Cryptocurrency arbitrage—buying a coin on one exchange and simultaneously selling it at a higher price on another—remains one of the most discussed and misunderstood strategies in crypto trading. With volatility and inefficiencies still present across centralized and decentralized platforms, identifying the right coins for arbitrage can mean the difference between marginal gains and significant profit.
This article dives into current arbitrage-friendly coins, explores price gap dynamics, and offers a data-backed perspective tailored to both novice and advanced traders seeking low-risk returns through arbitrage strategies.
Why Arbitrage Still Matters in 2025
While DeFi has improved price transparency, market fragmentation continues to create temporary price imbalances between exchanges. According to Messari’s Q1 2025 Market Fragmentation Report, over $2.4 billion in arbitrage opportunities occurred across top exchanges in just three months—highlighting the ongoing viability of this strategy (Messari, 2025).
More importantly, Chainalysis found in a late-2024 report that low-liquidity altcoins were responsible for over 65% of total arbitrage-related profits, proving that it’s not just major coins like BTC or ETH that create these opportunities.
Characteristics of Arbitrage-Friendly Coins
Arbitrage-friendly coins tend to meet several of the following conditions:
- High trading volume but inconsistent liquidity across platforms
- Widespread listing across both centralized (CEX) and decentralized exchanges (DEX)
- Mild regulatory resistance, allowing smoother trading across jurisdictions
- Frequent news-based volatility or trading halts in specific regions
Let’s look at the top coins that fit these profiles.
Coins Currently Best Suited for Arbitrage
1. Ripple (XRP)
Despite legal entanglements, XRP has made a resurgence post-SEC lawsuit resolution. Its regional listing discrepancies, particularly between U.S. and Asian exchanges like Upbit and Binance, often create price gaps of 0.8–2.3% per trade, as noted in Kaiko’s 2025 Price Dispersion Metrics.
2. Toncoin (TON)
Backed by Telegram’s infrastructure, TON sees wild price variations between DEXs like Uniswap and CEXs like OKX. According to CoinMetrics, arbitrageurs have reported hourly spreads exceeding 1.5% during network upgrades or outage speculation.
3. Render Token (RNDR)
With its growing adoption in AI rendering, RNDR often exhibits illiquidity on smaller exchanges, making it ripe for triangular arbitrage. Traders use ETH-RNDR-BTC paths across platforms like KuCoin and Gate.io for rapid gains.
4. Kaspa (KAS)
This PoW coin, praised for its blockDAG architecture, experiences high spreads between Eastern European exchanges (like WhiteBIT) and global ones. KAS ranks among the top 10 most arbitraged coins on ArbitrageScanner.io (2025 Q1 Data).
5. Synthetix (SNX)
Due to its unique synthetic asset platform, SNX faces asynchronous pricing updates—especially during governance proposal votes or upgrades. With price gaps hitting 3%+ during these events, short-lived arbitrage windows become highly profitable.
Tools and Strategies to Track Arbitrage Opportunities
Trading arbitrage manually is no longer feasible at scale. Here are essential tools for tracking profitable trades:
- Coinglass Arbitrage Matrix – visualizes pricing gaps across CEXs
- ArbitrageScanner.io – real-time gap detection across 100+ pairs
- Hummingbot – open-source arbitrage bot supporting custom pair strategies
- DEXTools + CoinMarketCap API – effective for DEX-CEX arbitrage monitoring
Tip: Combine DEX-to-CEX arbitrage with flash loan capabilities (where available) to maximize capital efficiency without fronting massive liquidity.
Risks Often Overlooked
Despite the appeal, arbitrage carries unique risks:
- Slippage and execution delays can nullify profits
- Withdrawal limits or KYC bottlenecks on smaller exchanges
- Network congestion fees, especially on Ethereum-based pairs
- Regulatory intervention or frozen assets during compliance checks
For instance, a 2024 Binance user survey showed that 43% of failed arbitrage trades were due to unexpected withdrawal freezes or delayed verification procedures—a reminder that operational diligence is as important as pricing strategy.
Arbitrage in the AI Era
With AI increasingly being used to automate arbitrage strategies, speed and data access matter more than ever. Machine learning models now predict spread formation with 82% accuracy, according to Cumberland Labs’ 2025 AI Trading Study.
But human intuition still wins when interpreting news-driven events, like sudden exchange halts or regional FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt), that bots may misread.
Final Thoughts
Arbitrage remains one of the few crypto trading strategies that can offer risk-mitigated returns, provided you know where to look and how to act. From under-the-radar altcoins to major exchange discrepancies, arbitrage thrives on inefficiency—a rarity in traditional markets but still abundant in crypto.
As the landscape grows more complex, tools, research, and execution speed will be the deciding factors. For any trader exploring these margins, always back your strategy with real-time data and understand the operational risks involved.
For more insights into cryptocurrency trading opportunities and market trends, stay connected with Bitora—your trusted platform for crypto intelligence.
Author Bio
Alex Reaves is a crypto market strategist and decentralized finance (DeFi) researcher with 7+ years in the blockchain space. He has contributed to reports on cross-exchange liquidity and arbitrage algorithms for firms including Delphi Digital and CoinShares. His work focuses on interpreting data into actionable strategy for crypto traders.
