In this article, we share our evaluations of the best crypto arbitrage bots.
You don't have to be a blockchain programmer to make money with cryptocurrencies. Every day, Bitcoin confirms at least 250,000 transactions. So how does that happen?
Thanks to the market’s highly volatile nature, cryptocurrency trading is an incredibly risky endeavor. A crypto arbitrage bot automates the process, which helps reduce risk. Sound appealing? It should!
In this guide, we’ll take a look at how to choose the best crypto arbitrage bot for you. We’ve also listed seven of the best bots available, so keep reading to find out more!
Featured Crypto Arbitrage Bots: An Overview
Bot |
Description |
Price |
Link |
Pionex |
Best Free Crypto Arbitrage Bot |
Bot free to use; 0.05% maker/taker trading fee |
|
MultiTrader.io |
Best Bot for Beginners |
Free |
|
Cryptohopper |
Best for Future and Spot Traders |
Free Forever Plan; 7-day free trial, then plans start at $16.58/month |
|
Coinrule |
Best for Premade Arbitrage Bot Rules |
Free Forever Plan, then plans start at $29.99/month |
|
Bitsgap |
Best for Exchange Compatibility |
7-day free trial, then plans start at $24/month |
|
3Commas |
Best for Advanced Users |
Free Forever Plan; then plans start at $14.50/month |
What is Arbitrage Crypto Trading?
Arbitrage trading involves buying an asset — in this case, crypto — on one exchange and then selling it on another. It takes advantage of the price difference between the two platforms so you can buy low and sell higher, turning a profit as a result.
The main goal? Exploiting the price difference between two exchanges.
This trading technique is often beneficial for beginners because it’s simpler than other methods that often require more technical knowledge and analysis. Additionally, this form of trading mitigates the volatile market’s risks.
As you might guess, automated crypto arbitrage involves the use of bots to make trades for you.
Related: Interested in blockchain technology? Here are some cryptocurrency and blockchain tutorials to get you started.
What Are the Risks in Crypto Arbitrage?
Although arbitrage is lower-risk in general, you’ll still run into some risks like:
- Regulatory considerations and limitations: Crypto is largely unregulated, but some countries and states have laws and regulations in place. These vary depending on location, which means exchanges located in different areas may operate under different rulesets.
- Fees - Exchanges often have their own deposit, trading, and withdrawal fees. Since crypto is unregulated, these fees can ramp up out of nowhere, causing you to lose a significant chunk of your profit.
- Trading speed: Trading is fast with crypto arbitrage. Arbitrage helps, but you’ll still likely miss out on some trades if you don’t respond fast enough.
- Platform or exchange bottlenecks: Individual platforms and exchanges might have delays and errors. For example, a deposit could get stuck and require manual approval (causing you to miss out on your trade window). Account lockouts and bans can be catastrophic, causing you to lose all your deposited assets in the process.
- Pump and dumps, rug pulls, and artificial inflation: Scammy schemes can artificially inflate an asset’s price to attract new buyers. After the schemers make a sufficient profit, they can simply “pull the rug out” or “dump” the cryptocurrency, making the asset worthless. This risk is less prominent in arbitrage but can still happen if you aren’t careful.
Bottom line? Crypto trading always poses risks, and arbitrage doesn’t eliminate them completely. However, it does help you mitigate them.
Related Course
Cryptocurrency Trading Bot with a User Interface in Python
Why Use a Crypto Arbitrage Bot?
If you’re on the fence about using a cryptocurrency arbitrage bot, you might wonder:
What exactly can these bots do that you can’t do yourself?
Crypto arbitrage bots often use available market information to make profitable cryptocurrency trades. They automate the entire arbitrage process, which means:
- The right bots help mitigate your risks and minimize the impact of the market’s volatility on your profit margins.
- These bots can detect trade opportunities you might have missed on your own. They can often find undervalued or hidden gems in the process.
- Arbitrage bots work much faster than humans, which means less risk of missing a trade window.
What to Consider When Choosing an Arbitrage Bot
Most arbitrage trading bots offer competitive strategies, pricing, and features, making it challenging to pick the best one. Here are some things to consider in your selection:
Security
Just how safe and secure will your funds or assets be? Look for bots that allow you to generate an API key for each exchange. To add a layer of security, turn off withdrawal access before sharing those keys.
Price
Will the price fit into your budget? Are you getting fair value? Some bots are priced higher than others, but additional features might justify the cost.
Supported Exchange(s)
Choose a bot that supports a sufficient number of exchanges for your needs — the more exchanges supported, the more profit opportunities!
Community
User communities grow around tools and software; the same applies to arbitrage bots. You may find bigger arbitrage bot crypto communities around certain tools than others. Communities can be quite helpful when you’re learning a tool or encountering an issue, so choosing a bot with an active user base is always better.
User-Friendliness
Not all bots are built the same — some are more user-friendly, while others are more complex and may require some coding knowledge. Be realistic and choose an appropriate tool for your skill level.
Best Crypto Arbitrage Bots
Pionex - Best Free Crypto Arbitrage Bot
Price:
- A crypto arbitrage bot free of charge
- 0.05% maker/taker trading fee
Headquartered in Singapore, Pionex is known for automated trading. Thus, many interested beginners flock to the platform. You can find plenty of tutorials on this easy-to-use platform to learn how to use the bots and how automated trading works.
If you don’t want to spend money on a crypto arbitrage bot, give Pionex a try. This platform provides over 16 trading bots for free, including its arbitrage bot.
Pros
- Allows users to buy low and sell high within a particular price range
- Enables users to make lower-risk passive income
- Allows deposits or withdrawals from your bank account and trading with USD
Cons
- Doesn’t allow custom trading strategies
MultiTrader.io - Best Bot for Beginners
Price: 100% free, including bot usage
If you’re an arbitrage beginner, there’s no better place to go than MultiTrader.io. This platform’s specialty is arbitrage crypto trading, so the bot is finely tuned to the process. Like Pionex, MultiTrader.io offers its bots entirely for free.
This BTC arbitrage bot works for Bitcoin but also monitors 90 other currencies across various exchanges. It uses spread trading, cross-exchange arbitrage, and auto-rebalancing strategies.
Pros
- 100% free
- Plenty of helpful articles for beginners
- Efficient arbitrage strategies
- Advanced automated trading services
Cons
- Customer support can be quite slow
- Could support more exchanges
Learn More About MultiTrader.io
Cryptohopper - Best for Future and Spot Traders
Price:
- Pioneer plan: free forever (20 positions, manual trading, portfolio management, all available exchanges)
- 7-day free trial, then:
- Explorer: $19/month paid monthly or $16.58 paid annually
- Adventurer: $49/month paid monthly or $41.58 paid annually
- Hero: $99/month paid monthly or $83.25 paid annually
Not only is Cryptohopper an arbitrage bot, but it is also an app for trader portfolio management. This platform supports the management and trading of more than 100 cryptocurrencies. Through artificial intelligence, Cryptohopper allows users to copy trades from other users or from other crypto arbitrage software.
For your assets’ safety and security, this bot allows you to connect with exchanges through unique API keys.
Pros
- Pioneer plan is free forever
- Trading permitted on all exchanges, even with the free forever plan
- Plenty of payment options
- Secure with API keys
Cons
- Website can be laggy
- Limited technical support
Coinrule - Best for Premade Arbitrage Bot Rules
Price:
- Starter plan: free forever
- Hobbyist plan: $39.99/month paid monthly or $29.99/month paid annually
- Trader plan: $79.99/month paid monthly or $59.99/month paid annually
- Pro plan: $499.99/month paid monthly or $449.99/month paid annually
Founded in 2017, Coinrule has grown a solid trader user base making profits through crypto arbitrage. Coinrule’s bot offers over 150 premade rules or strategies to choose from. However, you can still create your own strategies, even if you’re a beginner!
Pros
- Solid user-friendly interface
- Free sign up and free forever basic plan
- Compatible with 11 exchanges
- 150+ premade strategies and flexibility to create your own
Cons
- Highest tier is wildly expensive
- Doesn’t have as many features as other competitors
Trality - Best for Building Bots (Discontinued)
Price: Discontinued
Note that Trality was discontinued at the end of July of this year. Here's what we originally wrote about it.
Founded in 2019, Australia-based Trality offers its arbitrage bot to users worldwide. This platform offers one of the best experiences for traders who want to build their own strategies and bots, thanks to its drag-and-drop functionality. Even beginners can customize their bots without coding knowledge. However, advanced users can use Trality’s browser-based code editor (using Python).
Pros
- End-to-end encrypted trading strategies
- Live trading (cloud-based)
- Drag-and-drop strategies and indicators; no coding knowledge necessary
- Ability to choose between using the code editor or rule builder to build a bot
Cons
- Could use more exchanges
- No mobile app
Bitsgap - Best for Exchange Compatibility
Price: 7-day free trial, then (VAT exclusive):
- Basic plan: $29/month paid monthly or $24/month paid every 6 months
- Advanced plan: $69/month paid monthly or $57/month paid every 6 months
- Pro plan: $149/month paid monthly or $123/month paid every 6 months
Bitsgap is an excellent bot for users of every level. A stand-out feature is its support for many exchange platforms, including some of the most popular worldwide.
You can also use Bitsgap to track and analyze over 10,000 pairs of cryptocurrency. Bitsgap’s cloud-based bot automatically detects the coins with the best potential gains, making it easier for users all around.
Pros
- Tons of supported payment methods
- One of the bots with the most supported exchanges (15+)
- Simple to use with plenty of functions and features
Cons
- No free forever plan
3Commas - Best for Advanced Users
Price:
- Free forever plan
- Starter plan: $29/month paid monthly or $14.50/month
- Advanced plan: $49/month paid monthly or $24.50/month
- Pro plan: monthly $99/month or $49.50/month paid
- Enterprise plans available
As an arbitrage bot, 3Commas does an outstanding job at helping its users increase their profit while mitigating risk and minimizing losses. It allows users to trade 24/7, making it possible to make a profit around the clock. 3Commas also makes trading easier by allowing users to copy the settings of other crypto trading bots. Additionally, users can choose to receive their notifications through the mobile app, web app, emails, or in the browser.
Keep in mind that 3Commas is best suited for experienced users. The steep learning curve makes it challenging for beginners.
Pros
- Supports 18 exchanges
- Affordable
- Clean and user-friendly UI
Cons
- Steep learning curve; not for newbies
Types of Crypto Arbitrage Strategies
Some bots may support just one type of strategy, while others may offer more options. You might even find arbitrage crypto tools that encompass all the available strategies. But what exactly are these strategies? Let’s take a look:
- Cross-exchange arbitrage is one of the most common, basic strategies involved in this type of trading. Cross-exchange arbitrage involves buying crypto from one exchange and then selling it on another, thus making a profit from the price difference. Naturally, you buy crypto on the platform that offers it at a lower rate and then sell it on the exchange that has it listed higher.
- Triangular arbitrage uses the price of one asset (cryptocurrency) to speculate on another asset’s price. This strategy involves trading one cryptocurrency for another and immediately selling the bought currency at a higher price. This strategy revolves around making a profit by exploiting the price difference between the two assets in question.
- Spatial arbitrage is a form of cross-exchange arbitrage with a caveat — the exchanges are most likely in different locations around the world. You can buy your crypto from an exchange in a country where the prices are lower and sell it at a profit where the demand and price are much higher. Using this method, you can take advantage of the rule of supply and demand and make a profit that way.
- Spatial arbitrage without asset transferring is exactly the same as spatial arbitrage, but without actual asset transfers. This method offers the benefits of spatial arbitrage strategies while mitigating the risks involved in transfer times and costs incurred in the process. Although you can avoid certain risks and fees this way, you may still need to consider trading fees in the equation.
The four strategies mentioned above are the most commonly used in crypto arbitrage. However, you may encounter an arbitrage bot or two that employs other strategies, such as decentralized exchange arbitrage, where trading is done using smart contracts through decentralized exchanges.
You may also come across statistical arbitrage, which involves a bitcoin arbitrage bot’s reliance on mathematical models. In this case, the bot would use computational, econometric, and statistical techniques when trading crypto for a profit.
Finally, there’s spread arbitrage, which relies on price spreads when you buy and sell assets across exchanges.
Conclusion
A crypto arbitrage bot can help make trading less risky and more profitable all around. Choosing the right bot for your skill level and budget can make crypto arbitrage a breeze! Of course, every crypto trader starts from the beginning. Your best bet is to conduct a lot of research and even explore blockchain courses to get started.
Interested in making a career out of crypto?
Check Out Professional Blockchain Certifications
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Are Crypto Arbitrage Bots Profitable?
Arbitrage bots crypto traders can turn quite a profit with high-performing bots and thoughtful trading strategies. Other factors like market demand, supply, volatility, also affect profits.
2. Do Arbitrage Bots Work?
Crypto arbitrage bots work well — they can automatically detect trading opportunities and make a profit faster than humans. Cryptocurrency arbitrage software is usually based on artificial intelligence, machine learning, algorithms, and various other asset trading techniques.
3. Is Crypto Arbitrage Legal?
Cryptocurrency is pretty much unregulated. However, some countries might have their own laws and rules surrounding crypto. Check the laws in your country for legal issues, but as of now, crypto arbitrage is technically not illegal.
4. Is Arbitrage Trading Risk-Free?
Crypto arbitrage comes with its own risks, namely price movement and slippage. Price movement is incredibly volatile in crypto assets, as you can make unprecedented gains and experience catastrophic losses. Slippage refers to price changes since you started trading a specific asset.