Two prices, not one
The gap counts tooAn exchange always names two prices: one it sells at, and one it buys back at. The gap between them is its earnings, and it stands nowhere as a fee, because it is not one. Anyone looking only at the printed trading fee is comparing two providers in the wrong place.
In practice that means the cheapest exchange is not the one with the lowest fee but the one where fee and gap together are smallest. Anyone can make that comparison themselves and it takes two minutes: put the buy price and the sell price of the same coin side by side in the same minute.
What actually separates one provider from another
Three builds| Build | How it settles | What to watch for |
|---|---|---|
| Exchange with an order book | A fee in per cent, the gap usually small | The controls are less familiar, but the gap is visible |
| Instant buy inside a customer area | «Fee-free», the earnings sit in the gap | The price is already the price with the mark-up |
| A machine | A fixed fee plus the gap | Convenient, and on small amounts the dearest of the three |
None of the three builds is right or wrong in principle. The difference is how visible the price you pay actually is.
Why the first purchase is often too small
And what that costsThe obvious way in is a small trial amount. That is sensible when playing and dear when buying: the network fee for the transfer that follows does not hang on the amount, so twenty francs cost a multiple, in proportion, of what a thousand would. Anyone who wants the trial run anyway is better off making it with a coin whose network fee is fixed and low.
After the purchase: your own address
An intermediate step with consequencesMany leave the coin sitting at the exchange and transfer from there straight into the cashier. That saves a step and a fee. The price is that two outside parties hold the amount one after the other rather than one outside party and one of your own — and that some exchanges restrict transfers to certain addresses without announcing it beforehand.
Taking the intermediate step through your own wallet costs one more network fee and gives you control over the way back. The way-back page shows why that is not merely theoretical.
Buying: the question behind it
The first stepThe real question when buying is not «where is it cheapest» but «what is the price made of». An exchange with zero per cent fee and a wide price gap is dearer than one with a printed fee and a narrow gap — and it looks better on every comparison page. Put the buy and sell price of the same coin side by side in the same minute and you have the answer in two minutes, with no table needed.
The reason this stands on a site about bitcoin casinos at all: between a Swiss account and a cashier that settles in coins lies a change of system, and it costs in three places. Compare only the cashiers and leave out the route to them and you are comparing the smaller half of the arithmetic.
This page names no exchanges and carries no fee table. Such lists are wrong within weeks, and the decisive item — the gap between the buy and sell price — appears in none of them anyway. What stands here is the calculation with which you measure it yourself in two minutes.
Questions people actually type
Answered from the same records as the pageWhat does buying a coin against francs cost?
Two things: the printed trading fee and the gap between the buy and sell price. The second item stands nowhere as a fee but works like one.
Is «fee-free» really free of charge?
No. Where no fee is printed, the earnings sit in the price gap — the price is then already the price with the mark-up.
Does the coin have to go to a wallet of my own?
It does not have to, but it decides who holds the amount in between and how free the way back is.