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Spread check: observed price vs market

What a buyer pays on public BTC order books compared with a market reference, captured daily. Snapshot: 2026-10-19 09:22:05 UTC · reference $82,855.77 (median of 5 venue mid prices).

Latest snapshot

History (2 days so far)

One point per venue per day. History builds as the daily job runs.

Venue (order book)Best askMidAsk vs marketData
Kraken Pro order book
$82,853.10$82,853.05-0.0032%public API
Bitstamp order book
$82,853.60$82,853.60-0.0026%public API
Gemini exchange order book
$82,856.70$82,855.77+0.0011%public API
Coinbase Exchange (Advanced order book)
$82,856.76$82,856.76+0.0012%public API
Binance.US order book
$82,861.27$82,860.82+0.0066%public API

Can't be measured (yet)

Retail apps price recurring buys inside the app. None of these publish a key-free quote API, so we don't guess.

  • Strike
    No public, key-free quote API. Strike publishes a 0.22% target spread instead.
  • River
    No public quote API found; River does not publish its spread size.
  • Cash App
    No public quote API. Cash App states Auto Invest is spread-free.
  • Robinhood Crypto
    No public quote API. Robinhood discloses a ~0.95% market-maker rebate included in the spread.
  • Swan Bitcoin
    No public quote API.
  • Public (crypto)
    No public quote API.
  • Coinbase simple / recurring buy
    Consumer price API returns spot for 'buy', so the app spread is not observable. The order-book row above is Coinbase Exchange, not the app's recurring buy.
  • Kraken app recurring buy (Instant Buy)
    No public Instant Buy quote API. The order-book row above is Kraken Pro, not the recurring buy screen.
  • Gemini app recurring buy
    No public quote API for app (Instant/Recurring) orders. The order-book row above is the exchange book.

Methodology

Observed price vs market: each venue's best public order-book ask compared with the median mid price across responding venues, at one moment. Positive = buyer pays above market. Snapshot only; real fills depend on order size and timing. Retail app recurring-buy prices are not observable through public APIs.

Order-book asks on exchanges are usually within a few hundredths of a percent of market. App recurring buys can cost much more because of the spread. Strike publishes a 0.22% target. Robinhood discloses a 0.95% market-maker rebate included in its spread. Cash App says Auto Invest is spread-free. Those published figures are what the calculator uses.

Script: scripts/spread_check.py. Raw data: latest.json, history.json.

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