Buy BTC at one exchange, sell it more expensive at another?

[gamer455]

Hey there,

is it possible to buy BTC cheaply at one exchange and sell it more expensive at another one? It seems to me that it might be actually possible.

What are challenges? Are people doing this?

Thank you!

[TryNinja]

Of course it's possible. The only real issue is the confirmation time to send BTC from an exchange from another and maybe fees depending on which kind of trade you are trying to do and which exchange you are using.

Most of the time this simple doesn't work because the price may readjust before your coins reach the second exchange, and in the end you will end up losing money or selling for the same price you bought the coins.

I believe some poeple not only do this. But they also have automated bots to do this kind of trade between exchanges.

[bouren]

Hey there,

is it possible to buy BTC cheaply at one exchange and sell it more expensive at another one? It seems to me that it might be actually possible.

What are challenges? Are people doing this?

Thank you!

As time escaping and bitcoin becoming more popular, most of the time bitcoin prices remain quite similar in international markets with little variations ranging $50-60.
Moreover, owing to confirmation time and fees cost, it may result you in loss till it reaches the other wallet.
What I suggest is to try this strategy for other coins which have huge fluctuations over exchanges by comparing markets instantly on coinmarketcap.

[Qartada]

This is called arbitrage trading.

Problems:

-Large buy/sell spread takes a huge chunk out of the potential profits.
-It takes a long time to deposit/withdraw, in which time Bitcoin's volatility could screw you over.
-Trading fees.

You'll find that you can only succeed in this if you have a lot of money and a solid strategy.  The problem is that the price will just even out when this is possible because everyone else has the same idea - often arbitrage trading is not actually very profitable.

[arimamib]

Hey there,

is it possible to buy BTC cheaply at one exchange and sell it more expensive at another one? It seems to me that it might be actually possible.

What are challenges? Are people doing this?

Thank you!

Of course many people are doing it. It is called arbit.

[ivanst776]

Hey there,

is it possible to buy BTC cheaply at one exchange and sell it more expensive at another one? It seems to me that it might be actually possible.

What are challenges? Are people doing this?

Thank you!

It doesn't work always, what are the challenges in this is that you may be faced with delays of withdrawing the money from one exchange and depositing to another one.

Delay on both sides including the blockchain confirmation time, you know that sometimes it can take days if the transaction fee is low.

[gentlemand]

There is always a reason for such a spread. If it was easy the price gap would vapourise in seconds. It's usually down to fiat banking. There are whole markets that are cut off from foreigners, other places like BTC-e it's because the fees are so high and they use third party payment processors.

[olubams]

Hey there,

is it possible to buy BTC cheaply at one exchange and sell it more expensive at another one? It seems to me that it might be actually possible.

What are challenges? Are people doing this?

Thank you!

This is very much possible to be done but for me I no longer thinks it worth the stress because at the end of the day one might end up making a loss considering the margin of the reputable exchange sites is not always much and it changes rapidly without any form of notification. Aside that the fees of transferring this coin from one exchange to the other might even erode the little profit and finally the wait period for it to confirm which might even render everything useless by the time it finally drops in the destination wallet, the price has dropped generally across board.

[jak3]

yes it is a method followed by many traders ever i follow it sometime. i keep some of my balance in two different exchanges and i buys from one exchange and sells from another. its a bit of pain thought because we have to constantly keep track of everything and even small mistakes can bring huge losses. so just be careful while doing this.

[Vishnu.Reang]

I would advice you to stay away from this practice. One of my friends tried this, and he lost a huge amount of money in it. The incident happened in 2014. He was purchasing Bitcoins in BTC-e, and then selling them in Mt Gox. At that time, the spread between BTC-e and Mt Gox was considerable, sometimes reaching $50 to $100 per coin. However, he never received the money for the Bitcoin sales in Mt Gox, as that site closed down in 2014 March.

[rockem5]

Hey there,

is it possible to buy BTC cheaply at one exchange and sell it more expensive at another one? It seems to me that it might be actually possible.

What are challenges? Are people doing this?

Thank you!

This is actually a very viable way of making money off trading. You just need to know what you're doing. it's called "Arbitrage".

[stompix]

yes it is a method followed by many traders ever i follow it sometime. i keep some of my balance in two different exchanges and i buys from one exchange and sells from another. its a bit of pain thought because we have to constantly keep track of everything and even small mistakes can bring huge losses. so just be careful while doing this.

And what do you when you go completely empty on btc on one exchange?
You have to buy from the other. And if the price goes up your actually ending up doing the same thing on both.

The good part is that at least you have not put all your eggs in a basket gox crushing machine.
Having all your funds sitting like ducks on exchanges is just like asking for trouble.

This is actually a very viable way of making money off trading. You just need to know what you're doing. it's called "Arbitrage".

And it's also a pretty viable way of falling into a trap. Be it bull or beartrap or goxtrap.

[Patinix]

It is possible, but fees and time make it non-pratical, unfortunately.

[erikalui]

Hey there,

is it possible to buy BTC cheaply at one exchange and sell it more expensive at another one? It seems to me that it might be actually possible.

What are challenges? Are people doing this?

Thank you!

Check the charts before buying and selling bitcoins at exchanges. Here it is: https://bitcoincharts.com/markets/

BTC-e has the lowest price while GDAX/Bitbay offers a high price but you need to take into account the trading fee as well as the deposit/withdrawal fee which can exceed your profit margin. Also, some exchanges have a limit for withdrawals and also the profit margin will be less than $100 per BTC. Only if the bitcoin price rises, the profit margin would increase. Verification is a must on these exchanges.

[hosseinimr93]

The problem is transaction time. But It can work. You should have the coin in two or more exchanges. Sell and buy the coins in two exchange simultaneously. Then withdraw form one exchange to another and make the balance again. Assume you have one coin in exchange number 1 and one coin  in exchange number two. Sell your coin in exchange number 1 and buy in exchange number 2. Then withdraw one coin from exchange number 2 to exchange number 1.

[coolcoinz]

It used to be much easier back when the transactions were confirming in 15 min and fees were at half of today's prices. I've been doing it from time to time, but I don't recommend sending from one exchange to another because it might be hard to prove you own the sending address in case your balance doesn't get updated. This means you have to send from exchange 1 to your wallet and to exchange 2, which is going to take about an hour and cost you a few $.

[freebutcaged]

Not possible any more mate, time has past when you could conveniently transact Bitcoin between several exchanges without losing %5 of your

Bitcoins as mining fees, and now exchanges are more smart than before, they now set their withdrawal fees as high as it gets that only doing

Arbitration trades makes sense if the difference in price is more than %10 but when you manage to deposit there it's already too late.

[swogerino]

Many people have done this in the past where the volatility of bitcoin was notable. Now it is stable in the mid 2500 dollars range and considering the high fees of withdrawals from exchanges together with slower and slower confirmation time it is not something it can be done easily anymore. Still is the same as arbitrage in sport betting if you have the knowledge, you have the edge over the exchanges. You need to be all day in front of a computer to have a small chance of doing this though.

[lite]

Hey there,

is it possible to buy BTC cheaply at one exchange and sell it more expensive at another one? It seems to me that it might be actually possible.

What are challenges? Are people doing this?

Thank you!

Well, it is possible! ATM there's $50 difference between Btc-e and Bitstamp, but arbitraging BTC is painful. long confirmation hours may kill your chance. better do it with altcoin which has faster confirmation time.

[Sowik]

Calculate the fees, the waiting time for confirmation and see yourself.
Or just do it and see yourself if it is possible.

[kryptqnick]

It is possible, but fees and time make it non-pratical, unfortunately.

Perhaps this idea can be more fruitfully actualized with altcoins? Some have big price differences on exchanges (like that famous story with eth and Kraken) and the transactions proceed a lot faster. The prices change faster too, though. But they mostly just grow. The only disadvantage is the potential need of different wallets to do such things with different coins and this can be hard, because you have to get used to each wallet. The fees in certain occasions might also be a hindred.

[squatz1]

While this is something that people do do in other markets, it's something that isn't going to work in bitcoin for a good amount of reason. Starting with the easiest one to go off on, is going to be the part that Bitcoin is something that's going to take time to confirm when you send it-- even with the highest fee it should still take around 5-10 mins to confirm. With this, you're not going to be able to beat coders who have bots and all created to be able to read the market and handle all of this with ease.

Number 2 is going to be the part that you have to be on MULTIPLE EXCHANGES which is going to take time to get situated on as you usally need all the KYC stuff which is a pain in the ass, and if you're in the US you're kinda stuck on only a few BTC exchanges -- which again sucks.

IT COULD WORK, but probably won't due to the time needed to do all this giving way for a correction to occur on the exchanges which would make you just waste time, money, or both.

[KirillManhattan]

I agree that this is possible in theory but in practice this is not working because there are a number of reasons listed above. I agree in this matter with the comments of others

[vikkyzenna]

Given the timing of the operation, will it work?

[goinmerry]

Hey there,

is it possible to buy BTC cheaply at one exchange and sell it more expensive at another one? It seems to me that it might be actually possible.

What are challenges? Are people doing this?

Thank you!

Maybe in the past it's working but if we will based it to the current bitcoin network status, it's not the best thing to do. Price moves a lot even at every second so we don't have no time to waste especially when there is bull market. Include also the fees and confirmation time.

What if the coins on the way got stuck and got a problem as most of the exchanges are experiencing this now because of heavy volumes, it's a problem now and you need to wait for shit response from those exchanges which will take even for weeks. I see this method as good way to earn extra income back then but realized it's not that easy as I think as sometimes it will not go to the thing I really want to happened.

[smauni]

Yes,it's  possible to buy in cheap price and sell in a expansive price. But there is problem in transaction time. it's takes time to confirm the transaction.

[arlinxoha]

Of course, it is possible.  You can buy from one exchange and sell it in a different exchange in a expensive rate. The only matter is transaction time.  Because it need time to confirmation.

[tauceramica]

In theory this may look okay but it's not possible to do it in real because you can't be having bank accounts and capital in different parts of the world.

[john2231]

Base in my trading strategy i just bought to other exchange site and i sell in other exchange site but i'm not transferring my bitcoin to other exchange site because of the fee.. i have already some funds in other site  just to make a profit and the advantage of you had already funds in exchange sites or trading site.. because the fee right now for transferring your funds are increased these days..

[SvenBomvolen]

Never thought about this. I don't think the price on different exchangers is much different. What you will have from this plan? Couple of dollars? Ordinary trading seems much profitable to me, add to that there is apps which provide automatic trading like C.A.T., you just need to turn it on and it will start to trade instead of you.

[cafucafucafu]

Of course this is possible, I am pretty sure that there are bots made for buying bitcoin at a low price and selling at a high price. One thing that is the problem with this is the long confirmation times (around a couple of hours) with selling and buying in. With the time you are selling the bitcoin, the price may drop or fall which may result in a loss, especially considering the trading fees.
 
The only way I would see this is with a large amount of money and a clear set of rules. Say, you would only buy bitcoin at this specific price and sell at this specific price. A bunch of luck would be required to make sure the price of Bitcoin doesn’t fall that heavily when you are awaiting confirmation. This method is called ‘Arbitrage’ and I am pretty sure one of my friends do it.

[bestluck]

One of my friend suggested that to me and i search on a number of exchanges and i found that yes it is possible but when i saw at the deposit fees of fiat to exchange then it was very high and in that the profit was there but little.

[avikz]

Hey there,

is it possible to buy BTC cheaply at one exchange and sell it more expensive at another one? It seems to me that it might be actually possible.

What are challenges? Are people doing this?

Thank you!

This method is called arbitraging and many people like me, are using this method to get a certain amount of profit. To do this, you need to first scale the markets. You need to scale down to 4-5 exchanges where you can constantly see the price difference. Then you will have to deposit some amounts in bitcoin as well as in USD in all those exchanges.

Now, once you have the investment deposited, start scaling for opportunities. Once you see a good price difference, buy and sell simultaneously from both the exchanges. The only matter is that, you need to have a good amount of initial investment to start arbitraging,

[Yakamoto]

Hey there,

is it possible to buy BTC cheaply at one exchange and sell it more expensive at another one? It seems to me that it might be actually possible.

What are challenges? Are people doing this?

Thank you!

It is entirely possible to do something like this and would be encouraged under most circumstances since it would allow for exchanges to have a more consistent and evened-out exchange rate, something good for outward appearances but likely bad for individuals who make speculating money off of the large differences between each exchange.

Challenges are transaction fees and transaction times; both can make you miss out on a deal. I have no idea if others do this kind of trading, but likely some people do. I've thought about it myself.

[MissGrey]

Hey there,

is it possible to buy BTC cheaply at one exchange and sell it more expensive at another one? It seems to me that it might be actually possible.

What are challenges? Are people doing this?

Thank you!

This is very much possible to be done but for me I no longer thinks it worth the stress because at the end of the day one might end up making a loss considering the margin of the reputable exchange sites is not always much and it changes rapidly without any form of notification. Aside that the fees of transferring this coin from one exchange to the other might even erode the little profit and finally the wait period for it to confirm which might even render everything useless by the time it finally drops in the destination wallet, the price has dropped generally across board.

My brother was on the edge of losing all his money for making a trade of this kind. He put almost all his money in an exchange that he did not know only because he found that here coin that he is looking to invest was cheaper but when he tried to withdraw his money they did not allow it. In the end, he if succeeded but he was scared

[Gens09]

Hey there,

is it possible to buy BTC cheaply at one exchange and sell it more expensive at another one? It seems to me that it might be actually possible.

What are challenges? Are people doing this?

Thank you!

Yes it is that is actually a trading stratety buying low and selling high a cryptocurrency one of the best way to earn a good profit in many exchanger it is really a good source of income in a long term base you can invest in altcoins and bitcoin then wait for the right time to sell.

[bartolo]

The most difficult part of this strategy is to get bank accounts in two different countries, because the gaps use to happen between exchanges from different countries. When this difference happens in exchanges of the same country they are not big enough to compensate the fees.

[LTU_btc]

Now majority of exchanges have huge withdrawal fees and it makes complicated and not profitable to transfer bitcoins between different exchanges. Also, slow transactions makes situation even worse. While your transaction is waiting for confirmations, bitcoin price may change and you will loose opportunity to earn profit.

[Casabrandy]

Now majority of exchanges have huge withdrawal fees and it makes complicated and not profitable to transfer bitcoins between different exchanges. Also, slow transactions makes situation even worse. While your transaction is waiting for confirmations, bitcoin price may change and you will loose opportunity to earn profit.

Delays and fees were limiting us to do more transactions,that's why we should think of what exchange will going to put our coins ahead of time.

[DOGE12321]

Yeah. Of course, you can do this. But you do have many problems. To name a few: large transaction times, transaction fees and the fact that Bitcoin price may fall sharply in the time it takes for a miner to confirm your transaction. Personally, I wouldn't suggest that you use this method. It is ... dodgy and unreliable.

[radamiel]

It's hard, I've tried it, and it does not work, most of the exchange will quickly respond to rising and declining bitcoin prices,

[Sithara007]

It's hard, I've tried it, and it does not work, most of the exchange will quickly respond to rising and declining bitcoin prices,

I think that there is still a significant price spread between some of the exchanges. For example, the exchange rates in BTC-e, on average will be $50 to $100 less than the rates in Bitstamp and Coinbase. But you can profit out of it only if the prices remain stable. Also, you need to check the fee for fiat deposit and BTC withdrawal in these exchanges.

[soul-impact]

Of course it's possible. The only real issue is the confirmation time to send BTC from an exchange from another and maybe fees depending on which kind of trade you are trying to do and which exchange you are using.

Most of the time this simple doesn't work because the price may readjust before your coins reach the second exchange, and in the end you will end up losing money or selling for the same price you bought the coins.

I believe some poeple not only do this. But they also have automated bots to do this kind of trade between exchanges.

Bikinis also depend on both buyers and sellers. Buying a bicoine at a trading floor can sell it more expensive than at another store. However expensive or cheap depending on the market. Just join a successful trip, the value of your bicoin will increase. I am participating in making money in this campaign.

[soul-impact]

It's hard, I've tried it, and it does not work, most of the exchange will quickly respond to rising and declining bitcoin prices,

Bicoin also depends on both buyers and sellers. Buying a bicoine at a trading floor can sell it more expensive than at another store. However expensive or cheap depending on the market. Just join a successful trip, the value of your bicoin will increase. I am participating in making money in this campaign

[Haxor321]

In order to buy bitcoin at one exchange and sell it to more expensive at another. You need to apply on an online money trading website. Example legit online money trading is the poloniex ,in where you can invest your bitcoin ,sell and buy bitcoin that can enable your bitcoin to grow faster.

[Smarty14392]

It would be possible, but much more difficult. Its not as easy as it is to hear it. Lot of calculation, research, proper timing is required. Transaction fees, block time, amount of bitcoin, all matters. I dont think there will be much difference in bitcoin price at another exchange sites. I guess it would not be possible to trade for some 3$-4$ profit. You can try once, but transaction fees will matter, and also some transactions take a lot time for confirmation. Time taken could affect the price difference.

[aTriz]

Yeah of course this is possible, and it even has a name, it called arbitraging and a lot of people already do this strategy for profit and I'm pretty sure I know some friends who do this. I have asked them about their opinion and this is what they said

"Arbitraging is pretty safe and usually successfully way to make a bit of profit but there are too many variables and it's not worth losing sleep over to make 100 or 200. I invested around 5K into Bitcoin and bought around 2 bitcoins, thoes 3 months where I watched the market and everything go up and go down, where the most stressful time of my lives, I remember not being able to sleep and just on bed watching the market since I was waiting confirmation that day to sell half of my BTC"

Not exactly what he said but I think I got the point across

[Netnox]

In order to buy bitcoin at one exchange and sell it to more expensive at another. You need to apply on an online money trading website. Example legit online money trading is the poloniex ,in where you can invest your bitcoin ,sell and buy bitcoin that can enable your bitcoin to grow faster.

Only if you already have fiat/BTC deposited in two or more exchanges, you can try this. Because there are multiple types of fees involved. First you have the deposit fee if you are depositing fiat/BTC. And then if you are selling your BTC for fiat, there is usually a 0.2% to 1.0% fee charged by the exchange. In the end, the total fee will come to around 2% to 5%.

[coynedterm]

Hey there,

is it possible to buy BTC cheaply at one exchange and sell it more expensive at another one? It seems to me that it might be actually possible.

What are challenges? Are people doing this?

Thank you!

Yes , ofcourse many people are doing this and many of them are making big earning in day trading with Bitcoin only .
But if the price change from.exchange to exchange are big then you can make profit but needed to bulk transaction otherwise you will not get much profit . Because of the fee from exchange to exchange .
Second WY is to make a group of best and trusted bitcoiners from the whole world and get trust with them and make direct buy and sell without much fee with the non reversible payment methods ( because most of the times the price get changed from country to country ) so more better to make your own community of international friends .
Here I myself made about 350$ in one week with the difference in the price from exchange to exchange and change in price from country to country  . So you can also do like we are doing .

[davids]

It is possible, but the problem with this is the long confirmation times. This may cause the price to drop before the transaction is received and also depends on the requirements on the exchanger site such as have a limit for withdrawals and verification

[Amph]

It's hard, I've tried it, and it does not work, most of the exchange will quickly respond to rising and declining bitcoin prices,

uh? exchange don't rise and decline the value that is something that happen because of supply and demand, yes there are manipulation, like with poloniex, or fake volume

but it's not somethign that rigged you know, arbitrage like the thread started want, need to be done not manually but with a both, that make around 0.1%-1% +ev moves, each trade

there are some example on youtube, some users are selling their both, i didn't try those, but i guess it need at least a try to see if it's working or not

[ufaiz50]

arbitrage trading is difficult to make a profit and there are already explains this also the issue of transaction fee and trading fee especially bitcoin transactions that use expensive fees and long confirmation. if you want to do it you have to be really careful when managing bitcoin. I've tried it and the result is a big zero I did not get the profit I imagined before.

[haroldtee]

A friend of mine did this in the past and made a lot of money from it. He is still doing it though but not as much as before. Now he complains most especially about the transaction time which isn't favouring at all. If you really want to do this, I'd say you do your assignment well and if possible find an exchange with huge price difference and possibly buy plenty of it due to the transaction fee or else you may end up holding your bitcoin down for sometime until it climbs up again. We all know how highly volatile bitcoin is.

[deisik]

Hey there,

is it possible to buy BTC cheaply at one exchange and sell it more expensive at another one? It seems to me that it might be actually possible.

What are challenges? Are people doing this?

Yes, it is certainly possible

But the major issue with what you are aiming at, it is not just about Bitcoin. More often than not all currencies at a certain exchange are traded at a premium there. This basically means that it is a one way road mostly, i.e. you can buy bitcoins cheaper at one exchange and you can sell them dearer at another, but you won't be able to move funds between these two exchanges cheap enough to make arbitrage economically feasible on a regular basis. What really makes arbitrage possible are random price spikes and dumps when someone sells or buys big time

[matchi2011]

Hey there,

is it possible to buy BTC cheaply at one exchange and sell it more expensive at another one? It seems to me that it might be actually possible.

What are challenges? Are people doing this?

Thank you!

There was a time when in was actually doing this a lot but nowadays, with the transaction fees swaying upwards with the rise of btc, i don't do it anymore. For example in yobit, from 0.0005 it went up to 0.0015 to transfer any amount of btc to polo. That's pretty expensive so i just transfer to my wallet now just to withdraw.

[amaral1977]

That´s called arbitrage. It´s not impossible. It can sometimes happen between countries. Some exchanges in a given country could have a different price. Or it sometimes happens between exchanges with different volume. A low volume exchange could adjust to the price slower. the problem is they eventually adjust, and if the transations take long enough you will loose your edge and end up loosing money on fees.

[Pearls Before Swine]

That´s called arbitrage. It´s not impossible. It can sometimes happen between countries. Some exchanges in a given country could have a different price. Or it sometimes happens between exchanges with different volume. A low volume exchange could adjust to the price slower. the problem is they eventually adjust, and if the transations take long enough you will loose your edge and end up loosing money on fees.

Jesus Fucking Christ.  This has been mentioned about 10000 times already.  If the answer is given then OP should lock this anal shi****k of a thread, which should not have been started in the first place.  It ain't like this dicktwister had an epiphany about arbitrage.  It's not new.  This thread is turning into what happens when you leave donuts on the counter in the summer with the screen door open.  All sorts of gnarly insects start crawling in, looking for food.  AND SHITTING ALL OVER THE DONUTS.

[recklessMe]

Bitcoin arbitrage makes sense, when there is a difference of at least $150 or so. Then with all the fees and deductions the net profit will be decent. Sure, people trade with smaller differences in rates as well, but it is not that profitable after all.