at various market depths:
All order books consist of Level 2 data. Kaiko order book data consists of buy orders, containing all information about bids (the amount to purchase and the price desired to buy at) and and sell orders, containing all information about asks (the amount to sell and the price desired to sell at). Our order book data is categorized in rows by:
Crypto order book data has a variety of use cases. Historical order books can be used to simulate past market environments. They are ideal for backtesting trading strategies or researching the dynamics of sellers and buyers. Crypto order books provide an under-the-hood look at an exchange, recording all bids and asks live at a given moment. Thus, they are useful when analyzing underlying market conditions--buying pressure, selling pressure, retail action, or institutional action.
Crypto order books also help identify a currency pair's potential support or resistance levels. For example, a large amount of buy orders for a Bitcoin currency pair may indicate there is buying pressure at a certain price, thus serving as support. Order book data is dynamic and constantly updating, making it a useful gauge for live or historical market conditions.
Cryptocurrency order books are not only useful to traders. They also improve cryptoassets market transparency by showing in real-time how demand and supply originates. Order books show how many units of a currency are available, the price, and who wants to initiate the transaction.
At Kaiko, we collect order book snapshots from dozens of exchanges and thousands of currency pairs including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Monero, and more. Our datasets go back until 2014, and provide the most granular look at cryptocurrency market conditions. Below, you can browse our order book datasets. If you do not see what you are looking for, reach out at hello@kaiko.com.
