Basics
Short lessons on how the crypto market really works. A price is not a property of an asset but a fact about a trade; an exchange is not a window onto the market but a market of its own; every coin always has two prices; coins on an exchange are the exchange's debt to you. Without this foundation, a spread in the scanner is just a number.
A1Lesson 1. Why Bitcoin Has No Single PriceThe first lesson on arbitrage. Why the same asset, in the same second, trades at different prices on different venues, why that gap never goes away, and where arbitrage comes from in the first place.A2Lesson 2. What Happens When You Buy Crypto on an ExchangeThe second lesson on arbitrage. What an exchange looks like from the inside: why a purchase on an exchange never touches the blockchain, where your coins actually are, and why transfers within an exchange and between exchanges run at such different speeds.A3Lesson 3. The Order Book: How Your Order Gets FilledThe third lesson on arbitrage. A look at the order book: why every asset always has two prices, what the bid-ask spread is, how a limit order differs from a market order, and why the exchange charges different fees for the same trade.A4Lesson 4. Spot, futures, perp: three instruments on one assetThe fourth lesson on arbitrage. How spot differs from futures and perpetuals, why one bitcoin on one exchange has three prices at once, what shorting and leverage are, and where liquidation comes from.A5Lesson 5. Networks and transfers: why a coin may not arriveThe fifth lesson on arbitrage. Why one coin has several networks, what ERC-20 and TRC-20 are, why memo matters, what happens when you make a mistake, and how to transfer so that it always arrives.A6Lesson 6. Stablecoins: what USDT really isThe sixth lesson on arbitrage. What a stablecoin is, who issues USDT and USDC, what backs them, why all arbitrage is counted in USDT, and what a depeg is — through two real cases from 2022 and 2023.A7Lesson 7. Fees: where the spread disappearsThe seventh arbitrage lesson. We take a 2% spread, walk the trade from buy to sell and see where 1.7% of it goes: exchange and network fees, the order book, slippage and time. With the full calculation.A8Lesson 8. How to choose an exchange and not lose money at the startThe eighth and final lesson of the basic arbitrage series. How to choose an exchange for the job rather than by ranking: order book depth instead of total volume, inflated volume and how to spot it, deposits and withdrawals, verification and limits, where to keep your capital.A8.1Lesson 8.1 Wallets, CEX and DEXKeys, the seed phrase and the two kinds of wallets. What you pay for the convenience of an exchange and for the freedom of a wallet: counterparty risk versus irreversibility, gas, pools and approvals.calculator