Most traders compare fees. Almost nobody compares slippage — the hidden cost that hits the moment your order is big enough to move the book.

We sampled order books every 30 minutes for a month (Aug 16 – Sep 14). Five things you should know:

1️⃣ BTC is cheap to trade almost everywhere. A $100K BTC spot sell order costs ~0% median slippage on Binance, and ≤0.005% on MEXC, KuCoin, OKX and Bitget. Execution has never been this good.

2️⃣ ETH is where venues separate. At $500K, Binance holds 0.018% median while some venues run 5-10x higher. Same trade, very different bill.

3️⃣ Watch the P90, not just the median. Median = your average day. P90 = your bad day. On $500K BTC futures, five exchanges tie at 0.001% median, but Binance's 0.004% P90 means its worst fills stay closest to its best.

4️⃣ Order books got MUCH deeper. Near-touch spot depth is up ~47% in two months. Futures: MEXC leads close to mid-price ($21M), Bitget dominates the wider band ($41.6M).

5️⃣ Gold & silver on CEXs just 3x'd. XAU/XAG futures depth tripled this quarter, Binance and MEXC are nearly tied at the touch, and silver is the fastest-moving battleground.

Bottom line: fees are public, slippage is not. At size, venue choice can cost — or save — you more than the fee schedule ever will.

Source: TokenInsight Crypto Exchange Liquidity Report · Sep 2026

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