Overview

The book updates stream (also known as book_diffs) contains Level 2 order book updates from the Hyperliquid exchange. This dataset tracks every order placement, modification, and cancellation, showing incremental changes to the order book.

Stream Type: BOOK_UPDATES
API Availability: gRPC Streaming API + JSON-RPC/WebSocket APIs
Volume: Very High - Every order book change generates an event

Data Structure

Each block contains an array of order book update events. These events represent changes (additions or removals) to specific price levels in the order book:

{
  "local_time": "2025-12-04T17:00:00.071039761",
  "block_time": "2025-12-04T16:59:59.912486449", 
  "block_number": 817824076,
  "events": [
    {
      "user": "0x1c1c270b573d55b68b3d14722b5d5d401511bed0",
      "oid": 258166296856,
      "coin": "ETH",
      "side": "B",
      "px": "3167.4",
      "raw_book_diff": {
        "new": {
          "sz": "1.5785"
        }
      }
    }
  ]
}

Field Definitions

Field

Type

Description

user

string

Address of the user who placed/modified/cancelled the order

oid

integer

Order ID - unique identifier for the order

coin

string

Trading pair identifier (e.g., "ETH", "BTC", "xyz:NVDA", "@198")

side

string

Order side: "B" (Bid/Buy) or "A" (Ask/Sell)

px

string

Price level for this order

raw_book_diff

string or object

Type of book update (see Book Diff Types below)

Book Diff Types

The raw_book_diff field indicates what type of change occurred:

Type

Value

Description

New Order

{"new": {"sz": "1.5785"}}

A new order was placed or an existing order size was updated at this price level. The `sz` field shows the new total size at this price level for this order.

Remove Order

"remove"

An order was cancelled or fully filled and removed from the book.

Important Notes

• When an order is modified (size changes), it appears as a "remove" event followed by a {"new": {...}} event with the updated size
• The sz field in {"new": {...}} represents the total size of this specific order at this price level, not a delta
• Multiple orders can exist at the same price level from different users

Example Updates

New Order Placement

{
  "user": "0x1c1c270b573d55b68b3d14722b5d5d401511bed0",
  "oid": 258166296856,
  "coin": "ETH",
  "side": "B",
  "px": "3167.4",
  "raw_book_diff": {
    "new": {
      "sz": "1.5785"
    }
  }
}

Order Removal (Cancellation or Fill)

{
  "user": "0xe9acfdc9322f6f924f007016c082e6891a3c653c",
  "oid": 258166160909,
  "coin": "BIO",
  "side": "A",
  "px": "0.053056",
  "raw_book_diff": "remove"
}

Order Size Modification

When an order size is modified, you'll see two events:

1. Remove the old order:

{
  "user": "0x1234567890abcdef1234567890abcdef12345678",
  "oid": 258166123456,
  "coin": "BTC",
  "side": "B", 
  "px": "95000.0",
  "raw_book_diff": "remove"
}

2. Add the modified order:

{
  "user": "0x1234567890abcdef1234567890abcdef12345678",
  "oid": 258166123456,
  "coin": "BTC", 
  "side": "B",
  "px": "95000.0",
  "raw_book_diff": {
    "new": {
      "sz": "2.5"
    }
  }
}

Building Order Books

To build a complete order book from this stream:

1. Initialize Empty Book

const orderBook = {
  bids: new Map(), // price -> Map(oid -> size)
  asks: new Map()  // price -> Map(oid -> size)
};

2. Process Book Updates

function processBookUpdate(event) {
  const { side, px, oid, raw_book_diff } = event;
  const book = side === 'B' ? orderBook.bids : orderBook.asks;
  
  if (!book.has(px)) {
    book.set(px, new Map());
  }
  
  const priceLevel = book.get(px);
  
  if (raw_book_diff === 'remove') {
    // Remove order from this price level
    priceLevel.delete(oid);
    
    // Remove price level if empty
    if (priceLevel.size === 0) {
      book.delete(px);
    }
  } else if (raw_book_diff.new) {
    // Add/update order at this price level
    priceLevel.set(oid, raw_book_diff.new.sz);
  }
}

3. Calculate Price Level Totals

function getPriceLevelSize(priceLevel) {
  let total = 0;
  for (const size of priceLevel.values()) {
    total += parseFloat(size);
  }
  return total;
}

API Usage

gRPC Streaming

// Subscribe to book updates
const request = {
  subscribe: {
    stream_type: 'BOOK_UPDATES',
    start_block: 0,
    filters: {
      "coin": ["BTC", "ETH"],
      "side": ["B"] // Only bids
    }
  }
};

JSON-RPC

# Get latest book update blocks
curl -X POST https://your-endpoint.hype-mainnet.quiknode.pro/your-token/hypercore \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "jsonrpc": "2.0",
    "method": "hl_getLatestBlocks",
    "params": {
      "stream": "book",
      "count": 10
    },
    "id": 1
  }'

WebSocket

// Subscribe to book updates
ws.send(JSON.stringify({
  "method": "hl_subscribe",
  "params": {
    "streams": ["book"]
  }
}));

Important Notes

• High Frequency: Book updates are the most frequent events - use coin filtering for specific markets
• Order Aggregation: Multiple orders can exist at the same price level from different users
• State Reconstruction: You can rebuild the complete order book by processing these incremental updates
• Size Semantics: sz represents the total order size, not incremental changes
• Modification Pattern: Order modifications appear as remove + add events with the same oid

Related Streams

• Orders - See the order lifecycle events that cause these book changes
• Trades - View the executions that remove liquidity from the book
• Events - Monitor system events that may affect order book state