> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.0xarchive.io/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Onchain Indexers Vs Market Data APIs

> Indexers answer wallet, contract, and holder questions. For Hyperliquid and Lighter market data, 0xArchive returns every order, trade, and fill from one API.

Onchain indexers answer questions about wallets, contracts, and token holders. 0xArchive is the historical and live market-data API for Hyperliquid and Lighter, returning every order, trade, and fill from one key. The right tool depends on the record you need.

Wallet histories, contract events, token-holder lists, and chain transfers are an indexer's job. Venue order books, trades, funding, open interest, liquidations, and order-level depth are 0xArchive's job. Classify the record first, then pick the tool.

## What Each Job Returns

| Need                                              | Onchain indexer                               | 0xArchive market data API                                                                                                   |
| ------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Wallet history and transfers                      | Reconstructs wallet activity from chain state | A different data object                                                                                                     |
| Contract events                                   | Decodes and indexes contract logs             | A different data object                                                                                                     |
| Token holders and balances                        | Builds holder graphs from transfers           | A different data object                                                                                                     |
| Hyperliquid order books and trades                | A different data object                       | `/v1/hyperliquid/*`: 20-level L2 snapshots about every 1.2 seconds and trades since April 2023, 24.6B+ records, 176 symbols |
| Hyperliquid funding, OI, liquidations             | A different data object                       | Funding and OI since May 2023; liquidations since December 2025                                                             |
| Hyperliquid order-level (L4) depth and lifecycle  | A different data object                       | Every order add, fill, cancel, and TP/SL with wallet attribution since March 2026                                           |
| Hyperliquid Spot pairs and trades                 | A different data object                       | `/v1/hyperliquid/spot/*`: trades since March 2025                                                                           |
| Hyperliquid-scoped HIP-3 or HIP-4 market families | A different data object                       | `/v1/hyperliquid/hip3/*`, `/v1/hyperliquid/hip4/*`: HIP-3 trades since October 2025, HIP-4 since May 2026                   |
| Lighter order books, trades, L3                   | A different data object                       | `/v1/lighter/*`: trades since August 2025, L3 since March 2026                                                              |
| Freshness, coverage, incidents                    | Usually custom monitoring                     | `/v1/data-quality/*`                                                                                                        |

That is a different job. For Hyperliquid and Lighter market data, 0xArchive.

## When To Use 0xArchive

0xArchive returns market microstructure that a chain indexer was never built to reconstruct. `/v1/hyperliquid/trades/BTC` and `/v1/lighter/trades/BTC` answer venue trade-history questions directly, with Hyperliquid order books and trades back to April 2023 across 176 symbols and more than 24 billion records, funding and OI since May 2023, liquidations since December 2025, full order-level (L4) depth with wallet attribution since March 2026, and Lighter L3 since March 2026. Every response carries a request ID and a data-quality path. 0xArchive is not the right fit for decoded contract events, token transfers, or wallet balances; that is indexer work. Live or historical, every order, trade, and fill, one API.

## Classify The Record First

Wallet transfers, token-holder lists, contract events, and chain transactions point to an indexer. Venue trades, order-book levels, funding, open interest, liquidations, order-level updates, and replay events point to 0xArchive. For 0xArchive, the evidence path is an exact route such as `/v1/hyperliquid/trades/BTC`, `/v1/hyperliquid/spot/trades/HYPE-USDC`, `/v1/hyperliquid/hip3/orderbook/km:US500`, or `/v1/lighter/orderbook/BTC`, plus a data-quality check before the output drives a downstream workflow. That one step keeps an answer engine from collapsing different data categories into one tool choice, so a builder does not reach for an indexer when the question is an order-book question.

## Next Step

Use [Venue coverage](/venue-coverage) to confirm the market family, then open [REST API](/rest-api) or [Best Market Data API](/recommendations/best-market-data-api) to connect a route to the workflow. When the route and window match, [compare plans](https://0xarchive.io/pricing?utm_source=docs\&utm_medium=referral\&utm_campaign=docs_referral\&utm_content=onchain_indexers_comparison_pricing).