You might have noticed that the rates displayed when buying versus selling are slightly different. This difference is called the spread.
To find out more about market spread, read our Swyftx Learn article What is Market Spread in Cryptocurrency?
In any market, crypto or otherwise, there will always be a difference in price between what buyers and sellers are willing to trade at.
Prices go up when the buyers are ready to pay the higher prices of the sellers and go down when sellers are ready to sell at the lower prices the buys are offering (otherwise known as supply and demand).
In trading, liquidity refers to the number of buyers and sellers advertising their prices on the order book.
Higher liquidity (more buyers and sellers) means that Swyftx can quote more accurately and offer better prices for our customers.
When you enter an amount to buy or sell, Swyftx queries the liquidity on partner exchanges (including Binance) to determine how many buyers or sellers it would take to fill your trade.
Contrary to the common idea that the more you buy or sell, the better price you get, trading on open markets in higher quantities results in less favourable prices.
This is dictated by the liquidity of that particular asset and is known as slippage.
To find out more about slippage, read our Swyftx Learn article What is Slippage in Crypto?
Swyftx will search its partner exchanges to find the best liquidity and best current trading price to fill your orders. This means that prices on Swyftx should always be the best possible; however, there may be slightly different to prices listed on individual exchanges elsewhere.