Maker-Taker Fees

Maker-taker fees are the two-tier fee structure most crypto exchanges use: orders that add liquidity to the book (maker orders) pay a lower fee than orders that remove liquidity by executing immediately (taker orders). The design rewards traders who post resting limit orders, because a deep order book benefits everyone trading on the venue.

For example, an exchange might charge 0.10% for takers and 0.02% for makers at a given volume tier. On a $10,000 trade, that is $10 as a taker versus $2 as a maker. Some venues go further and pay high-volume makers a small rebate, effectively a negative fee, which is how some professional market-making strategies earn part of their revenue.

Fee schedules usually improve with 30-day trading volume and sometimes with holding the exchange's own token. For active traders, the maker-taker gap meaningfully shapes strategy: a scalper paying taker fees on every trade needs larger price moves to break even than one who works limit orders. A common misconception is that maker fees apply to any limit order; they apply only when the order actually rests on the book before filling — a limit order that crosses the spread executes as a taker.