Trade

Two-step flow: quote then execute. Trades are irreversible once on-chain.

Prerequisite: You need a wallet first. Run nansen wallet create before trading.

Quote

nansen trade quote \
  --chain solana \
  --from SOL \
  --to USDC \
  --amount 1000000000

Symbols resolve automatically: SOL, ETH, USDC, USDT, WETH. Raw addresses also work.

Execute

nansen trade execute --quote <quote-id>

Agent pattern

# Pipe quote ID directly into execute
quote_id=$(nansen trade quote --chain solana --from SOL --to USDC --amount 1000000000 2>&1 | grep "Quote ID:" | awk '{print $NF}')
nansen trade execute --quote "$quote_id"

Common Token Addresses

Token	Chain	Address
SOL	Solana	`So11111111111111111111111111111111111111112`
USDC	Solana	`EPjFWdd5AufqSSqeM2qN1xzybapC8G4wEGGkZwyTDt1v`
ETH	Base	`0xeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee`
USDC	Base	`0x833589fCD6eDb6E08f4c7C32D4f71b54bdA02913`

Amounts are in base units — NEVER USD

--amount accepts integer base units only (lamports, wei, etc). It is never a USD value.

Token	Decimals	1 token =
SOL	9	`1000000000`
ETH	18	`1000000000000000000`
USDC	6	`1000000`

If the user says "$20 worth of X", you must convert USD → token amount → base units. For example, to buy $20 of SOL at $150/SOL: $20 ÷ $150 = 0.1333 SOL = 133,300,000 lamports → --amount 133300000. Use a price lookup (e.g. nansen research token info) to get the current price first.

Flags

Flag	Purpose
`--chain`	`solana` or `base`
`--from`	Source token (symbol or address)
`--to`	Destination token (symbol or address)
`--amount`	Amount in base units (integer)
`--wallet`	Wallet name (default: default wallet)
`--slippage`	Slippage tolerance as decimal (e.g. 0.03)
`--quote`	Quote ID for execute
`--no-simulate`	Skip pre-broadcast simulation

Environment Variables

Var	Purpose
`NANSEN_WALLET_PASSWORD`	Required for `trade execute`. Wallet encryption password — persisted in `~/.nansen/.env`. Source before executing: `source ~/.nansen/.env && nansen trade execute ...`
`NANSEN_API_KEY`	API key (also set via `nansen login`)

Agents: Never hold a wallet password only in session memory. If NANSEN_WALLET_PASSWORD is not in ~/.nansen/.env, follow the setup flow in the nansen-wallet-manager skill Password Policy to generate and persist one before proceeding.

Notes

Quotes expire after ~1 hour. If execute fails, get a fresh quote.
A wallet is required even for quotes (the API builds sender-specific transactions).
ERC-20 swaps may require an approval step — execute handles this automatically.

Source

npm: https://www.npmjs.com/package/nansen-cli
GitHub: https://github.com/nansen-ai/nansen-cli

nansen-trading