Spot arbitrage works by buying a coin cheaply on one exchange and selling it for more on another — pocketing the price gap, minus fees.
"Spot" simply means the real, current price of the coin (as opposed to a futures contract). Because hundreds of exchanges quote prices independently, the same Bitcoin can cost $67,000 on one venue and $67,250 on another at the same second. Spot arbitrage is the craft of catching that gap and converting it into profit before it closes. This page walks through the full lifecycle step by step, with a real example, so a complete beginner can follow exactly how the money is made.
Every spot arbitrage trade is the same four-beat loop: spot a gap → buy on the cheap exchange → sell on the expensive exchange → keep the difference after fees. The skill is doing it fast, on a gap wide enough to survive costs.
Let's run $6,700 through a concrete trade so the numbers are honest:
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Buy 0.1 BTC on Exchange A | $6,700 (at $67,000) |
| Sell 0.1 BTC on Exchange B | $6,725 (at $67,250) |
| Gross gap | $25 |
| Buy fee (0.1%) | −$6.70 |
| Sell fee (0.1%) | −$6.73 |
| Net profit | ≈ $11.57 (0.17%) |
Why the net number is everything
That $25 gap looked like a 0.37% win, but fees cut it to 0.17%. This is the single most important lesson in spot arbitrage: a gross gap means nothing until you subtract every fee. Try the numbers yourself in our fees calculator.
Moving crypto between exchanges takes minutes and costs a network fee — and in those minutes the price gap can vanish. The professional fix is pre-positioning: keep a balance of both the coin and a stablecoin (like USDT) on both exchanges in advance. When a gap appears, you sell the coin on the expensive exchange and buy it back on the cheap one simultaneously, with no transfer at all. Your net holdings stay the same; you just captured the spread. This is how fast arbitrage really works.
Each exchange is its own little market with its own buyers and sellers. A burst of buying on one venue lifts its price for a few seconds before the rest catch up. Different fee structures, regional demand (a coin can be pricier where local buyers are hungry), and thinner liquidity on smaller exchanges all keep prices slightly out of sync. Arbitrage traders are the ones who close those gaps — and get paid for doing it.
| Type | What it is |
|---|---|
| Cross-exchange | Same coin, two different exchanges — the classic covered above |
| Geographic | Price premium in a specific country/currency (e.g. the ZAR or Naira premium) |
| Triangular | Three coins on one exchange (e.g. USDT → BTC → ETH → USDT) exploiting a pricing loop |
Watching hundreds of pairs across exchanges by hand is impossible — gaps last seconds. ArbiScreen scans 17 exchanges in real time, flags live spot gaps, and shows your net profit after fees so you only act on trades that actually pay. Open the scanner or read the risks first.
