The distance between the highest price a buyer will pay and the lowest price a seller will accept.
Last verified 13 September 2026 · written by the DexLadder team
What it means
The distance between the highest price a buyer will pay and the lowest price a seller will accept.
Why it matters when you trade
The spread is the round-trip cost of changing your mind instantly. Cross it to buy and cross it again to sell and you have paid it twice before a single fee. Spread widens with uncertainty and thins with competition, which is why it blows out in the seconds around a listing, a liquidation cascade or a macro print — exactly when impatient traders are most likely to use market orders.
Worked example
Bid 2.480, ask 2.495. The spread is 1.5 cents, or 0.60%. Buying at the ask and selling at the bid immediately costs you 0.60% with no price movement at all.
See it on live markets
DexLadder runs bid-ask spread against live market and pool data, with simulated capital, so you can watch it act on an order instead of reading about it — no account, no wallet, nothing installed.