Plenty of articles promise a "trading-grade, real-time, multi-venue streaming architecture." This is not one of them, because that is not what Elgon is. Elgon is a small, honest thing: a set of REST endpoints over market data, most of it real but delayed. Understanding its actual architecture — and its deliberate limits — is what lets you decide whether it fits your app.
What Elgon actually is
Elgon is a REST API. Every endpoint is a stateless HTTP GET that returns JSON, sends access-control-allow-origin: *, and answers OPTIONS preflight — so you can call it from a server, a script, or directly from a browser. There is no persistent connection, no message bus, and no client SDK to install.
curl "https://elgonrpc.xyz/api/v1/quotes?symbols=AAPL,BTC-USD&key=elgon_sandbox_pub"
The six endpoints
The entire surface is six GET endpoints:
/quotes — last price, bid, ask, change, volume for one or many symbols. Real, delayed.
/instruments — resolve a search term to symbols and reference data. Real, delayed.
/options — options chains. Simulated sandbox data.
/predictions — prediction-market snapshots. Simulated sandbox data.
/ping — health check.
/verify — verify the signed receipt attached to any response.
The data, stated plainly
Two endpoints return real market data, and it is delayed, not real-time. Quotes and instruments are tagged "source":"live" — the values are genuine, but they lag the tape. The other two, options and predictions, return simulated sample data tagged "source":"sandbox"; they exist so you can build and test against a stable shape, not to trade on.
Every response carries a signed, timestamped receipt (sha256), so you can prove which data was served and that it was not altered after the fact. That receipt is the one genuinely distinctive piece of the design:
const res = await fetch(
"https://elgonrpc.xyz/api/v1/quotes?symbols=AAPL&key=elgon_sandbox_pub"
);
const { data, source, receipt } = await res.json();
console.log(source); // "live" — real, delayed
console.log(receipt.hash); // sha256 integrity commitment
What Elgon deliberately is not
Being clear about the boundaries is the point of this piece:
No streaming. There is no WebSocket, no server-sent events, no webhook, and no subscription API. If you need updates, you poll on an interval.
No GraphQL. The API is plain REST with query parameters. There is no GraphQL schema, no query language, and no batching layer.
No multi-venue tape or order books. Elgon does not ingest raw venue feeds, build consolidated order books, or serve tick-by-tick prints.
No portfolio, ownership, or historical-bars endpoints. The surface is exactly the six endpoints above — nothing more.
Not a low-latency execution feed. Delayed data is fine for dashboards, screeners, and watch-and-alert tools; it is not suitable for latency-sensitive execution, and Elgon does not claim to be.
The serving model
Because every endpoint is a pure function of its query parameters, the serving model is simple and cache-friendly. Regional routing is handled for you — you always call the same host, https://elgonrpc.xyz/api/v1. Authenticate with a key three ways: Authorization: Bearer, an x-api-key header, or a ?key= query parameter. The public elgon_sandbox_pub key is safe to embed in client-side demos.
Rate limits and plans
Three plans, flat pricing: Free ($0, 60 requests/min, self-serve key), Growth ($350/month via Stripe, 600 requests/min), and Enterprise (custom). Mint a free key with a single POST /api/keys or from the dashboard.
When Elgon fits — and when it does not
Good fit: dashboards, screeners, research tools, watch-and-alert bots, and prototypes that need clean, consolidated quotes and can tolerate delayed data. The signed receipts are a bonus if you need to demonstrate data provenance.
Poor fit: low-latency execution, real-time order books, tick data, or anything that assumes streaming. For those, you need a specialized feed — Elgon is not it, and would rather tell you so than pretend otherwise.
FAQ
Is Elgon real-time?
No. Quotes and instruments are real but delayed; options and predictions are simulated. There is no streaming layer.
Does Elgon offer WebSocket or GraphQL?
No. It is REST-only — six plain HTTP GET endpoints. Poll to get updates.
What makes Elgon's architecture distinctive?
Simplicity and the signed, timestamped receipt on every response, which lets you verify exactly what was served and that it was not altered.
Want to try it? Get an API key and read the API docs.