The spread is the raw price difference between where you'd buy and where you'd sell. Net profit is what you actually keep after every cost is subtracted. Confusing the two is the single most common way new arbitrage traders lose money.
ArbiHunt is built around net profit by design — it never shows you a spread it hasn't already costed out.
A worked example
Say you spot BTC at $60,000 on Exchange A and $60,300 on Exchange B — a $300 (0.5%) gross spread on a 1 BTC trade. Now subtract the real costs:
| Cost | Typical amount |
|---|---|
| Taker fee — buy leg (0.1%) | −$60 |
| Taker fee — sell leg (0.1%) | −$60 |
| Network withdrawal fee | −$15 |
| Slippage / order-book depth | −$40 |
| Net profit | ≈ $125 |
A $300 gap became ~$125 — still positive, but less than half the headline. On a thinner coin or a more expensive network, the same 0.5% spread can flip negative.
Rule of thumb
Two taker fills already cost you roughly 0.2% before anything else. If the gross spread is under that, the trade is almost certainly a loss.
The four costs that eat a spread
- Trading fees (both legs). You pay a fee to buy and to sell. Most exchanges charge ~0.1% taker; some more. This is usually the biggest bite.
- Withdrawal fee. A flat, per-network fee to move the coin off the buy exchange. It varies enormously by chain — see Withdrawal fees explained.
- Slippage. If the order book is thin, filling your full size pushes the price against you. Bigger size = more slippage.
- Deposit cost / time. Deposits are usually free, but the coin must use a network both exchanges support, and the transfer takes time during which the price can move.
How ArbiHunt calculates it
For every opportunity, the scanner subtracts the taker fee on both exchanges, the real withdrawal fee for the cheapest compatible network, and weighs it against live order-book liquidity — then ranks what's left by net profit. The percentage and dollar figures you see are post-cost, not headline.
Stop eyeballing spreads
ArbiHunt does the fee math on every pair across 23 exchanges, so you only see opportunities that are still profitable after costs.
Why net profit can change in seconds
Order books move constantly. A spread that nets $125 now might be gone in 30 seconds as other traders fill it, or as the buy-side price ticks up. This is why ArbiHunt refreshes on a fast loop — and why you should treat any figure as a snapshot, not a promise. Not financial advice.
See it live
ArbiHunt scans 23 exchanges in real time and ranks every spread by true net profit — after fees, withdrawals and live liquidity.