# Price Oracles

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Smart contracts written in **Clarity** run in a deterministic sandbox: they can read data in the Stacks and Bitcoin chainstate, but *nothing else*. Whenever your dApp needs the latest **BTC/USD**, **STX/BTC**, or any other market price, you’ll rely on an **oracle** to bring that data on‑chain in a verifiable way.

This page explains why price‑feed oracles matter on Stacks and links to the specific oracle provider docs with instructions on how to integrate them.

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## Why you need a price‑feed oracle

For DeFi smart contracts, it’s crucial to leverage trusted sources for asset pricing, which has profound implications for investor returns and trading strategies.

Here are some possible scenarios where you might need an oracle.

| On‑chain need                        | Typical Stacks use case                        | What the oracle supplies            |
| ------------------------------------ | ---------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------- |
| **Liquidations & collateral ratios** | Lending / borrowing protocols, margin trading  | Signed price updated every N blocks |
| **Stablecoin peg maintenance**       | BTC‑backed or exogenous‑collateral stablecoins | Reference BTC/USD (or other) price  |
| **AMM curve calculations**           | DEXs that tune fees or rebalance pools         | Time‑weighted average price (TWAP)  |
| **Derivatives settlement**           | Options, futures, or perpetual swaps           | Final settlement price at expiry    |

{% hint style="info" %}
Rule of thumb: if your contract’s math depends on a real‑time market price, you need a price‑feed oracle.
{% endhint %}

## Oracle Providers for Stacks

Here are the currently available oracle providers that Stacks builders commonly use for price data.

### **Pyth**

Pyth is a pull-based oracle. Stacks Labs currently maintains the Pyth bridge.

[Learn how to use Pyth.](/more-guides/price-oracles/pyth.md)

### **DIA**

DIA is another oracle provider used by Stacks builders. See DIA's [guide](https://nexus.diadata.org/how-to-guides/fetch-price-data/chain-specific-guide/stacks) for how to use DIA oracles with Stacks. Check out the video tutorial to learn more on how DIA works for Clarity smart contracts:

{% embed url="<https://youtu.be/bhWQxHGpv2s?si=dWlBAEAuYtoQj2sC>" %}


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