At a 0.61% premium, moving 1 BTC leaves $71.57 after fees
The crypto exchange transfer and premium calculator compares the price on a USD exchange with the price on a global exchange that trades against USDT, then works out what you keep after buying on one side, sending the coins across and selling on the other. With a USD exchange price of $82,500, a global price of 82,000 USDT and a rate of 1.0000 USD per USDT, the premium is 0.61%. Buying 1 BTC globally (0.1% trading fee), withdrawing it (0.0002 BTC) and selling it on the USD exchange (0.4% trading fee) turns a $500.00 price gap into $71.57 after $428.43 of fees.
That trade has a thin margin. It only works while the premium stays above 0.52%, and it turns into a loss if the price on the USD exchange drops by more than 0.09% while the coins are in transit. Send 0.05 BTC instead and the same premium loses $12.03, because the withdrawal fee is a fixed number of coins. The sections below cover when this calculation helps, how it works, how to read the premium and the break-even premium, what exchange fees look like, what a price move in transit does, the tax point to check, common mistakes and the limits of the tool.
When this calculation helps
The same coin rarely trades at exactly the same price on every exchange at the same moment. When the price on a USD exchange is higher than the global price converted to dollars, that gap is a premium; when it is lower, it is a discount. The gap is only the starting point. Both exchanges charge trading fees, and the exchange you send from takes a withdrawal fee in coins, so the amount that reaches your account is smaller than the headline gap suggests.
You can also use it without any arbitrage in mind. If you already hold a coin and are deciding whether moving it to another exchange before selling is worth the trouble, set the buying fee to 0 and the calculator shows how much the move changes the proceeds compared with selling where you are.
How the calculation works
- Choose the direction. Global to USD means buying on the global exchange and selling on the USD exchange; USD to global is the reverse.
- Enter the USD exchange price, the global exchange price in USDT and the rate in USD per 1 USDT. The global price times the rate is the global price in dollars.
- Enter the amount to send and the withdrawal fee in coins. The amount received is the amount sent minus the withdrawal fee.
- Enter the trading fee of each exchange as a percentage. It is added to the cost where you buy and taken off the proceeds where you sell.
- Net profit = amount received × selling price × (1 − selling fee) − amount sent × buying price × (1 + buying fee). The return is net profit divided by the money paid in.
You can split the result into four pieces. Start with the price gap, which is the amount sent times the difference between the two prices, and subtract the buying fee, the withdrawal fee and the selling fee; what remains equals the net profit. The withdrawal fee is the coins taken off, valued at the selling price. The bar under the calculator draws exactly these four pieces.
| Piece (1 BTC example) | Calculation | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Price gap | 1 × (82,500 − 82,000) | $500.00 |
| Buying fee (global 0.1%) | 1 × 82,000 × 0.1% | −$82.00 |
| Withdrawal fee (0.0002 BTC) | 0.0002 × 82,500 | −$16.50 |
| Selling fee (USD exchange 0.4%) | 0.9998 × 82,500 × 0.4% | −$329.93 |
| Net profit | Sum of the four lines above | $71.57 |
How to read the premium and the rate
The premium is the USD exchange price divided by the global price in dollars, minus 1. With $82,500 against 82,000 USDT at a rate of 1.0000, that is 82,500 ÷ 82,000 − 1 = 0.61%. A negative number means the USD exchange is cheaper than the global one, which is a discount.
The rate matters more than it looks, because USDT does not always trade at exactly one dollar. Use 1 if you treat USDT as a dollar, or the USDT/USD price on the exchange where you will actually convert. If you buy USDT first and then use it to buy coins, the price you paid for the USDT is the honest rate to enter. With the same coin prices, only changing the rate moves the premium as follows.
| Rate (USD per 1 USDT) | Global price in USD (82,000 USDT) | Premium (USD exchange $82,500) |
|---|---|---|
| 0.9980 | $81,836 | 0.81% |
| 0.9990 | $81,918 | 0.71% |
| 1.0000 | $82,000 | 0.61% |
| 1.0010 | $82,082 | 0.51% |
A move of 0.001 in the rate shifts the premium by about 0.1 percentage point, which is a fifth of the whole break-even margin in this example. When you compare a premium from another site with this one, check which rate each of them used.
The break-even premium: how high it has to be
The break-even premium is the premium at which the net profit is exactly zero. Buying globally and selling on the USD exchange, you need the premium to be above it; in the reverse direction the premium has to be below it, meaning a deeper discount. Because the withdrawal fee is the same number of coins whatever you send, a smaller amount raises the break-even premium.
| Amount sent (BTC) | Break-even premium (USD exchange fee 0.4%) | Net profit (fee 0.4%) | Break-even premium (fee 0.1%) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.01 | 2.55% | −$15.55 | 2.25% |
| 0.05 | 0.91% | −$12.03 | 0.60% |
| 0.1 | 0.70% | −$7.63 | 0.40% |
| 0.2 | 0.60% | $1.17 | 0.30% |
| 0.5 | 0.54% | $27.57 | 0.24% |
| 1 | 0.52% | $71.57 | 0.22% |
| 5 | 0.51% | $423.57 | 0.20% |
The table uses a global price of 82,000 USDT, a rate of 1.0000, a global fee of 0.1%, a withdrawal fee of 0.0002 BTC and a USD exchange price of $82,500 (premium 0.61%). With a 0.4% fee on the USD exchange you need about 0.1868 BTC before the trade turns positive. If the same exchange charged 0.1%, the break-even premium for 1 BTC would fall to 0.22%, the break-even amount to about 0.0491 BTC, and the net profit would rise to $319.02. The trading fee on the selling side is the biggest single cost here.
What exchange fees look like
These are the published base fees as checked on 2026-10-16. Fee tiers, trading volume, order type, paying fees in an exchange token and promotions all change the real number, so check both exchanges and the withdrawal screen right before you move anything.
| Exchange | Item | Fee |
|---|---|---|
| Kraken Pro (USD exchange example) | Spot, lowest volume tier, standard crypto pairs, maker | 0.40% |
| Kraken Pro | Same tier and pairs, taker | 0.80% |
| Kraken Pro | Same tier, stablecoin and pegged pairs, maker and taker | 0.20% |
| Binance (global exchange example) | Spot, regular user, maker and taker | 0.100% (0.075% when paying with BNB) |
Maker and taker matter. A limit order that waits on the book is a maker order, while an order that takes an existing price is a taker order. The calculator default uses 0.4% on the USD exchange, which is the maker rate. If you sell as a taker at 0.8% instead, the break-even premium for 1 BTC rises to 0.93% and the same trade loses $258.37.
The withdrawal fee is charged by the exchange you send from, so enter the global exchange fee when you buy globally and the USD exchange fee in the other direction. It depends on the coin and the network. I could not read Kraken's bitcoin withdrawal fee from its support page, so the 0.0002 BTC in the example is only an example. Whether you may use a given exchange also depends on where you live and on its terms, so check that before relying on any of them.
If the price moves while the coins are in transit
Between buying and selling there is a delay: the network has to confirm the transfer and the receiving exchange has to credit it. If the price on the receiving exchange moves in that time, the result moves with it. For the 1 BTC example above, changing only the arrival price gives the following.
| Change in arrival price | Arrival price | Net profit |
|---|---|---|
| −2% | $80,850.00 | −$1,571.51 |
| −1% | $81,675.00 | −$749.97 |
| −0.5% | $82,087.50 | −$339.20 |
| −0.1% | $82,417.50 | −$10.59 |
| Unchanged | $82,500.00 | $71.57 |
| +0.5% | $82,912.50 | $482.33 |
| +1% | $83,325.00 | $893.10 |
With a 0.61% premium the cushion is small: a 0.1% drop already costs $10.59 instead of earning $71.57. The longer the transfer takes, the more this risk matters, so read the sensitivity table and the drop limit in the result sentence together.
Rules to check before you move coins
- Tax reporting: The IRS says digital assets are treated as property, not currency. When you sell or otherwise dispose of a digital asset you held as a capital asset, you report the sale on Form 8949 as a capital gain or loss, and the basis is generally what you paid in U.S. dollars. A holding period of one year or less is short-term and more than one year is long-term. The IRS also says you must report digital asset transactions whether or not they produce a taxable gain or loss.
- What counts as a disposal: The Form 1040 digital asset question counts selling a digital asset for dollars as a disposal, and it counts exchanging it for another digital asset or paying a transfer fee with digital assets in the same way. Moving coins between your own wallets or accounts, on its own, is not one. A withdrawal fee paid in coins and buying coins with USDT can therefore matter for your records. This calculator includes no taxes.
- Exchange checks: Exchanges can ask for extra information or pause deposits and withdrawals for a coin. Make sure withdrawals are open on the sending side and deposits on the receiving side, and use the exact network the receiving exchange expects.
Common mistakes
- Charging the withdrawal fee only on the price gap: multiplying the gap by (amount sent − withdrawal fee) misses the value of the coins that were taken off. In the example that shortcut shows $499.90 before trading fees, while the withdrawal fee alone costs $16.50.
- Entering only one trading fee: both exchanges charge one. In the example the two trading fees total $411.93, about 25 times the withdrawal fee.
- Using the last price: the last traded price is not the price you will get. You buy at the ask, sell at the bid, and a large order can move through several price levels.
- Mixing rates: premiums based on a rate of exactly 1 and premiums based on the market USDT price are different numbers even at the same moment. Use the rate you will really get.
- Assuming a premium means a profit: a 0.61% premium still loses $12.03 on 0.05 BTC. Look at the break-even premium and the break-even amount together.
- Forgetting the way back: after selling on the USD exchange you hold dollars, and moving money to the global exchange for the next round costs a conversion and a withdrawal again.
Limits
- Prices, the rate and fees are the numbers you type; nothing is pulled from a live feed.
- Trading fees are treated as a percentage of the traded amount. Fees paid in coins or exchange tokens and tier discounts count only as the percentage you enter.
- Bid-ask spreads, minimum order and withdrawal sizes, deposit waiting times, promotions and the cost of moving dollars in and out are not included.
- It calculates a single move. For a round trip, calculate the way back separately.
- Taxes are not included. Check the IRS guidance and your own situation.
- Amounts are rounded to the cent, and amounts above $1 trillion are not calculated.
As of The fees on this page were read from the exchanges' published pages, and the tax points from the IRS page, on 2026-10-16. The example prices ($82,500, 82,000 USDT, rate 1.0000) are rounded illustrations built around that date, not current quotes.
Sources
- 01IRS: Digital assetsDigital assets are property, not currency; sales reported on Form 8949 as capital gain or loss; short-term at one year or less; Form 1040 digital asset question; brokers report gross proceeds from 2025-01-01. Checked 2026-10-16
- 02Kraken: Fee scheduleKraken Pro spot, lowest tier, standard pairs: maker 0.40% and taker 0.80%; stablecoin and pegged pairs 0.20%. No bitcoin withdrawal figure on the page. Checked 2026-10-16
- 03Binance: Trading feeSpot, regular user, maker and taker 0.100%; 0.075% when paying with BNB. Checked 2026-10-16
Frequently asked questions
How is the premium calculated?
It is the USD exchange price divided by the global price in dollars, minus 1. With $82,500 against 82,000 USDT at a rate of 1.0000, the premium is 0.61%. If you enter a rate of 0.999 instead, the same prices give 0.71%, so always note which rate was used.
Does a premium mean I make money by moving coins?
No. You still pay trading fees on both exchanges and a withdrawal fee in coins. With a 0.1% global fee, a 0.4% USD exchange fee and a 0.0002 BTC withdrawal, the break-even premium for 1 BTC is 0.52%, and it rises to 0.91% for 0.05 BTC. Only a premium above the break-even premium leaves a profit.
Which rate should I enter?
The rate you will really get. Enter 1 if you treat USDT as one dollar, or the USDT/USD price on the exchange where you convert. A change of 0.001 in the rate moves the premium by about 0.1 percentage point in this example.
Why is the withdrawal fee entered in coins?
Exchanges usually charge withdrawals as a fixed number of coins, not a percentage. The calculator values the coins taken off at the selling price: 0.0002 BTC at $82,500 is $16.50. The example amount is only an example, so check the real fee on the withdrawal screen.
Why does a small amount lose money?
Because the withdrawal fee does not shrink with the amount. At a 0.61% premium, 1 BTC leaves $71.57 but 0.05 BTC loses $12.03. The break-even amount row shows the smallest amount that covers the fee, about 0.1868 BTC in this example.
Can I use it for coins I already own?
Yes. Treat the exchange where the coins are as the buying side and set its trading fee to 0. The profit then shows the difference between selling where you are and moving the coins first.
What if the price changes while the coins are in transit?
The result changes with the price on the receiving exchange. In the 1 BTC example, a 0.1% drop turns a $71.57 profit into a loss of $10.59, and a 0.5% drop loses $339.20. The sensitivity table in the calculator shows these cases.
Are taxes included?
No. The IRS treats digital assets as property and says selling or otherwise disposing of one is reported as a capital gain or loss, usually on Form 8949, and that paying a transfer fee with digital assets also counts as a disposal. The calculator does not include taxes, so check the IRS guidance for your own situation.