Spot arbitrage is buying a coin on one exchange's spot market and selling the same amount on another exchange's spot market at a higher price, keeping the gap minus fees. The table on this page shows the widest live gap per coin, after taker fees on both legs. For the theory, read the spot arbitrage guide.
How it works
- Pre-position balances. Hold stablecoins on the exchanges where you expect to buy and the coin itself on the exchanges where you expect to sell.
- Spot a route. A route is a pair of exchanges where the best bid on one is above the best ask on the other.
- Trade both legs at once. Buy at the ask on the cheap exchange and sell at the bid on the expensive one, in the same size and as close together in time as you can.
- Rebalance later. Your stablecoins have moved to the sell exchange and your coins to the buy exchange. Move them back when transfer costs are low, not while a spread is open.
The pre-positioning step is the one that matters most. If you buy first and then withdraw the coins to sell them elsewhere, the withdrawal, network confirmations and deposit credit can take minutes or longer, and most spreads close well before your coins arrive.
Reading the scanner
- Route: the buy leg (the exchange whose best ask you pay) and the sell leg (the exchange whose best bid you hit).
- Net spread: the gross spread minus one taker fee on each exchange. This is the figure the table sorts by.
- Gross: (best bid on the sell exchange − best ask on the buy exchange) ÷ best ask. It uses the bid-ask spread on each side, not mid prices, so it reflects what a market order would actually get.
- Fees: the sum of both taker fees, using each exchange's default (non-VIP) rate. If your account has a lower tier, your real net spread is higher. See maker vs taker fees.
- Max size: the smaller of the quantity at the best ask and the best bid, in USD. This is how much you can trade before you move into worse prices.
- Max profit: max size × net spread. For example, a 0.4% net spread with $2,500 at the top of the book gives $10.
- 24h volume: spot trading volume for the coin. Markets below $100,000 are excluded.
To judge a row, look at Max profit before Net spread. A large percentage on a few hundred dollars of depth may not be worth the attention. Then check that both exchanges list the same token: a very wide gap often means two different projects share a ticker, or that deposits or withdrawals are suspended on one side, which stops traders from closing it. The arbitrage profit calculator lets you test your own size and fees.
Costs and risks the scanner does not include
- Withdrawal and network fees for rebalancing, which can be larger than the spread on small trades.
- Transfer time: suspended or slow deposits and withdrawals, which is often why a gap exists in the first place.
- Depth beyond the top of the book: larger orders get worse prices through slippage.
- Timing: the two quotes can be a few seconds apart, and the price can move before your second order fills.
- Stablecoin differences: USDT, USDC and USD markets are compared directly, so a small stablecoin gap is part of the spread.
- Exchange risk: capital held on many venues is exposed to each of them.
Read arbitrage risks for a fuller list, and the methodology for exact filters.
When it works best
Spot arbitrage pays when you already hold inventory on both venues, trade coins with enough depth to fill a useful size, and pay low fees. Gaps tend to widen during fast markets, on newly listed coins, and on smaller or regional exchanges with fewer arbitrage traders. Liquid large-cap pairs on major exchanges rarely leave much after fees. See all routes on the price arbitrage scanner, or compare with futures arbitrage.