Spot arbitrage is the simplest and most popular form of crypto arbitrage. You buy an asset on one exchange where it is cheap and sell the very same asset on another exchange where it is more expensive. No futures, no leverage, no complicated order books — just a real, measurable price difference that you convert into profit. It is the natural starting point for anyone learning to trade the gaps between markets, and it is exactly what ArbiScreen was built to find.
Every crypto asset — Bitcoin, Ethereum, USDT — trades on dozens of independent exchanges at the same time. Each exchange has its own order book, its own buyers and sellers, and therefore its own price. Most of the time those prices are close, but they are almost never identical. When the gap grows wide enough to cover your trading and transfer fees, a profit opportunity appears.
The formula is deliberately boring: same asset, different exchanges, buy low, sell high. If BTC costs $67,200 on Exchange A and $67,900 on Exchange B, that $700 difference is a 1.04% spread. Buy on A, sell on B, and you capture the gap. Because you hold the underlying coin rather than a derivative, there is no funding cost, no liquidation risk, and no expiry to worry about. This directional simplicity is why beginners almost always start here before moving on to triangular, funding-rate, or DEX strategies.
The catch is speed and cost. Spreads open and close in seconds, and fees quietly eat into gross profit. Winning at spot arbitrage is less about predicting the market and more about seeing the spread first and executing before it closes — which is a monitoring problem, not a forecasting one.
Spot arbitrage sits at the accessible end of the arbitrage spectrum. Understanding how it compares helps you choose the right strategy for your capital and experience level.
| Type | Complexity | Risk | Capital Needed | Speed Required |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spot | Low | Low–Medium | Low ($100+) | Medium |
| Triangular | High | Medium | Medium | High |
| Funding Rate | Medium | Medium | High | Low |
| DEX / On-chain | High | High (gas, MEV) | Medium–High | Very High |
The takeaway: spot arbitrage asks the least of you in terms of capital, code, and market knowledge, while still rewarding good execution. That combination of low barrier and steady opportunity is why it remains the most popular entry point.
A reasonable question: if everyone can see the prices, why don't they instantly equalize? The answer is that crypto exchanges are not connected to each other. Each is an island of supply and demand, and several structural forces keep those islands out of sync:
These forces guarantee that spreads never fully disappear. They shrink, they widen, they move from coin to coin — and a monitor like ArbiScreen exists precisely to catch them the moment they appear.
Here is the full workflow using ArbiScreen, from spotting an opportunity to locking in the profit.
Launch app.arbiscreen.com. The board loads live spot prices across all 17 exchanges and sorts opportunities by net profit automatically.
Scan the top rows for a gap that clears your minimum threshold — say 0.5% net. Look at the buy and sell exchange columns to see exactly where the coin is cheap and where it is expensive.
Ignore the gross number and read the net-profit column. ArbiScreen has already subtracted trading and withdrawal fees, so what you see is close to what you keep.
Confirm a common network is open on both exchanges (e.g. TRC-20 for USDT, Solana for SOL). If deposits or withdrawals are paused, the trade cannot complete — skip it.
Buy on the cheap exchange and sell on the expensive one. For fast spreads, do both simultaneously with pre-funded accounts; for wide spreads, buy then transfer then sell.
Move funds back so both accounts are ready for the next opportunity. Over time you keep a working float on your most-used exchanges to minimize transfer waits.
Numbers make it concrete. Here are three realistic trades with the full math, gross and net.
You spot BTC at $67,000 on Binance and $68,005 on Luno (ZA) — a 1.5% gross spread. On $10,000 of capital that is $150 gross. Now subtract costs: 0.1% buy fee ($10), 0.1% sell fee ($10), a ~0.0002 BTC network withdrawal (~$14), and ~0.3% slippage on the thinner Luno book (~$30). Net profit lands around $80, or 0.8% — a solid single-trade return that clears in under 30 minutes.
During periods of local currency stress, USDT trades at a 3% premium on Turkish exchanges — say $1.03 vs $1.00 globally. Buy 10,000 USDT at $1.00, transfer on a cheap network like TRC-20 (fee ~$1), and sell for $10,300. After ~0.2% in combined fees ($20), net profit is roughly $279, or 2.8%. Geo-driven stablecoin premiums are among the most reliable spot opportunities — see geo arbitrage.
SOL shows a 0.5% spread — $148.20 on KuCoin, $148.94 on Bybit. This is a same-second dual-exchange scalp: you already hold SOL on Bybit and USDT on KuCoin, so you buy on KuCoin and sell on Bybit simultaneously. On $5,000 the gross is $25; after ~0.1% total fees ($5) you net about $20, or 0.4%. Small, but repeatable many times a day with no transfer wait.
There are two distinct ways to run a spot arbitrage trade, and choosing correctly is half the game.
Pre-fund both exchanges. Buy on the cheap one and sell on the expensive one at the same time, then rebalance later.
Pros: no transfer wait, no price-drift risk. Cons: ties up capital on both venues. Best for: fast, thin spreads like the SOL scalp.
Buy on the cheap exchange, withdraw the coin, deposit on the expensive exchange, then sell.
Pros: capital-efficient, only funds one side. Cons: exposed to price moves during transfer. Best for: large, durable spreads like geo premiums.
Rule of thumb: use simultaneous for small, fast spreads and sequential for wide spreads that will survive a 10–30 minute transfer.
ArbiScreen is a live spot-arbitrage scanner comparing prices across 17 exchanges in real time. Each row is one opportunity, and each column answers a question you would otherwise have to check by hand:
Sort by net profit to surface the best trades, filter by the exchanges you actually have accounts on, and use spread age to avoid chasing stale numbers. Open ArbiScreen and watch the board update live.
| Coin | Avg Spread | Withdrawal Fee | Transfer Speed | Best Networks | Risk |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| USDT | 0.3–3% | ~$1 | Fast | TRC-20, BEP-20 | Low |
| BTC | 0.2–1.5% | ~$5–15 | Slow | BTC, Lightning | Medium |
| SOL | 0.3–1% | ~$0.01 | Very Fast | Solana | Low |
| XRP | 0.3–1.2% | ~$0.02 | Very Fast | XRP Ledger | Low |
| ETH | 0.2–1% | ~$1–5 | Medium | Arbitrum, ETH | Medium |
Fast, cheap-to-transfer coins like SOL and XRP are ideal for the sequential method, while USDT's frequent geo premiums make it the workhorse of spot arbitrage overall.
Opportunities cluster around exchanges with different user bases and liquidity profiles. The most productive combinations pair a deep global venue with a regional or mid-tier one:
ArbiScreen watches all 17 venues at once, so instead of guessing which pair is hot today, you simply sort the board and let the data point you there.
Spot arbitrage is low-risk, not no-risk. A disciplined approach keeps small execution slips from becoming losses:
Yes. Buying low on one exchange and selling higher on another is a normal, legal trading activity. Just follow each exchange's terms and your local tax rules.
You can begin with as little as $100, but fixed withdrawal fees eat proportionally more of small trades. $1,000–$5,000 is a comfortable range where fees stay negligible relative to profit.
Per-trade net returns typically run 0.3–3%. Profitability comes from repeating small, reliable trades many times rather than one big score. Volume and discipline matter more than any single spread.
No. ArbiScreen surfaces the opportunities and you execute manually on the exchanges. Bots can help with speed on thin spreads, but they are optional for spot arbitrage.
Price drift during a transfer on the sequential method, and slippage from oversized orders. Both are managed by validating spread age, sizing to book depth, and preferring liquid coins.
Prices move by the second. Always check ArbiScreen's spread age and refresh before executing — a spread that is several minutes old may already have closed.
ArbiScreen compares spot prices across 17 exchanges, shows net profit after fees, and flags open withdrawal networks — everything you need for spot arbitrage on one screen.
Open ArbiScreen →For a market-neutral alternative to spot arbitrage, see cash-and-carry arbitrage, where the profit is fixed the moment you open the trade.
