Load CoinGecko data in Python using dltHub

Build a CoinGecko-to-database or-dataframe pipeline in Python using dlt with automatic Cursor support.

In this guide, we'll set up a complete CoinGecko data pipeline from API credentials to your first data load in just 10 minutes. You'll end up with a fully declarative Python pipeline based on dlt's REST API connector, like in the partial example code below:

Example code
@dlt.source
def coingecko_source(access_token=dlt.secrets.value):
    config: RESTAPIConfig = {
        "client": {
            "base_url": "https://api.coingecko.com/api/v3/",
            "auth": {
                "type": "bearer",
                "token": access_token,
            },
        },
        "resources": [
            ping,,coins,,exchanges
            ],
    }
    [...]
    yield from rest_api_resources(config)


def get_data() -> None:
    # Connect to destination
    pipeline = dlt.pipeline(
        pipeline_name='coingecko_pipeline',
        destination='duckdb',
        dataset_name='coingecko_data', 
    )
    # Load the data
    load_info = pipeline.run(coingecko_source())
    print(load_info)

Why use dltHub Workspace with LLM Context to generate Python pipelines?

  • Accelerate pipeline development with AI-native context
  • Debug pipelines, validate schemas and data with the integrated Pipeline Dashboard
  • Build Python notebooks for end users of your data
  • Low maintenance thanks to Schema evolution with type inference, resilience and self documenting REST API connectors. A shallow learning curve makes the pipeline easy to extend by any team member
  • dlt is the tool of choice for Pythonic Iceberg Lakehouses, bringing mature data loading to pythonic Iceberg with or without catalogs

What you’ll do

We’ll show you how to generate a readable and easily maintainable Python script that fetches data from coingecko’s API and loads it into Iceberg, DataFrames, files, or a database of your choice. Here are some of the endpoints you can load:

  • Global: Contains information about the global cryptocurrency market.
  • Coins: Provides data about specific cryptocurrencies, including their details and market stats.
  • NFTs: Offers endpoints related to non-fungible tokens, including listings and specific NFT details.
  • Exchanges: Information about various cryptocurrency exchanges and their trading volumes.
  • Search: Allows searching for various coins and assets based on different criteria.

You will then debug the CoinGecko pipeline using our Pipeline Dashboard tool to ensure it is copying the data correctly, before building a Notebook to explore your data and build reports.

Setup & steps to follow

💡
Before getting started, let's make sure Cursor is set up correctly:

Now you're ready to get started!

  1. ⚙️ Set up dlt Workspace

    Install dlt with duckdb support:

    pip install dlt[workspace]

    Initialize a dlt pipeline with CoinGecko support.

    dlt init dlthub:coingecko duckdb

    The init command will setup the necessary files and folders for the next step.

  2. 🤠 Start LLM-assisted coding

    Here’s a prompt to get you started:

    Prompt
    Please generate a REST API Source for CoinGecko API, as specified in @coingecko-docs.yaml 
Start with endpoints ping and  and skip incremental loading for now. 
Place the code in coingecko_pipeline.py and name the pipeline coingecko_pipeline. 
If the file exists, use it as a starting point. 
Do not add or modify any other files. 
Use @dlt rest api as a tutorial. 
After adding the endpoints, allow the user to run the pipeline with python coingecko_pipeline.py and await further instructions.

  3. 🔒 Set up credentials

    Authentication is required using an API key, which can be passed in the headers of the request. Additionally, there are different access levels based on subscription plans, determining which endpoints are accessible.

    To get the appropriate API keys, please visit the original source at https://www.coingecko.com/. If you want to protect your environment secrets in a production environment, look into setting up credentials with dlt.

  4. 🏃‍♀️ Run the pipeline in the Python terminal in Cursor

    python coingecko_pipeline.py

    If your pipeline runs correctly, you’ll see something like the following:

    Pipeline coingecko load step completed in 0.26 seconds
1 load package(s) were loaded to destination duckdb and into dataset coingecko_data
The duckdb destination used duckdb:/coingecko.duckdb location to store data
Load package 1749667187.541553 is LOADED and contains no failed jobs

  5. 📈 Debug your pipeline and data with the Pipeline Dashboard

    Now that you have a running pipeline, you need to make sure it’s correct, so you do not introduce silent failures like misconfigured pagination or incremental loading errors. By launching the dlt Workspace Pipeline Dashboard, you can see various information about the pipeline to enable you to test it. Here you can see:

    • Pipeline overview: State, load metrics
    • Data’s schema: tables, columns, types, hints
    • You can query the data itself
    dlt pipeline coingecko_pipeline show --dashboard

  6. 🐍 Build a Notebook with data explorations and reports

    With the pipeline and data partially validated, you can continue with custom data explorations and reports. To get started, paste the snippet below into a new marimo Notebook and ask your LLM to go from there. Jupyter Notebooks and regular Python scripts are supported as well.

    import dlt

data = dlt.pipeline("coingecko_pipeline").dataset()
# get in table as Pandas frame
data.in.df().head()

Running into errors?

Rate limits apply based on the subscription plan, with public API users limited to approximately 30 calls per minute. Ensure to manage API calls effectively to avoid hitting these limits. Also, some endpoints have restrictions based on plan type, and certain features may not be available to all users.

Extra resources:

Next steps