What is MCP
The Model Context Protocol (MCP) is an open protocol that defines how AI models communicate with external tools and data sources. The Cryptohopper Market Data MCP is an implementation of this protocol that exposes crypto market data — orderbooks, tickers, and candles — to any MCP-compatible client.
This page is the reference explainer. For the long-form blog version, see What is MCP, and why does it matter for crypto traders?
Definition
MCP is a standardised interface through which a language model can:
- Discover the tools available on a server (tool discovery).
- Invoke a tool with structured arguments (tool invocation).
- Receive structured results (tool response).
MCP was introduced by Anthropic in late 2024 and is now supported by major AI clients including Claude Code, Claude desktop, Cursor, VS Code, Zed, Gemini CLI, and OpenAI Codex.
Primitives
An MCP server may expose three kinds of primitives:
| Primitive | Description | Example in the Cryptohopper MCP |
|---|---|---|
| Tool | A function the model can call. Defined by name, description, and argument schema. | get_ticker, get_orderbook, get_candles |
| Resource | A named piece of data the model can read. | Not currently exposed |
| Prompt | A reusable prompt template suggested by the server. | Not currently used by the Cryptohopper MCP |
The Cryptohopper Market Data MCP uses tools only. See Architecture for the full surface.
Transport
The Cryptohopper MCP uses HTTP with Server-Sent Events (SSE) as its transport:
- Initial handshake and authentication: HTTP
- Ongoing tool invocations: SSE stream
- Request encoding: JSON
- Authentication: bearer token in the
Authorizationheader - Endpoint:
https://mcp-data.cryptohopper.com/mcp
Interaction model
A typical interaction proceeds as follows:
- The client connects to the server and authenticates.
- The client queries the server for available tools.
- The server returns a list of tool definitions, each including a JSON schema for its arguments.
- The client presents the tool definitions to the language model.
- The model decides whether to call a tool based on the user's message.
- If the model chooses a tool, the client invokes it on the server and receives the result.
- The result is inserted into the model's context and a response is generated.
Note: The model does not hold persistent state between tool calls. Each call is independent.
Comparison with REST
MCP does not replace REST APIs. It is optimised for different use cases:
| Axis | REST API | MCP |
|---|---|---|
| Caller | Application code | AI model / agent |
| Tool discovery | Manual (developer reads docs) | Automatic (model reads schema) |
| Request shape | URL + params | Structured tool call |
| Best for | ETL, bots, dashboards | Interactive analysis, agents |
| Latency profile | Low, fixed | Low per call + model reasoning |
| Determinism | High | Depends on model |
See MCP vs. REST API for crypto market data for the extended comparison.
Capabilities exposed by the Cryptohopper MCP
The Cryptohopper Market Data MCP exposes tools for:
- Retrieving current ticker data for a specific pair on a specific exchange.
- Retrieving a snapshot of the orderbook for a specific pair on a specific exchange.
- Retrieving candle (OHLCV) data at configurable timeframes.
- Listing supported exchanges.
- Listing supported pairs on a given exchange.
- Returning the current usage and quota for the authenticated account.
- The tools available depend on the active subscription tier. See subscription tiers.
Limitations
The Cryptohopper Market Data MCP is read-only. It does not:
- Execute trades.
- Manage orders or positions.
- Modify account state.
- Persist data between calls.
Trade execution is available through the Cryptohopper REST Trading API. See Combine MCP + Cryptohopper Trading API for end-to-end agents. A dedicated trade-execution MCP is on the roadmap.
Security properties
- All connections are over TLS.
- Authentication is per-account bearer token.
- Tokens are revocable from the Cryptohopper account interface.
- The server does not persist session state.
See API key security best practices.
Specification
MCP is an open specification maintained by Anthropic. The full specification is available at modelcontextprotocol.io.
