A token shows up at $0.0420 on KuCoin and $0.0438 on Bybit at the same second. That is a 4.2% gap on the same coin, sitting right there in two order books. You buy the cheap side, move the coin across a blockchain network, sell the expensive side, and keep the difference. This is spot crypto arbitrage, the most basic form of crypto arbitrage: buy a coin on one exchange's spot market, relocate it over a network to another exchange, and sell it higher. No futures, no leverage, no liquidations - just a live token physically traveling from one venue to another. The mechanics really are that simple. The trap is that the visible spread guarantees nothing until fees, the cost and time of the transfer, an open deposit and withdrawal, and order-book depth for your size all line up. Below: how spot arbitrage works, what real profit is made of, where it breaks, a worked example with real numbers, a step-by-step entry checklist, an honest take on what to expect, and an FAQ.

What spot arbitrage is

Unlike futures or triangular arbitrage, spot arbitrage works with a real asset that has to move between exchanges. The flow is always the same:

SAME TOKEN · TWO SPOT VENUES gross gap +4.2% EXCHANGE A BUY at ask $0.0420 EXCHANGE B SELL at bid $0.0438 network transfer coin in transit · price keeps moving net = gap − 2 taker fees − withdrawal fee · only if D/W open
Buy cheap on A, move the coin over the network, sell dearer on B - the gap is gross, profit is what survives fees and transfer.
  1. Buy spot on exchange A at the ask (cheaper).
  2. Withdraw the coin from exchange A over the chosen network.
  3. Deposit to exchange B (it arrives after the required confirmations).
  4. Sell spot on exchange B at the bid (dearer).

Between steps 2 and 3 the asset is physically "in transit" - and that's the key difference from intra-exchange types: while the coin relocates, the price on both legs keeps moving. Your profit is the price gap minus two taker fees, minus the network withdrawal fee, and only if both the withdrawal on A and the deposit on B are open.

Spot arbitrage is direction-agnostic. It doesn't matter whether Bitcoin is rising or falling. All that matters is the price gap of the same token between exchange A and exchange B at the moment of the trade.

What real profit is made of

The raw spread is a ceiling, not your earnings. The real (net) profit is what survives four deductions.

1. Exchange fees. Taker on both legs, typically 0.1% + 0.1% = 0.2%. A spot–spot route is bought and sold at market (otherwise the price runs away), so you pay taker, not maker. A 0.3% gross route leaves 0.1% after two takers, basically zero. Note the spread is real: Binance and Bybit charge around 0.1% taker, MEXC and Gate run promos near 0% on many spot pairs, while a smaller venue might sit at 0.2%. Your fee tier is part of the trade.

2. Network withdrawal fee. Depends on the network. An Ethereum (ERC-20) withdrawal can cost $5–30, while Solana, BSC, Base and TRON cost cents. This fee is fixed in the coin, so it eats a larger percentage the smaller your trade size. A $1.50 withdrawal is 0.15% on a $1,000 trade but 1.5% on a $100 one.

3. Transfer time and convergence. While the asset moves (from ~30 seconds on fast networks to 5+ minutes on Ethereum and hours on congested bridges), the legs converge. The slower the network, the higher the risk the spread collapses before arrival, and you sell with no profit left.

4. Slippage and book depth. A top-of-book spread may exist for $200, but at $2,000 slippage has already eaten the gap. A real spot route is computed against order-book depth on both legs, not a single top price.

D/W statuses - risk #1 in spot–spot

Because the coin physically relocates, deposit/withdrawal (D/W) matters more here than in any other type of arbitrage. Two states break a spot route:

  • Withdrawal closed on exchange A - you can buy but can't move it out. Your capital is locked in the alt you just bought.
  • Deposit closed on exchange B - you can't bring it in, so there's nothing to sell.

An extra spot-specific wrinkle: D/W is a "coin × network × direction" matrix, not a single flag. An alt's withdrawal can be open on Solana but closed on BSC, so you must check exactly the network you intend to transfer over. Why an honest scanner shows 🟢/🔴/❔ and never guesses the status (a fake 🟢 = stuck capital), and how to read D/W per network, is in withdrawal windows and network fees.

The most common beginner mistake in spot arbitrage: you spot a fat spread, buy, and only then discover the coin's withdrawal on the buy exchange is 🔴 closed. Check D/W before entering, not after.

Why a spot spread lives longer on thin alts

Where a spot spread comes from and why bots close it is the general mechanism shared by all cross-exchange types, covered in cross-exchange arbitrage. For spot there's one specific: the thinner the alt and the rarer its network, the longer the window lives. On BTC or ETH a spot spread closes in seconds because the transfer is cheap and there are many takers. But on an illiquid alt that only moves on one unusual network, few are willing to commit capital and wait for confirmations, so a 3–8% gap can hang for minutes. That's exactly why spot arbitrage on thin alts demands not speed but an executability check: book depth and an open withdrawal matter more than a pretty percent.

So where do these gaps actually live? Most often on freshly listed tokens (one exchange lists a coin hours before another), on small caps that trade actively on MEXC, Gate, Bitget or KuCoin but barely on the majors, and right after a sharp move when one venue's book has not caught up. The most liquid pairs on Binance and OKX are the worst hunting ground - their spreads are gone before you finish reading them.

Strategies that actually work for beginners

You don't need 20 venues and a colocated bot. Three concrete approaches, each with a named example:

  • Liquid pairs, small net, fast network. Buy SOL on Bybit, move it over the Solana network (cents, ~30 seconds), sell on KuCoin. Net spreads here are thin (0.3–0.8%) but the transfer is so fast that the gap rarely collapses on you. This is the lowest-stress way to learn the mechanics.
  • Thin alts, wider gaps, executability first. A small cap quoted on MEXC and Gate can show 3–6% gross. The percent is large because the book is thin, so you size to the depth, not to your ambition. The worked example below is exactly this case.
  • Stablecoin micro-spreads. USDT or USDC drifting a few hundredths of a percent between Binance, OKX and Bitget. Tiny edge, but D/W is almost always open and the transfer over TRON or Solana is near-free. This overlaps with stablecoin arbitrage, where the peg mechanics are unpacked in full.

For every one of these, the discipline is identical: net spread positive after both takers and the withdrawal, D/W open on the exact network, and depth that holds your size on the bid.

How to compute a spot route

The general layer-by-layer read of a spread (gross → minus fees → minus transfer → D/W → depth) and building a route by hand are covered in arbitrage routes. Here's the spot emphasis: after two takers and the network withdrawal, compute the route against executable size on the bid, not the top price, and check the network against D/W for exactly that network. It's a couple of minutes per alt, but monitoring 20+ exchanges across spot pairs by hand is impossible. For that the Finder web dashboard already computes the spot spread net of fee and network, pulls honest per-network D/W flags, and cuts the phantoms.

A worked spot route: a thin alt on Solana

Take an illiquid alt QRX that trades on the Solana network. The scanner shows a spot spread KuCoin → BingX of +4.2%, wide precisely because the alt is thin and in a rare pair. The temptation is to throw in $5,000, but look at the depth first.

SELL BOOK · BingX bid depth 0.0438 ~$1,200 fills here 0.0431 ~$430 0.0426 ~$310 0.0421 ~$220 $5,000 order eats deep into thin book $1,200 → avg 0.0438 · ~4.2% gross $5,000 → avg 0.0425 · ~1.2% size →
The same "+4.2%" holds only for ~$1,200 - push $5,000 through this thin book and the effective spread collapses to ~1.2%.
Buy leg:   KuCoin, ask $0.0420
Sell leg:  BingX, bid $0.0438   (+4.2% gross)
Network:   Solana, withdrawal ~$0.03, credits ~20s
D/W:       QRX withdrawal KuCoin (SOL) 🟢, QRX deposit BingX (SOL) 🟢

Depth on the sell book (BingX bid):
  at $0.0438 - only ~$1,200
  below that the bid drops to $0.0421 (thin book)

Throw in $5,000 → the sale averages ~$0.0425, not $0.0438:
  the effective spread collapses from 4.2% to ~1.2% gross

Take the executable size of $1,200:
  Buy KuCoin $1200 → 28,571 QRX
  KuCoin taker 0.1%           −$1.20
  Solana withdrawal           −$0.03
  Sell BingX at $0.0438       → $1251.4
  BingX taker 0.1%            −$1.25
  ──────────────────────────────────
  Net ≈ +$48.95 (~4.08% net) - but only on $1,200, not $5,000

The key spot lesson here is not the percent but the depth. The same "4.2%" turns into ~1.2% on $5,000, because the alt's thin book won't hold the size. Real spot arbitrage on alts is bounded by executable size on the bid, not the top price. And there are two more spot-specific ways this same route dies:

  • QRX withdrawal on KuCoin 🔴 closed → gross is still 4.2%, net is zero. You can buy but can't move it out, so capital is locked in QRX.
  • Ethereum-only network (instead of Solana): $14 of gas on $1,200 is already −1.2%, plus 3–4 minutes in transit, during which a thin 4.2% gap can easily collapse before arrival.

The network, depth and D/W decide the outcome of a spot route, not the pretty percent in the book.

Step-by-step: entering a spot route safely

Here is the exact sequence to run before and during a trade. Numbers are illustrative but realistic for a beginner-sized route.

  1. Find the spread. Scanner shows TOKEN at $0.0420 on KuCoin and $0.0438 on Bybit, +4.2% gross. Note both venues and the network.
  2. Check D/W on the exact network. Withdrawal of TOKEN on KuCoin must be 🟢 and deposit on Bybit must be 🟢, both on the network you'll use (say Solana). If either is 🔴 or ❔, stop here.
  3. Read the bid depth on the sell side. On Bybit, how much fills near $0.0438 before the bid drops? Say $1,200. That, not your wallet, is your size.
  4. Net the math. Gross 4.2%, minus 0.1% + 0.1% takers, minus a ~$0.03 Solana withdrawal on $1,200. Net ≈ 4.0%, about $48 on $1,200. If net is under ~0.5% on a slow network, skip it.
  5. Pre-fund the sell side. Ideally you already hold a balance on Bybit so you can sell the instant the coin lands. Chasing both legs cold doubles your exposure to the gap closing.
  6. Buy first, withdraw immediately. Buy $1,200 of TOKEN on KuCoin at market, then fire the Solana withdrawal in the same minute. Every second in your KuCoin wallet is a second the spread can move.
  7. Sell on arrival. TOKEN credits on Bybit in ~20 seconds. Sell at market into the bid. Compare the realized average price to your $0.0438 target.
  8. Log the result. Record gross, net, network, fill quality. After 10–20 trades you will know which venues and networks actually pay you.

Beginner tip: do your first five routes on a liquid coin over a fast network (SOL, USDT on TRON) even if the net is only 0.3–0.5%. You are buying experience and confirming your wallets, addresses and timing work. Save the juicy 5% thin-alt routes for once the muscle memory is there.

Realistic expectations

Spot arbitrage is real, but it is not the printing press the screenshots imply. Be honest with yourself about the first few weeks.

  • Your first trades will be small or break-even. Between fees, a missed fill and the occasional gap that closes mid-transfer, early profit is thin. That is normal and it is the cost of learning where the phantoms hide.
  • Capital gets stuck. Sooner or later a withdrawal goes 🔴 while you hold the coin, or a network congests, and your money sits idle for hours. Size so that one stuck route does not hurt.
  • The big spreads are big for a reason. A clean, deep, D/W-open 5% on a major pair essentially does not exist - bots took it. The wide gaps you can actually reach are on thin alts where depth and transfer risk eat most of the headline.
  • It is a grind, not a jackpot. Realistic returns come from many small, disciplined turns, not one heroic trade. Most people who quit do so because they expected the headline percent and got the net.

None of this is a reason to avoid it. It is the reason Finder shows ❔ instead of faking a 🟢, and the spread net of fees instead of the gross. Knowing the real number is the entire edge. If you want the broader reality check across all arbitrage types, see is crypto arbitrage profitable and arbitrage mistakes.

FAQ - spot arbitrage

What is spot arbitrage in simple terms?

It's buying a coin on one exchange's spot market, moving it over a blockchain network to another exchange, and selling it higher. The profit comes from the price gap, net of fees and transfer cost.

How does spot arbitrage differ from futures arbitrage?

In spot you move a real coin between exchanges and carry D/W risk and transfer time. In futures arbitrage the coin usually doesn't move between exchanges - the route closes through price or funding convergence - but you take on leverage liquidation risk instead.

What spread counts as workable in spot arbitrage?

After two takers (~0.2%) and the network withdrawal, ~0.5–1% net is workable on liquid assets. On illiquid ones the windows are wider (2–10%+), but transfer and slippage risk are higher too. Always judge the net, not the gross.

How much money do I need to start?

You can practice spot arbitrage with $100–200, but be aware the fixed network fee hurts small sizes - a $1.50 withdrawal is 1.5% of a $100 trade. A few hundred dollars per leg on fast, cheap networks is a sane starting range. More on sizing in arbitrage starting capital.

Why is there a spread but I can't make money?

Most often: a closed withdrawal or deposit, dead liquidity for your size, a stale book price, or a slow network where the gap collapses during the transfer. Real profit = gross minus fees minus transfer, only with open D/W and enough depth.

Which network should I pick for the transfer in spot arbitrage?

Fast and cheap ones: Solana, BSC, Base, TRON (for USDT) - cents and ~30 seconds. Ethereum is avoided by default: $5–30 of gas and 2–5 minutes raise both cost and collapse risk. Above all, the network must be supported on both exchanges for that specific coin. See the cheapest transfer network.

Which exchanges are best for spot arbitrage?

There's no single best, you want several connected. Binance, Bybit and OKX give depth and reliable D/W. MEXC, Gate, Bitget, KuCoin and BingX list more small caps where the wider gaps appear. The opportunity is the difference between them, so the more venues you watch, the more routes you see.

This is not investment advice. In spot arbitrage capital physically relocates between exchanges - the gap can collapse during the transfer, and a closed withdrawal locks the coin on the buy exchange. Check the network, depth and D/W before entering, not by the pretty percent in the book.

Spot is just one type. The map of the rest of the family is in cross-exchange arbitrage. What's critical for spot: withdrawal windows and network fees and building an arbitrage route. If you'd rather not move a coin, futures and funding avoid the D/W risk. Getting started - arbitrage getting started. Live spot routes across 20+ exchanges, net of network and D/W, are in the web dashboard.