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Crypto people search API: 2 of 6 confirmed to search by name

By NAUT Research · · 7 min read

2 of 6 Crypto people search APIs with public docs confirmed to search a person by name, checked 31 October 2026. Logos: Aptos, NEAR Protocol, HashKey Group, Shima Capital, Neutrl, Delphi Digital, Zora, Movement, Caladan, CryptoRank, RootData, YieldGuild.

NAUT checked 6 crypto people search API and contact data options with public documentation on 31 October 2026, and 2 of them have a name search NAUT could confirm from their docs: NAUT's own /v1/people and Apollo.io's people search. For the other 4, a name search is not confirmed. NAUT tracks 11,637 live people records with their own profile page, and a read of 50 of those records from NAUT's database on 31 October 2026 found a name and a linked company on all 50 and a usable job title on 49.

Disclosure: NAUT published and ran this test, and NAUT sells 1 of the tools compared. The scoring criteria, the test sample, the rival list and the date were written to a prereg.json file in NAUT's own build folder on 31 October 2026 before any scoring happened. That file names Apollo.io, CryptoRank and Messari as the rivals and lists RootData and DefiLlama as dropped before scoring, so both appear here as not tested. It registered 5 criteria, and 3 things changed after it was written. Criterion 5, a hit test of the 50 sample names on NAUT's /v1/people and /v1/search, was not run: no API call was made, and NAUT read the 50 records from its database instead. CryptoRank was registered against its v2 spec and scored on its v3 reference, because a later check found person endpoints in v3 that v2 does not have. Criterion 4 asked for each rival's own dated price page, and Apollo.io's prices come from 3 third-party guides, because its own page returned no price text. No criterion was added, and criteria 1 to 4 were scored as registered.

How was this crypto people search API test run?

Scope, as of 31 October 2026. NAUT tried to read the public API documentation of 6 tools that a deal maker might reach for to find people in crypto and Web3: NAUT, Apollo.io, CryptoRank, Messari, RootData and DefiLlama. Each tool was scored on 4 of the 5 registered criteria, the 4 that were run: does any documented endpoint return a record for a named individual, is that record reachable by a name or title search, what fields does it carry, and what does a call cost on the tool's own published page.

  • Every rival fact here comes from a page NAUT read on 31 October 2026, with the page linked in Sources. Where NAUT could not read a page, or could not find a statement on it to stand behind, the cell says "not tested".
  • NAUT's own side was measured on 50 records. The sample is 50 live, slugged, titled people records read from NAUT's production database on 31 October 2026, covering 38 companies and funds. It is a spread of live titled records, from founders and CEOs to engineers and marketers, and no NAUT API call was made for it. Only the presence flags are reported for contact channels, never a channel value.
  • Apollo.io prices come from 3 third-party pricing guides, because Apollo's own pricing page renders its figures in the browser and NAUT's fetch returned no price text. Apollo's own pricing page is marked not confirmed.
  • and Messari split the 2 criteria. CryptoRank's current v3 reference documents standalone person endpoints, /v3/persons/list, /v3/persons/map and /v3/persons/{id}, which return person records with no project, fund or launchpad id needed, so it passes the first criterion. NAUT found no name-search parameter documented on any of them, so its name search is not confirmed. Messari's documented endpoints returned organization records, with no endpoint returning an individual person record on the pages NAUT read.
  • 1 row was dropped from the tables. The record for a contact at Zesh carries a person's name in its job title field, a data-entry error NAUT is fixing, so it appears in no table here.
  • Retest by 30 April 2027. Rival plan names, prices and endpoint lists change without notice.

Which crypto people search API returns a person record?

2 of the 6 tools have a documented endpoint, confirmed by NAUT, that takes a person's name and returns a person record. For the other 4 a name search is not confirmed. The ranking below is by how far each tool gets on the 4 fixed criteria, best first.

API Name search? Person fields Price
NAUT Yes, q takes a name, an X handle or a job title name, jobTitle, company, X handle, plus email, phone, Telegram and LinkedIn flags $49 a month, 3,000 credits, 5 credits a call
Apollo.io Yes, q_person_name takes a person's name not tested, no call was made here $49 to $119 per seat a month, billed annually
Not confirmed. Its v3 person endpoints list people with no project id needed, and NAUT found no documented name-search parameter not tested not tested
Messari Not confirmed. The docs NAUT read show organization records and no person record not tested not tested
Not tested as an API. Its docs site loaded and sells a people directory of 18,000 figures, with no API reference page not tested not tested
DefiLlama Not tested, no readable API reference was confirmed not tested not tested

Apollo.io's reference page lists q_person_name as "Search by person's name", alongside q_keywords, page and per_page, so a Web3 people search is possible there, with the caveat that Apollo indexes business contacts generally and nothing on that page scopes it to crypto. NAUT's q takes a name, an X handle or a job title in 1 field, and a hit carries the company the person sits at as a linked record.

RootData is the closest thing in the set to a crypto-native people directory on the product side, and its documentation site describes a "People Directory" that "Covers 18,000 key industry figures". That page carries no API reference for it, so a developer reading RootData's public docs on 31 October 2026 had no documented people endpoint to call. CryptoRank gets further: its v3 reference documents /v3/persons/list and /v3/persons/map, which return person records without scoping the call to a project, fund or launchpad id, plus /v3/persons/{id} for a single profile. So a person record exists and is reachable, but on the v3 pages NAUT read none of those endpoints documents a parameter that searches those people by name, which is why the name-search cell reads not confirmed. Messari's documented endpoints returned organization records only on the pages NAUT read.

What does a crypto people search API cost?

If you are shopping for a crypto contact data API, the unit matters as much as the headline price: NAUT bills credits per call on 1 account, and Apollo.io bills credits per seat on an annual commitment.

Tool Plan Price What it includes
NAUT Essential $49 a month 3,000 credits, 600 data calls
NAUT Pro $99 a month 6,000 credits
NAUT Team $249 a month 15,000 credits
Apollo.io Basic $49 per seat a month, billed annually 30,000 credits per seat a year
Apollo.io Professional $79 per seat a month, billed annually credits not confirmed in this test
Apollo.io Organization $119 per seat a month, billed annually credits not confirmed in this test

On NAUT a data or search call costs 5 credits, and revealing a person's private channels costs 10 credits the first time and 5 after that, a permanent unlock on that record. GET /v1/me is free. Apollo's 3 plan prices above are from 3 pricing guides read on 31 October 2026, and Apollo's own pricing page is not confirmed.

What does NAUT hold for the 50 names?

NAUT read 50 live, slugged, titled people records from its database on 31 October 2026; all 50 carry a name, a profile slug, a filled job title field and a linked company, and 16 of the 50 carry an X handle. 1 of those job title fields, at Zesh, holds a person's name by mistake, so 49 of the 50 carry a usable title. The sample was drawn from records that already have a slug and a title, so the first 3 rows below are 100% by construction. The table reads as the share of the 50-name sample, as of 31 October 2026.

Field Names Share
name, slug and NAUT page 50 100%
company, with its page 50 100%
job title 50 100%
hasLinkedin true 44 88%
twitterHandle 16 32%
hasTelegram true 5 10%
hasEmail or hasPhone 0 0%

47 of the 50 records carry at least 1 reachable channel flag, counting X, Telegram and LinkedIn. The 3 with none are at Zaddy Coin, Pepe Dollar and Lahara. No record in this sample had an email or phone flag set, so a BD team working this slice is reaching people on social channels. That is a limit of NAUT's data on this sample of 50, and this test makes no count for the rest of the database.

Names in the 50-name sample, by company, the 6 companies with 2 or more
  1. Aptos6
  2. Caladan3
  3. NEAR Protocol3
  4. Neutrl2
  5. Everreach Labs2
  6. Delphi Digital2

The sample spread across 38 companies and funds, so 32 of them contributed a single name each. Neutrl, Everreach Labs and Delphi Digital each account for 2 names, and each company page lists the rest of its team.

Which people in the sample carry an X handle, and how do you reach them?

These 16 are every record in the 50-name sample that carries an X handle, which covers all 5 with a Telegram flag. They are ordered by the number of channel flags on file, most first, then by company name. Telegram stays a flag here: it means NAUT holds a handle behind a reveal call, and the handle itself is not printed.

Person Title, company X handle Flags on file
Advisor, @Sonnenshein X, Telegram, LinkedIn
Co-Founder, @rushimanche X, Telegram, LinkedIn
Product Manager, @alexauroradev X, Telegram, LinkedIn
Advisor, @jzconcepts X, Telegram, LinkedIn
Head of Research, @linfluence X, Telegram, LinkedIn
Advisor, @danboneh X, LinkedIn
Advisor, @dlawee X, LinkedIn
Head Architect, @david_wolinsky X, LinkedIn
Advisor, @DruckerP X, LinkedIn
Founder and CEO, @GuruXing X, LinkedIn
President, @msjuliazhou X, LinkedIn
Head of Marketing, @TaylanMcRaeYu X, LinkedIn
Co-founder, @dg_goens X, LinkedIn
CTO, @Cupcakus X
CMO, @Moon1ightSt X
CTO, Co-founder, @OwlOfMoistness X

The 5 records in the whole sample with a Telegram flag are Michael Sonnenshein at Aptos, Alex Shevchenko and James Zhang at NEAR Protocol, Alex Lin at Shima Capital and rushi manche at Movement. The other 34 records in the sample carry no X handle, among them Deng Chao, CEO at HashKey Group, and Philippe Moser, VP of Business Development at Coldware.

Anyone listed here can ask for their NAUT profile to be removed at naut.so/legal/data-deletion.

What this tells a BD team

  • Search by title, then by name. NAUT's q takes a job title, so "Head of Business Development" or "Chief Strategy Officer" returns candidates before you have a name. Of the 6 tools checked, 2 have a name search NAUT could confirm from public docs; for the other 4 it is not confirmed.
  • Expect social channels on this slice. 44 of the 50 records carry a LinkedIn flag and 16 carry an X handle, while 0 carry an email or phone flag.
  • Budget on the credit unit. $49 buys 3,000 NAUT credits on 1 account, which is 600 data calls at 5 credits each. The same $49 on Apollo's Basic plan is per seat and billed for a year.
  • Treat a people directory without an API as a manual step. RootData sells a people directory of 18,000 figures as a product feature, with no API endpoint for it that NAUT could find documented on 31 October 2026.
How a BD team can build a lead list from a people search API
  1. Search by titleCall /v1/people with a job title such as VP of Business Development, the title Philippe Moser carries at Coldware. 5 credits a call.
  2. Read the flags44 of the 50 records in this test carried a LinkedIn flag and 16 an X handle, so you can see reachability before you spend a reveal.
  3. Reveal only what you needThe first private reveal on a person costs 10 credits and is permanent, then 5. Only 5 of the 50 held a Telegram flag.
  4. Walk the companyEvery hit links to its company page, so the 6 names from Aptos or the 3 from Caladan arrive as a team.

Can you pull this data through the NAUT API?

Yes. The call that serves these records is GET /v1/people, which takes q as a name, an X handle or a job title, plus contactType, roles, channels, sort, page and limit. It costs 5 credits a call, and GET /v1/people/{id}?include=private costs 10 credits the first time it reveals a person's email, phone, Telegram or LinkedIn, then 5. Verified Telegram, email and LinkedIn for the people on NAUT unlock on any paid plan: start a 7-day trial.

Send your key as a bearer token in the Authorization header, as Bearer $NAUT_KEY, and a first call looks like GET /v1/people?q=john%20gu&limit=5 against https://api.naut.so.

Mint a key at naut.so/developer, read the reference at naut.so/docs/api and compare plans at naut.so/pricing. A key without enough credits returns clearly marked sample data at 0 credits, so you can build the integration before you pay for it.

Crypto people search API FAQ

Which API finds people in crypto and Web3?

Of the 6 options NAUT checked on 31 October 2026, 2 have a name search NAUT could confirm from public docs: NAUT's GET /v1/people, where q matches a name, an X handle or a job title, and Apollo.io's people search, where q_person_name searches by a person's name. CryptoRank has confirmed people-returning endpoints in its v3 reference, /v3/persons/list and /v3/persons/map, which need no project id, and NAUT found no documented parameter on those pages that searches those people by name. Messari's docs that NAUT read show organization records only, RootData's docs carry no API reference for its people directory, and DefiLlama was not tested.

Does NAUT have a crypto people search API?

Yes. GET https://api.naut.so/v1/people?q= searches 11,637 live people records that NAUT held with their own profile page on 31 October 2026, and GET /v1/search?q= returns projects and people together, up to 12 of each. In a read of 50 sampled records from NAUT's database on 31 October 2026, all 50 carried a name and a linked company, 49 a usable job title, 44 a LinkedIn flag and 16 an X handle.

How much does a crypto people search API cost?

On NAUT, $49 a month buys 3,000 credits, which is 600 data calls at 5 credits a call, with Pro at $99 for 6,000 credits and Team at $249 for 15,000. Apollo.io's Basic, Professional and Organization plans were listed at $49, $79 and $119 per seat a month on annual billing by 3 pricing guides read on 31 October 2026.

Where can I find the founders and operators in this test, and their contact channels?

Every 1 of the 50 people in this test has a NAUT profile page, among them John Gu at Caladan, rushi manche at Movement, Dee Goens at Zora and Deng Chao at HashKey Group. The same records come back from GET https://api.naut.so/v1/people?q= at 5 credits a call, with include=private on a single profile revealing the channels behind the flags.

Sources