Adarsh, a seasoned crypto trader and COO at CryptoXpress (@crypto_express), was running a trading group called CryptoSurge, which I was also part of. The community needed faster access to important trading information, cleaner onboarding, and better automation inside Discord.
After understanding the workflow, I proposed building a set of Discord bots tailored to the needs of the community.
The problems to solve
- Automate the process of sharing live holdings from multiple exchanges on demand
- Share Adarsh's order information in near real time
- Provide market information on demand
- Improve onboarding, knowledge sharing, and community engagement
How I approached it
Portfolio updates on demand
To make trading information easier to access, I developed a Discord bot that aggregated holdings from multiple exchanges.
The command was simple: when a user typed !portfolio, the bot returned the latest portfolio composition. The challenge was speed and API usage. The community was large, so the bot needed to respond quickly without spamming exchange APIs, hitting rate limits, or risking API bans.
I solved this by storing the latest portfolio data in a cache and updating it through a webhook whenever the portfolio changed. That let the bot respond in milliseconds while keeping exchange API calls under control.
Instead of showing only raw numbers, the bot displayed percentages so members could understand the portfolio composition at a glance.
This feature helped CryptoSurge members make more informed decisions based on Adarsh's portfolio.
Near real-time order updates
The next requirement was to send an update whenever a new order was placed. At the time, the exchanges we used did not provide webhooks for this, so I built a polling system.
The server checked multiple exchanges every few seconds and compared the latest results with the previous query. If it found a new order, it sent the order information to the relevant Discord channel.
It was not truly real time, but it was close enough for the use case while still respecting API limits.
And here is the bot in action:
Market information on demand
The community also needed a bot that could provide market information about supported crypto tokens on demand. Users could query a token, and the bot would fetch the latest data from an external API.
For this, I built Cexy, a crypto price ticker bot for Discord. It displayed current prices along with details such as 24-hour and 7-day price changes, trading volume, and dominance percentages. We used the CoinGecko API for the token data.
Here is an example response:
Knowledge sharing and engagement
Here are some of the additional bots that were developed
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CryptoSurge TA Helper: A bot that helped users check whether a token looked bullish or bearish based on selected technical analysis indicators.
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Gyaani - Crypto Logo Quiz: A bot that showed users crypto token logos and asked them to identify the token. Participants earned points for correct guesses, which made the community more interactive.
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Crypto Twitter News: A bot that notified Discord channels whenever selected accounts posted a new tweet, helping members stay updated on relevant industry news.
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Discord Welcome DM Bot: A bot that automatically sent private messages to new members with server rules and onboarding information.
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BOGGED - BitMEX Whale Alerts: A bot that notified the channel whenever there was a large BitMEX order.
Conclusion
These Discord bots made CryptoSurge easier to run and more useful for members. They automated repeated work, surfaced trading information quickly, improved onboarding, and added lightweight engagement inside the community.
The main lesson for me was that small automations can compound. A simple bot command, a faster alert, or a clearer onboarding message can remove friction for hundreds or thousands of community interactions.