A Guide to Retrieving Transactions by Contract Address Using NFTScan API
Tags: nft, nftscan, web3, api
Published: 2024-01-29 09:21:43

Retrieving the Complete Transaction History for an NFT Contract Address can be highly challenging for most individuals. It not only requires a deep understanding of blockchain technology but also the use of relevant tools and resources. Additionally, handling smart contracts and transaction data on the blockchain, and integrating them with external data sources, is necessary for comprehensive analysis. Transaction data on the blockchain is typically stored in fragmented blocks, and the decentralized nature of blockchain adds complexity in obtaining the complete transaction history. Querying and retrieving these records often involve processing substantial amounts of data, making the task quite arduous.

However, compared to traditional markets, on-chain data offers greater transparency, and traceability, and provides a clear reflection of NFT asset liquidity and holder volumes. Analyzing on-chain transaction data for key NFT projects enables early discovery of potential value opportunities. Moreover, these transaction data sets serve as valuable inputs for various DApps, such as NFT data analytics platforms, cryptocurrency wallets, NFT asset management tools, NFT marketplaces, DID protocols, NFT on-chain trackers, NFT social platforms, and more.

![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/pmhnql0lajjj2rrhwgwb.png)

## Accessing NFT Transaction Data with NFTScan API
For many developers, independently retrieving and accessing transaction records for NFT contracts poses numerous challenges. These may include the need to set up their nodes to parse data, overcome issues such as inconsistent and delayed data, and invest substantial time in cleaning, formatting, and analyzing raw data. Moreover, the high barriers to building blockchain nodes and developing parsing code further compound these difficulties.

Additionally, as most NFT projects in the market do not strictly adhere to standard underlying smart contract codes, each project adopts its storage methods for metadata. Due to this lack of standardization, a single querying product is not capable of supporting all NFT products. However, NFTScan addresses this issue by standardizing and processing the difficult-to-parse data, clearly presenting it to users.

With standardized parsing, the barriers to developing querying products are significantly reduced, making them applicable for acquiring data from different types of NFT projects.

Users can access clear and unified data, greatly enhancing the user experience.

NFTScan currently boasts the largest and most comprehensive collection of NFTs across multiple blockchain networks. It supports full data coverage for 21 blockchains, including Ethereum, Solana, BNBChain, Bitcoin, TON, Polygon, zkSync, Aptos, Linea, Base, Avalanche, Arbitrum, OP Mainnet, Starknet, Scroll, Viction, Fantom, Moonbeam, PlatON, Cronos, and Gnosis. The covered NFT data is extensive and diverse, providing a complete set of interfaces to obtain ERC721 and ERC1155 assets, transaction details, project information, and market statistics. NFTScan now supports over 60 public interfaces for EVM-compatible chains and a set of similar interfaces for Solana, Aptos, Bitcoin, and TON, effectively meeting developers’ diverse demands for indexing various types of NFT data.

![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/31zohp3s80aq60ghll9y.png)

## Accessing the NFTScan NFT API
Before you can start using the NFTScan API, you need to visit the developer's website and create an account. Go to the official NFTScan website and click on the “Sign Up” button for the NFTScan API to register.

https://developer.nftscan.com/user/signup

After logging in, find your unique API KEY on the Dashboard. Copy it and access the API documentation, where you can enter your API KEY in the respective location as guided by the document. You can then start using the API service based on the instructions provided. In the API documentation, developers can find various interface modes to choose from, selecting the one that best suits their needs.

In the NFTScan Dashboard, developers have access to statistical data on their API usage, helping them keep track of historical usage metrics. Additionally, each registered developer is provided with 1M CU of API call services for accessing all NFT API interfaces, and the CU never expires — it can be used until it runs out!

## Retrieving NFT Transactions Data
Complete transaction data can show the financial flow paths of a project, user participation frequency, and active addresses. By analyzing data from different periods, we can compare active peak periods and determine market trends. We can also calculate the rate of capital flow to reflect the project’s stickiness and attractiveness. Additionally, key holding addresses can be identified to determine market structure and confidence levels. In short, transaction records for contract addresses truthfully reflect user participation enthusiasm and are a direct source of understanding a project’s real operation.

According to NFTScan data, as of January 25th, there have been a total of 1,481,930,303 NFT assets issued on mainstream blockchain networks. There are also 3,401,197 NFT collections, 7,192,237,129 transaction records, and a total transaction volume of 23,893,340,489.

Data source: https://www.nftscan.com/chain/overview

![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/ya7jsyy9ycyc25s2ebnm.png)

How can we find the transaction records for a specific contract address among such a large number of data? One way is to use the “Get transactions by contract” interface provided by NFTScan NFT API, which can quickly retrieve all NFT transaction lists under a specific NFT contract.

![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/0cynfjpmnpef04cuxck6.png)

On the CHAIN page, you can choose the network where the contract is deployed. The path parameter includes the “contract_address” of the contract address, and the query parameter can select the NFT event type of the transaction (Mint/Transfer/Sale/Burn). Multiple options can be selected with ‘;’ to separate multiple events. Here, we take BoredApeYachtClub as an example to retrieve key data related to all item sale events under this NFT collection. After entering your API key, click “Try it,” and the data result will be displayed in descending order by timestamp.

## Sale
The Sale data response results consist of 50,783 data, with each data containing 25 items. The latest data information sorted by timestamp is retrieved as follows:

{

“hash”:”0x01fff33621e8839e54736e175c31622ede3ddee3852dcf096be4703bbd1eb96d”

“from”:”0xed6af25e6158a2a6106f72126a4db188f55ab723"

“to”:”0x29469395eaf6f95920e59f858042f0e28d98a20b”

“block_number”:19073463

“block_hash”:”0xae824b7bc1531d9778ed5b55bc050a92323541e8ceac446b5b0079c2ca101b20"

“gas_price”:”0x2359e0376"

“gas_used”:”0x51e0b”

“gas_fee”:0.003182497273739794

“timestamp”:1706062583000

“contract_address”:”0xbc4ca0eda7647a8ab7c2061c2e118a18a936f13d”

“contract_name”: “BoredApeYachtClub”

“contract_token_id”:”0x00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000016f6"

“token_id”:”5878"

“erc_type”:”erc721"

“send”:”0xcb415344cd0fc552ce7b48ee9375991ff5865895"

“receive”:”0x29469395eaf6f95920e59f858042f0e28d98a20b”

“amount”:”1"

“trade_value”:”0x76b344f2a78c0000"

“trade_price”:27

“trade_symbol”:” ETH”

“trade_symbol_address”: NULL

“event_type”:” Sale”

“exchange_name”:” Blur”

“aggregate_exchange_name”: NULL

“nftscan_tx_id”:”1907346301130001"

}

This transaction involves a Sale event of BAYC series Token ID 5878, with a price of 27 ETH, and occurred on the Blur trading market. Based on various fields, we can decipher the key information and attributes of this NFT transaction, such as transaction hash value, From and To addresses, block information, gas consumption, transaction timestamp, and other fundamental data that characterize NFT transactions.

![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/p0hnolalubw7nvqjnz3q.png)

Furthermore, a total of 263,422 interaction records have occurred under this contract address, indicating relatively frequent activity.

Out of those records, the Mint event occurred 10,000 times, marking the initial minting and issuance of 10,000 BAYC items.
The Transfer event occurred 202,637 times, indicating the total number of NFT transfers between addresses.

The Sales event occurred 50,783 times, marking the total number of NFT transaction volumes.

There were only 2 Burn events.

With NFT market conditions continuously transforming, real-time data updates are extremely important for tracking dynamic NFT activities under a contract address. However, don’t worry, NFTScan’s provided data is updated automatically, ensuring that developers receive the most recent and precise information.

![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/0tvpjjrslg21rcqo508d.png)

NFTScan is the world’s largest NFT data infrastructure, including a professional NFT explorer and NFT developer platform, supporting the complete amount of NFT data for 20 blockchains including Ethereum, Solana, BNBChain, Arbitrum, Optimism, and other major networks, providing NFT API for developers on various blockchains.

Official Links:

NFTScan: https://nftscan.com

Developer: https://developer.nftscan.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/nftscan_com

Discord: https://discord.gg/nftscan