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Building an AI Crypto Trading Agent with Claude

Tutorial: Give Claude Desktop the ability to interact with 15+ blockchains, execute swaps, check balances, and analyze DeFi protocols.

What You'll Build

By the end of this tutorial, you'll have an AI assistant that can:

  • ✅ Check token balances across Ethereum, Arbitrum, Base, Polygon, and more
  • ✅ Execute token swaps via DEX aggregators
  • ✅ Bridge assets between chains
  • ✅ Analyze DeFi positions (Aave, Compound, Uniswap)
  • ✅ Get real-time market data and technical indicators
  • ✅ Monitor gas prices and optimize transactions

Prerequisites

  • Claude Desktop installed
  • Node.js 18+
  • A wallet address (for read operations) or private key (for transactions)
  • 10 minutes of your time

Step 1: Install Universal Crypto MCP

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/nirholas/universal-crypto-mcp.git
cd universal-crypto-mcp

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Build the server
npm run build

Step 2: Configure Environment

Create a .env file with your API keys:

cp .env.example .env

Edit .env with your keys:

# Required for most operations
ALCHEMY_API_KEY=your_alchemy_key
INFURA_API_KEY=your_infura_key

# Optional: For executing transactions
PRIVATE_KEY=your_wallet_private_key

# Optional: Enhanced market data
COINGECKO_API_KEY=your_coingecko_key

💡 Tip: You can use the server with just ALCHEMY_API_KEY for read-only operations. Add PRIVATE_KEY only when you want to execute transactions.

Step 3: Connect to Claude Desktop

Add to your Claude Desktop config (~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json on Mac):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "universal-crypto-mcp": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/path/to/universal-crypto-mcp/dist/index.js"],
      "env": {
        "ALCHEMY_API_KEY": "your_key_here"
      }
    }
  }
}

Restart Claude Desktop.

Step 4: Start Talking to Your AI Agent

Now Claude has access to 330+ blockchain tools. Try these prompts:

Check Your Portfolio

What's my wallet balance on Ethereum, Arbitrum, and Base?
Address: 0x742d35Cc6634C0532925a3b844Bc9e7595f12345

Get a Swap Quote

How much USDC would I get for swapping 1 ETH on Arbitrum?

Analyze DeFi Positions

Show me the top Aave lending pools by TVL on Ethereum

Technical Analysis

What are the RSI and MACD indicators for ETH/USD?

Cross-Chain Bridge Quote

What's the best route to bridge 100 USDC from Ethereum to Base?

Example Conversation

You: Check my ETH balance on Arbitrum and tell me if gas is cheap enough to swap

Claude: I'll check your balance and current gas prices on Arbitrum.

[Uses evm_getBalance and evm_getGasPrice tools]

Your Arbitrum wallet shows: - ETH: 0.523 ETH (~$1,884) - USDC: 500.00 USDC

Current gas on Arbitrum: - Gas Price: 0.1 gwei - Swap Cost: ~$0.02

Gas is very cheap right now! This is a good time to execute swaps. Would you like me to get a quote for a specific swap?

Supported Chains

Chain Chain ID Status
Ethereum 1 ✅ Full Support
Arbitrum One 42161 ✅ Full Support
Base 8453 ✅ Full Support
Polygon 137 ✅ Full Support
Optimism 10 ✅ Full Support
BNB Chain 56 ✅ Full Support
Avalanche 43114 ✅ Full Support
Fantom 250 ✅ Full Support
zkSync Era 324 ✅ Full Support
Linea 59144 ✅ Full Support
Scroll 534352 ✅ Full Support
Mantle 5000 ✅ Full Support
Blast 81457 ✅ Full Support
Mode 34443 ✅ Full Support
opBNB 204 ✅ Full Support

Available Tool Categories

💰 DeFi Operations (50+ tools)

  • Token swaps via 1inch, ParaSwap, 0x
  • Liquidity provision on Uniswap, SushiSwap
  • Lending/borrowing on Aave, Compound
  • Yield farming positions

🌉 Cross-Chain (20+ tools)

  • Bridge quotes and execution
  • Cross-chain swap routing
  • Multi-chain balance aggregation

📊 Market Data (40+ tools)

  • Real-time prices from CoinGecko, CoinMarketCap
  • Historical OHLCV data
  • Technical indicators (RSI, MACD, Bollinger Bands)
  • Fear & Greed Index

🔒 Security (15+ tools)

  • Contract verification
  • Token security scanning
  • Honeypot detection
  • Rug pull risk analysis

⛓️ On-Chain Analysis (30+ tools)

  • Transaction decoding
  • Event log parsing
  • ENS resolution
  • Gas estimation

Safety Features

The server includes built-in safety features:

  1. Confirmation prompts for transactions over threshold
  2. Slippage protection on swaps
  3. Gas price limits to prevent overpaying
  4. Read-only mode when no private key configured

Troubleshooting

"Tool not found" error

Make sure you rebuilt after pulling latest: npm run build

"Invalid API key" error

Check your .env file and ensure keys are correctly set

Claude doesn't see the tools

Restart Claude Desktop after editing the config file

Next Steps

About

Built by Nich • GitHub

Licensed under Apache-2.0