Spot arbitrage is the most basic form of crypto arbitrage: buy a coin on one exchange's spot market, move it over a blockchain network to another exchange, and sell it higher. No futures, no leverage, no liquidations - just a live token physically relocating from one venue to another. It sounds simple, and the mechanics really are straightforward, but spot–spot routes hide the most phantoms: the visible spread in the book guarantees nothing until fees, the cost and time of the transfer, open deposit/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, 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:
- Buy spot on exchange A at the
ask(cheaper). - Withdraw the coin from exchange A over the chosen network.
- Deposit to exchange B (it arrives after the required confirmations).
- 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. Profit = the price gap minus two taker fees, minus the network withdrawal fee, and only if both withdrawal on A and 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.
2. Network withdrawal fee. Depends on the network: an Ethereum withdrawal can cost $5–30, while Solana / BSC / Base / TRON cost cents. This fee is fixed in the coin and eats a larger percentage the smaller your trade size.
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 / book depth. A top-of-book spread may exist for $200, but at $2000 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. Capital is locked in the alt you bought.
- Deposit closed on exchange B - you can't bring it in, nothing to sell.
An extra spot specific: 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: 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/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.
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. 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/network, pulls honest per-network D/W flags and cuts 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 $5000, but look at the depth.
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. Now two spot-specific ways the same route breaks:
- QRX withdrawal on KuCoin 🔴 closed → gross is still 4.2%, net is zero: you can buy but can't move it out, capital 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.
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/slippage risk is higher too.
Why is there a spread but I can't make money?
Most often: 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.
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 - in the web dashboard.