​​$80 of free profit can turn into a $20 loss 🥀

Crypto arbitrage is buying a coin where it's cheap and selling it where it's expensive. It works because two exchanges can hold different prices for the same asset at the same moment.

That happens because crypto has no single market. Each exchange only sees its own buyers and sellers, so prices drift apart. On major pairs the gap lasts seconds before bots close it. In South Korea it lasted years, because currency rules stopped anyone from evening it out.

Finding those gaps is the easy part. Scanners list them in real time, bots trade both sides automatically, and exchange APIs will ping you the moment a spread crosses whatever number you pick.

Then you count. Bitcoin is $80 cheaper on one exchange than another, so you take the trade. Fees on both sides take $60. The withdrawal costs $15. Your order is bigger than what's on offer at the best price, so part of it fills higher and that's $20 more. Converting stablecoins adds $5. $100 spent chasing $80.

Not every trade ends underwater, but that's the arithmetic every spread has to survive. A scanner shows 0,4%, depth eats most of it, fees and slippage take the rest, and 0,02-0,05% per trade is what actually reaches you. It works if you repeat it constantly, keep money sitting on both exchanges so there's no transfer to wait for, and nothing breaks. Every spread should be tested against real prices and fees first.

The full guide covers the four main types, how to choose exchanges, and what to check before each trade 👇