Calculate triangular arbitrage opportunities across three crypto trading pairs on the same exchange. Find pricing inefficiencies for risk-free profit.
Triangular arbitrage exploits pricing inconsistencies between three trading pairs on the same exchange. The concept is simple: if BTC/USDT, ETH/BTC, and ETH/USDT prices don't align perfectly, you can cycle through all three pairs and end up with more than you started. If Rate(A/B) × Rate(B/C) × Rate(C/A) ≠ 1, there's an arbitrage opportunity.
For example, if you start with USDT, buy BTC, use BTC to buy ETH, then sell ETH for USDT, you should end up with exactly the same USDT. If you end up with more (the product exceeds 1), you've found a triangular arbitrage opportunity.
In practice, opportunities are tiny (0.01-0.1%) and disappear in milliseconds. Fee impact is tripled (you pay fees on three trades), making profitability requirements tight. This calculator helps you identify whether a set of three cross-rates presents a genuine opportunity after fees.
Crypto traders, long-term holders, and DeFi participants benefit from transparent crypto triangular arbitrage calculations when planning entries, exits, or portfolio rebalances. Revisit this calculator whenever market conditions shift to keep your strategy grounded in accurate data.
Triangular arbitrage requires no capital transfer between exchanges — everything happens on one exchange. This eliminates transfer time risk, the main vulnerability of cross-exchange arbitrage. However, fees are applied three times, making the minimum profitable spread higher. This calculator determines if the mispricing exceeds the triple-fee threshold. Real-time recalculation lets you model different market scenarios quickly, so you can act with confidence rather than relying on rough mental estimates.
Cross Rate Product = Rate(A/B) × Rate(B/C) × (1 / Rate(A/C)) If Product > 1: Buy B with A, Buy C with B, Sell C for A If Product < 1: Buy C with A, Buy B with C, Sell B for A Fee Impact = (1 − Fee)³ Net Result = Starting Amount × Product × (1 − Fee)³
Result: Cross rate: 1.00146 | Net after fees: -$8.80
BTC/USDT = 65,000, ETH/BTC = 0.0525, ETH/USDT = 3,420. Cross rate product = 65,000 × 0.0525 / 3,420 = 0.99737. This is below 1, so the reverse direction: 3,420 / (65,000 × 0.0525) = 1.00219 — a 0.22% mispricing. With 0.04% fee × 3 trades = 0.12% total fees: net = 0.10%. On $10,000: ~$10 profit.
For three currencies A, B, C with exchange rates R(A/B), R(B/C), R(A/C): in a perfectly efficient market, R(A/B) × R(B/C) = R(A/C). When this equation doesn't hold, the deviation represents an arbitrage opportunity. The profit equals the deviation minus fees. Since three trades are needed, the minimum profitable deviation is approximately 3× the trading fee.
Triangular arbitrage is a speed game. Professional arbitrageurs use: co-located servers (placed in the same data center as the exchange), pre-computed routes for all possible triangles, optimized API calls that execute all three trades in under 100 milliseconds, and real-time monitoring of hundreds of triangles simultaneously.
Even with automation, triangular arbitrage is increasingly competitive. Expected returns have declined as more participants enter. Successful implementations require: exchange API rate limits management, order book depth awareness (to avoid slippage), robust error handling for partial fills, and constant optimization of execution speed.
You trade through three pairs in a cycle: start with currency A, buy currency B, use B to buy currency C, then sell C for A. If the exchange rates are misaligned, you end up with more A than you started with. The profit comes from the pricing inefficiency between the three pairs.
They exist because exchange order books for different pairs are maintained independently. Rapid price changes in one pair may not immediately propagate to related pairs. Market makers and arbitrageurs quickly close these gaps, which is why opportunities are rare and short-lived.
Theoretically yes, but practically it's nearly impossible to profit manually. Opportunities appear for milliseconds, and you need to execute three trades almost simultaneously. By the time you place the second trade, the prices have likely changed. Automated trading bots are essential.
You pay the trading fee on all three transactions. With 0.04% per trade, total fees are approximately 0.12% (slightly less due to compounding: (1-0.0004)³ = 0.9988, i.e., 0.12%). The opportunity must exceed this threshold to be profitable.
The most common triangles involve: BTC/USDT + ETH/BTC + ETH/USDT, BTC/USDT + SOL/BTC + SOL/USDT, and similar combinations with high-volume pairs. More exotic triangles (using smaller altcoins) may have larger mispricings but higher execution risk due to lower liquidity.
Triangular arbitrage operates on a single exchange using three different trading pairs. Cross-exchange arbitrage uses the same pair across different exchanges. Triangular has no transfer risk but triple fees. Cross-exchange has transfer risk but only double fees.