Handling Crypto Exchange API Rate Limits Without Losing Your Mind

Source: Dev.to

Rate Limit Rules by Exchange

• Binance – IP‑based, 1200 weight/min
• OKX – per‑endpoint, 60 requests/2 s
• Bybit – tier‑based, 120 requests/min
• Kraken – call counter that decays over time

Adaptive Rate Limiter Implementation

import time

class AdaptiveRateLimiter:
    def __init__(self, base_delay=0.5):
        self.delay = base_delay
        self.consecutive_429s = 0

    def wait(self):
        time.sleep(self.delay)

    def on_success(self):
        self.consecutive_429s = 0
        self.delay = max(self.delay * 0.9, 0.1)

    def on_rate_limit(self):
        self.consecutive_429s += 1
        self.delay = min(self.delay * 2, 60)

Best Practices

• Per‑exchange queues – do not share rate limiters across exchanges.
• Exponential backoff on HTTP 429 responses, capped at 60 seconds.
• Aggressive caching – fee data, for example, does not change every minute.
• Batch requests where the API supports them (e.g., Binance batch endpoints).

For more technical details, visit kkinvesting.io.