3 ms·

There is not one single price, but many offers at different prices and volumes. The exchange doesn't sell or buy bitcoins, they just connect sellers and buyers

There is not one single price, but many offers at different prices and volumes. The exchange doesn't sell or buy bitcoins, they just connect sellers and buyers (and handle the transactions). The price you see is the best current offer for the amount you are selling, I think. Usually, it changes a little, but yeah you are not guarenteed that price. If, at the time your order comes in, nobody wants to sell for $10K, but only $1, that is what you get. This is why most (all?) exchanges have the option of buying/selling at market price ("best" price, I could imagine there is some protection included though so the order doesn't go through if there is more than X% price difference), or with a limit (where you say "sell X BTC, but I want at least $Y per BTC).

kristopolous 9y ago
They do at least a 0.5% spread + 1.5% fee. So the price listed if you are buying, it's at least 0.5% higher and if you're selling it's at least 0.5% lower. Which means if you're trying to "flip" as in buy low and sell high, you need to see at least a 4.1% or so increase to just break even. Sometimes their spread will be over 1% in both directions. Btc usually operates in practice on a 0.5% spread or less. There's a reason why the only name we know from the gold rush is Levi Strauss. The real money is in the facilitators of the rush, not in the prospecting.