Cross-post. Original: stellarbytecapital.com/blog/crypto-trading-bot-architecture
Most "how to build a trading bot" guides spend all their time on the strategy and none on the part that actually determines whether you make or lose money: the engineering around it. A crypto trading bot is maybe 10% strategy and 90% the unglamorous machinery that keeps it running, correct, and safe when things go wrong — which, on a live exchange, they will.
Here's the architecture that matters, component by component.
1. Exchange connectivity — the layer that lies to you
Your bot talks to an exchange over REST (orders, account state) and WebSocket (real-time market data and order updates). This layer is where most bots quietly break:
