Crypto trading fees explained

By the Blockhorizon Editorial Team · Updated 2 October 2026 · How we check facts

The price on the screen is rarely the whole cost. This lesson breaks down the main kinds of cost, using regulator publications and the official Bitcoin and Ethereum documentation. Fee levels differ by platform and change over time, so every rate in our worked examples is illustrative — not a real platform’s price list.

What fees do you pay when you buy or sell crypto?

Most costs fall into four groups:

1. Trading fee or commission — a charge the platform takes for carrying out your buy or sell order.
2. The spread — the gap between the price you buy at and the price you could sell at. It is built into the prices rather than listed as a fee.
3. Network fee — paid to the blockchain network (not the platform) when coins are actually moved, for example when you withdraw to your own wallet.
4. Other account charges — for example for deposits, withdrawals or particular payment methods, depending on the platform.

FINRA, the US broker-dealer regulator, gives advice that fits any account: “Review and understand all costs associated with opening and maintaining an account, as well as trading and other fees.”

What is a trading fee or commission?

It is the explicit charge for executing a trade. In the stock market, the SEC’s Investor.gov explains that “You will often pay a commission when you buy or sell a security through an investment professional.” Crypto platforms use various names for their own trading charges, and may calculate them as a percentage of the trade or a flat amount.

Because the rules differ from platform to platform, the only reliable source for what you will pay is the platform’s own published fee schedule — read it before you trade, and check whether the fee changes with the order type or payment method you use.

Why is the spread a cost even when it isn’t called a fee?

Because you buy at the higher “ask” price and sell at the lower “bid” price, so you lose the gap on every round trip. Our lesson on the bid, ask and spread shows how to calculate it.

This is not a theoretical point. In a November 2022 complaint bulletin, the US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) — which had received more than 8,300 virtual currency complaints between October 2018 and September 2022 — wrote: “Some consumers complained about undisclosed or unexpected costs on crypto-asset platforms, or claims there were no fees when, in reality, the consumer noticed a large cost in the form of a large spread.”

What is a network fee on Bitcoin?

A network fee pays whoever adds your transaction to the blockchain — on Bitcoin, the miners. The project’s documentation site, Bitcoin.org, says “Transaction fees are used as a protection against users sending transactions to overload the network and as a way to pay miners for their work.”

Three points surprise many beginners:

• The fee does not depend on the amount. Bitcoin.org: “The fee is relative to the number of bytes in the transaction”, so sending a large amount can cost the same as sending a small one.
• It changes with demand. “Fees vary over time with demand for space in the blockchain.”
• Paying more can mean faster processing. “Higher fees can encourage faster confirmation of your transactions.”

Bitcoin.org also notes “There is no fee to receive bitcoins” — the sender pays. For how Bitcoin transactions work, see what is Bitcoin?

How do Ethereum gas fees work?

On Ethereum, network fees are measured in gas, which ethereum.org defines as “the unit that measures the amount of computational effort required to execute specific operations on the Ethereum network.” The fee formula is:

fee = units of gas used × (base fee + priority fee)

• The base fee is set by the network and is burned. It can rise or fall by up to 12.5% per block depending on how full blocks are.
• The priority fee (or tip) goes to the validator who includes your transaction.
• Fees are quoted in gwei: one gwei is one-billionth of an ETH (0.000000001 ETH).

ethereum.org’s own example: a simple ETH transfer uses 21,000 units of gas. With a base fee of 10 gwei and a tip of 2 gwei: 21,000 × (10 + 2) = 252,000 gwei = 0.000252 ETH.

Illustrative: if the base fee rose to 40 gwei with the same tip, the same transfer would cost 21,000 × (40 + 2) = 882,000 gwei = 0.000882 ETH — 3.5 times as much for exactly the same action. Ethereum.org explains that when demand is high, “users must offer higher tip amounts to try and outbid other users’ transactions.”

One more detail: “The fee is paid regardless of whether a transaction succeeds or fails.”

What other charges can there be?

• Deposits and withdrawals. Some platforms charge to move money or coins in or out. When you withdraw crypto to your own wallet, a blockchain transaction takes place, so a network fee is involved; how a platform passes that on varies, so check its fee schedule.
• Ongoing fees on crypto funds. If you get crypto exposure through an exchange-traded product (ETP) instead of holding coins, the SEC says “Spot bitcoin and ether ETPs generally pay a fee to the sponsor of the spot ETP trust that people who hold these crypto assets directly do not pay.” Each time that fee is paid, the amount of crypto behind each share declines.

None of this makes one route cheaper than another in general. It depends on the platform, the product and how often you trade.

How much does a full round trip cost?

Illustrative example — made-up prices and rates, chosen only to show the arithmetic. Bitcoin’s mid-price is $50,000, with a bid of $49,750 and an ask of $50,250 (a 1% spread). The platform charges a 0.5% trading fee on each trade.

1. Buy $1,000: fee = 1,000 × 0.005 = $5.00. The remaining $995 buys 995 ÷ 50,250 = 0.019801 BTC.
2. Sell straight away at the bid: 0.019801 × 49,750 = $985.10. Fee = 985.10 × 0.005 = $4.93. You receive $980.17.
3. Total cost: 1,000 − 980.17 = $19.83, or 1.98% — with no change in the market price at all.

To get your $1,000 back, the bid would have to reach about $50,756 — roughly 1.5% above the $50,000 mid-price when you bought. If, instead of selling, you withdrew the coins to your own wallet, a withdrawal or network fee could apply as well. You can test your own numbers in our crypto profit calculator.

Why do small fees add up over time?

Regulators make this point repeatedly. FINRA: “A small percentage difference in fees can eat away a big chunk of your overall investment returns over time.” The SEC: “Even small fees can have a major impact on your investment over time.”

The SEC’s own example is about ongoing yearly fees on a $100,000 investment growing at 4% a year for 20 years: it ends at about $208,000 with a 0.25% annual fee, about $198,000 with 0.50%, and about $179,000 with 1.00%.

Trading costs work in a similar way. Illustrative: if each round trip cost 1% of your balance in fees and spread, then after 20 round trips $1,000 would shrink to 1,000 × 0.99²⁰ = $817.91, even if prices never moved. FINRA also requires firms to warn that day trading generates substantial commissions even when the cost of each trade is low.

Which fee demands are red flags?

• Requests to pay a fee before you can withdraw. The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) describes scam “investment accounts” where “you won’t be able to withdraw your money at all, or only if you pay high fees.”
• Promises to recover lost crypto for an upfront fee. These are a known follow-on scam — see recovery scams.
• “No fees” with no visible prices. If you cannot see both the buy and the sell price, you cannot see the spread.

Fees sit on top of price risk: the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) says that if you invest in crypto, “you should be prepared to lose all your money”. See the red flags of crypto scams for more warning signs.

Blockhorizon is an education site. We do not recommend any platform, and nothing here is advice to buy, sell or hold any crypto-asset.