This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by krisvarley
Building dashboards and bots in Web3 is exciting — until you realize the free APIs you’re using don’t tell you why a token suddenly drops 20%.
Most free APIs only cover prices and volumes. But as many builders discover (sometimes too late), unlock events, vesting schedules, and VC data are often the real drivers of big market moves — and they’re usually hidden behind paywalls.
In this guide, we’ll build a simple foundation for a token unlock alert bot using the DropsTab API, which provides these datasets — and it even offers a free tier for students and indie builders.
What You’ll Need
A free DropsTab API key (apply via the Builders Program if you’re a student, indie dev, or hackathon participant — it’s free for at least 3 months).
Basic knowledge of REST APIs and JSON.
Your preferred language or environment — this example uses Python with requests.
Step 1: Get Your DropsTab API Key
Before making any calls, sign up at the DropsTab Builders Program page and request free access.
Once approved, you’ll receive an API key — keep it safe, and use it as a header or parameter when querying the endpoints.
Step 2: Explore the /tokenUnlocks Endpoint
DropsTab’s /tokenUnlocks endpoint returns upcoming unlock events for tracked tokens.
You can also use /tokenUnlocks/{coin} for a specific asset.
Example API call:
GET /api/v1/tokenUnlocks
Headers: Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY
Sample Python snippet:
import requests
url = “https://api.dropstab.com/api/v1/tokenUnlocks“
headers = {“Authorization”: “Bearer YOUR_API_KEY”}
resp = requests.get(url, headers=headers)
data = resp.json()
for event in data[‘data’]:
print(f”{event[‘coin’]} unlocks {event[‘percentage’]}% on {event[‘date’]}”)
Sample response item:
{
“coin”: “Aptos”,
“date”: “2025-08-15”,
“percentage”: 3.2,
“amount”: 5000000
}
Step 3: Filter for Significant Events
You likely don’t want to alert users on every small unlock.
Add simple logic to trigger an alert only when, say, the unlock is >5% of total supply:
threshold = 5.0
for event in data[‘data’]:
if event[‘percentage’] >= threshold:
print(f”ALERT: {event[‘coin’]} unlocks {event[‘percentage’]}% on {event[‘date’]}”)
You can also sort by date or integrate this into a scheduler to check daily.
Step 4: Send Notifications
Once you have significant unlocks detected, you can send notifications via:
Telegram Bot API
Discord Webhooks
Email (via SMTP or services like SendGrid)
For example, posting to Discord:
import requests
webhook_url = “YOUR_DISCORD_WEBHOOK”
message = {
“content”: f”
Token Unlock Alert: Aptos unlocks 3.2% on 2025-08-15″
}
requests.post(webhook_url, json=message)
What You’ve Built
In under 50 lines of code, you now have a bot that:
Checks upcoming unlock events via DropsTab’s /tokenUnlocks endpoint.
Filters for impactful unlocks.
Notifies your team/community via chat or email.
This bot can be expanded into a full dashboard, integrated with on-chain monitoring, or extended to track VC funding rounds (/fundingRounds) and wallet movements (/wallets) — all available in the DropsTab API docs.
By accessing deeper, institutional-grade data — even on a free tier — you can build tools that not only track prices, but explain why they move.
If you end up building something cool with this approach, feel free to share it in the comments or tag me on Dev.to!
This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by krisvarley