Video
Watch the Coinbase API setup walkthrough
Open the Coinbase Developer Platform portal
Coinbase Advanced Trade keys are created in the Coinbase Developer Platform, not in the Coinbase Advanced trading screen. Sign in, open API Keys, and pick your project in the drop-down at the top.
Create a Secret API key
Open the Secret API Keys tab, click Create API key and give the key a name you will recognise later, such as tradeadapter.
- Grant Trade permission — TradeAdapter needs it to place orders on your behalf
- Do not grant withdrawal or transfer permissions to an automation key
Choose ECDSA, not Ed25519
Under the key's optional settings, set Signature algorithm to ECDSA. Coinbase recommends Ed25519 and may preselect it, but TradeAdapter signs Coinbase requests with ES256, which only accepts an ECDSA key. An Ed25519 key is accepted by Coinbase and then fails on every TradeAdapter request.
Add TradeAdapter to the IP allowlist
Still in the key's optional settings, add the TradeAdapter address to the IP allowlist so the key only works from our infrastructure, then click Create.
35.75.198.16
Save the key ID and the private key
Coinbase shows the credentials once, in a modal. Copy both values before closing it — the secret cannot be retrieved afterwards, only regenerated.
- API Key — the long identifier shaped like
organizations/<org_id>/apiKeys/<key_id> - API Secret — the full PEM private key, including the
-----BEGIN EC PRIVATE KEY-----and-----END EC PRIVATE KEY-----lines
Continue to TradingView webhook setup
Coinbase connections are live-only — there is no sandbox compatible with this API, so test with small position sizes. Continue to page 2 to connect TradingView alerts for real-time trade execution.