What this number actually is
The spread is the gap between the buying price and the selling price. It exists everywhere anything is traded: a currency kiosk, a bank, an exchange. It is what the person in the middle lives on.
For you the spread is the price of getting in and out. Buy and immediately sell, and you are already down by the spread. Understanding it is not theory — it stops you counting as profit something that is not.
Two different spreads people constantly confuse
The spread inside the order book
Any book has a best bid and a best ask, and there is always a gap between them. On BTC/USDT at a major venue it is hundredths of a percent; on a rare coin it can be several percent.
This spread is always against you. It does not earn you anything — it sets what an operation costs.
The spread between venues
This is what arbitrage exists for: the same coin costs different amounts on different exchanges.
When our pages say "spread" they almost always mean the second one. But the first does not disappear — it is subtracted from the second.
Why a spread gets wide
- A thin market. Few orders, wide gap. The main reason.
- A rare coin. The fewer people interested, the wider the spread.
- A sharp move. Market makers pull their orders and the gap opens.
- A barrier. If a coin cannot be moved quickly between venues, the gap between them lasts longer.
Hence a rule worth remembering: a wide spread almost always means it is hard to close. If it were easy, it would already be gone.
How a spread deceives
The spread figure is calculated from the best orders. And the best order is often tiny.
A real example from our data. One venue had an offer for 60 USDT priced 6% below the market. Formally that is the best price and the spread was computed from it. In practice you could buy under fifty dollars worth, and the rest of the market stood 6% higher.
That is why every page of ours shows the available size next to the price. Read them as a pair — separately they mean nothing.
Calculating it properly
Divide the selling price by the buying price, subtract one, multiply by a hundred.
Bought at 45.80, sold at 46.90: 46.90 ÷ 45.80 = 1.024 → 2.4%.
But that is the spread before costs. Subtract the buying fee, the selling fee and the transfer fee — usually 0.2 to 0.5 percentage points in total.
What counts as a working spread
- P2P: from 1%.
- Cross-exchange spot: from 0.6%.
- Triangular: from 0.1% with a zero maker fee, otherwise above 0.3%.
- DEX to CEX: from 1% on cheap networks, 4–5% on Ethereum because of gas.
Anything showing 20% or more is not an opportunity but a prompt to check: most likely withdrawals are suspended or the pair is dead.
Frequently asked
Why is my spread smaller than the scanner showed? Because you are trading more than sits at the best price. Enter your real amount in the filter and the figure becomes honest.
A negative spread — is that an error? Inside one venue, it signals an odd book. Between venues it simply means you should go the other way.
Where do I see spreads here? For P2P in rates, for exchanges in cross-exchange arbitrage, and the depth behind the price in order books.