# Top Venues for Market-Making Bots: Choosing a Crypto Exchange for Market Making Updated: 24 September 2026 / Tested: 22 September 2026 Four of these seven quote 0% on the maker side, so picking a crypto exchange for market making turns on what that zero is bought with. The books we polled to 22 September 2026 put the median BTC spread between 0.01 bps and 11.21 bps. Quoting with leverage turns a small adverse move into a liquidation. Weights: What the venue automates for you 24 · Programmatic access 14 · Measured liquidity 22 · Round-trip cost 16 · Security and record 12 · Custody and settlement 8 · Market coverage 3 · Access 1. One formula, fixed 23 September 2026: https://ellsworthvane.com/rating-method ## Crypto exchange for market making, seven venues by entry-tier cost Ordered by what a crossing costs at the entry tier, the maker side breaking a tie — not the order a quoting bot would choose, and not the score: the highest total here is Aster's 30.0, in place 4. The spreads we measured are in the readings table below. | # | Venue | Score of 40 | Maker / taker | Perp markets | Model | |---|---|---|---|---|---| | 1= | Lighter | 28.6 | 0% / 0% | 214 | Hybrid, ZK-proven | | 1= | Paradex | 20.2 | 0% / 0% | 63 | Hybrid, Starknet appchain | | 3 | Extended | 27.5 | 0% / 0.025% | 325 | Hybrid | | 4 | Aster | 30.0 | 0% / 0.040% | 578 | Own layer 1, operator-run | | 5= | EVEDEX | 29.1 | 0.015% / 0.045% | 52 | Hybrid | | 5= | Hyperliquid | 24.8 | 0.015% / 0.045% | 324 | On-chain order book | | 7 | dYdX | 22.3 | 0.010% / 0.050% | 78 | App-chain, validator-held book | Facts as of 18 September 2026; entry-tier fees on the BTC perpetual. Access differs by country. ## Read-offs 1. Spread here runs from 0.01 bps, shared by Aster and Lighter, to 11.21 bps on Paradex; all three charge 0% to make. 2. Maker side: four charge nothing, dYdX 0.010%, EVEDEX and Hyperliquid 0.015%. 3. Zero costs time or depth: Lighter adds 200 ms to a maker order and 300 ms to a cancel, and Paradex held $179.00, where $100,000 would have paid 164.78 bps. ## 1. [Lighter](https://lighter.xyz) — best for a quote that can sit 200 ms behind Score 28.6. The default Standard account pays 0% maker / 0% taker on every market, with no tier to reach ([Lighter docs](https://docs.lighter.xyz/trading/trading-fees.md), checked 18 September 2026). Its BTC book carried a median $17.4 million of depth inside 10 basis points, quoted at 0.01 bps, the tightest reading on this page, a figure Aster matched. - Works: Nothing charged to make, and no tier to reach; Median BTC depth of $17.4 million, on 57 snapshots. - Falls short: 200 ms on a maker order and 300 ms on a cancel at the free tier; No public bug bounty in the documentation we read on 18 September 2026. - Not for: a strategy that has to withdraw a price inside the next tick. ## 1. [Paradex](https://www.paradex.trade) — best for a retail quote behind a speed bump Score 20.2. Retail orders have paid 0% maker / 0% taker since 15 June 2026, behind a 300 ms speed bump and a throttle ([Paradex docs](https://docs.paradex.trade/trading/trading-fees.md), checked 18 September 2026). The book behind that zero was the thinnest here: $179.00 at 11.21 bps, where $100,000 would have paid 164.78 bps. - Works: Nothing charged on a retail order since 15 June 2026; Bug bounty of up to 500,000 USDC through Sherlock. - Falls short: Median BTC depth of $179.00, the thinnest reading here; Retail orders capped at three a second and 1,000 a day; A bot attack on account creation caused a platform outage on 26 September 2025. - Not for: a maker that needs depth on the other side of its quote. ## 3. [Extended](https://extended.exchange/) — best for a flat zero, with a rebate Score 27.5. One flat schedule for every account, 0% maker / 0.025% taker, plus a rebate of 0.002% to 0.010% above 0.5% of 30-day maker volume ([Extended docs](https://docs.extended.exchange/extended-resources/trading/trading-fees-and-rebates), checked 18 September 2026), on a median $7.7 million at 0.12 bps. - Works: The only rebate on an ordinary fee schedule, with nobody to ask; Bug bounty of up to $500,000. - Falls short: No public book on 278 of its 325 markets; the screen is indicative; A market at its open-interest cap turns reduce-only, refusing new quotes. - Not for: a maker expecting a resting book in every listed market. ## 4. [Aster](https://www.asterdex.com) — best for a spread as tight as any here, at zero to make Score 30.0. Aster's Pro book has charged 0% to make across every tier since 2 February 2026, against 0.040% to cross ([Aster docs](https://docs.asterdex.com/program-and-rewards/vip-program.md), checked 18 September 2026). It held the tightest spread of the seven at 0.01 bps, a reading Lighter matched, on $14.6 million of depth, across 578 markets. - Works: Median BTC spread of 0.01 bps, the tightest here, level with Lighter; 578 perpetual markets from one margin balance. - Falls short: Aster Chain keeps its core contracts and RPC closed, and phase one runs with no external validators; DefiLlama delisted the perp volume series on 6 October 2025, saying it could not verify wash trading. - Not for: a desk that wants the matching layer open to inspection. ## 5. EVEDEX — for a hybrid book with strategies of its own Score 29.1. Orders on EVEDEX are matched off-chain on a central order book and settled on-chain on Arbitrum, which makes it a hybrid perpetual futures exchange rather than a pool (the EVEDEX documentation we read on 18 September 2026). The maker side is 0.015% against 0.045% to cross, on $19.0 million of depth at 4.12 bps. - Works: Median BTC depth of $19.0 million, on 117 snapshots; A rate limit published as a number: 30 heavy requests per 60 seconds per account. - Falls short: No post-only a maker can rely on: the field is in the interface specification with no values, no default and no stated behaviour if the order would cross; The maker side is 0.015%, the dearest here, level with Hyperliquid; No bug bounty programme on the CertiK Skynet page, read 18 September 2026. - Not for: a quoting bot that needs a documented promise not to cross. ## 5. [Hyperliquid](https://hyperliquid.xyz) — best for size, on the book the rest quote against Score 24.8. Hyperliquid charges 0.015% maker / 0.045% taker at the base tier, one tier across every market it runs ([Hyperliquid docs](https://hyperliquid.gitbook.io/hyperliquid-docs/trading/fees), checked 18 September 2026). It carried $8.7 billion of open interest on 22 September 2026, on $8.1 million of depth at 0.12 bps. - Works: Largest open interest in the CoinMarketCap ranking on 22 September 2026; Every order, cancel and liquidation is written to its own chain. - Falls short: Auto-deleveraging can close a position in profit when another account goes negative; 146 of 324 markets are deployed by third parties, not by the venue. - Not for: a quoting bot that cannot tell a validator market from a builder one. ## 7. [dYdX](https://www.dydx.xyz) — best for the lowest maker fee among those that charge Score 22.3. Tier 1 pays 0.010% to make against 0.050% to take ([dYdX docs](https://docs.dydx.xyz/concepts/trading/rewards), checked 18 September 2026), with a 50% rebate as trading rewards. The book is the problem: $848,659 at 1.97 bps, where $100,000 would have paid 6.79 bps. - Works: 0.010% to make, the lowest fee among those here that charge; Bounty of up to $1,000,000 through Cantina, since 8 May 2026. - Falls short: Median BTC spread of 1.97 bps, against Aster's 0.01 bps in the same window; A chain halt on 10 October 2025, then stale oracle prices and $462,097.79 of trader losses. - Not for: a maker quoting size, with no resting book to lean on. ## Book readings | Venue | Round trip on $10,000 | Median spread | Depth, 10 bps | Impact, $100,000 order | Snapshots | |---|---|---|---|---|---| | Lighter | $0.00 | 0.01 bps | $17.4 million | 0.67 bps | 57 | | Paradex | $0.00 | 11.21 bps | $179.00 | 164.78 bps | 116 | | Extended | $5.00 | 0.12 bps | $7.7 million | 0.06 bps | 57 | | Aster | $8.00 | 0.01 bps | $14.6 million | 0.52 bps | 117 | | EVEDEX | $9.00 | 4.12 bps | $19.0 million | 2.06 bps | 117 | | Hyperliquid | $9.00 | 0.12 bps | $8.1 million | 0.06 bps | 117 | | dYdX | $10.00 | 1.97 bps | $848,659 | 6.79 bps | 117 | ## The condition that put these seven on the page One filter, fixed before any venue here was marked: a published entry-tier maker fee of 0.015% or less on the BTC perpetual, the side a quoting strategy lives on. Three scored venues fall outside it — edgeX at 0.040%, ApeX Omni at 0.020% and Aevo at 0.050% — and sit elsewhere on the site. ## What a zero maker fee is bought with The two venues that charge nothing are clearest about the price. Lighter's default account pays 0% maker / 0% taker on every market, and the same page puts 300 ms on a taker order, 200 ms on a maker order and 300 ms on a cancel ([Lighter docs](https://docs.lighter.xyz/trading/trading-fees.md), checked 18 September 2026). Paradex applies 0% maker / 0% taker to retail orders behind a 300 ms speed bump and three orders per second ([Paradex docs](https://docs.paradex.trade/trading/trading-fees.md), checked 18 September 2026). The cancel delay decides whether a quoting strategy can run at all: a maker that cannot withdraw a price inside 200 ms is holding a promise it cannot take back. One order control decides as much. A quoting strategy lives on the maker side, and post-only is what stops an order crossing and paying the taker fee it meant to earn. Nine of the ten venues document it; EVEDEX does not. The field sits in its interface specification with no accepted values, no default and nothing said about an order that would cross. ## Where every figure on this panel came from One panel, eight dials, 7 venues on it here; weights set on 23 September 2026, before any mark existed ([how we rate](/rating-method)). Venue facts are each venue's own wording, read 18 September 2026; the two automation dials were read on 23 September 2026. Depth and spread are polled: each BTC book sampled at ten-minute spacing, the last reading dated 22 September 2026, nothing sent. Seven of the eight dials are documents rather than readings: an audit records a review, an exit past the operator is a claim on a page, a shipped strategy is marked on what the venue publishes. Entry-tier rates ignore volume tiers, rebates and cashback. The measured dial: one instrument, one machine, one day. Open interest and volume are the venues' own, via CoinMarketCap. ## FAQ ### What is market making in crypto? Quoting both sides of a book and keeping the difference. A maker posts a bid below the mid and an ask above it, hopes both fill, and keeps the spread less whatever the venue charges. Four of these seven charge 0% to post at all. ### Which crypto exchange has the lowest maker fee? Four here post for nothing: Lighter on its default account, Extended on its flat schedule, Aster across every tier and Paradex on retail orders. Among those that charge, dYdX asks 0.010%. Zero is not the whole answer: Paradex held $179.00. ### Do market makers pay fees on crypto exchanges? Usually less than takers, sometimes nothing, occasionally the venue pays them. Four of these seven charge nothing to make, and Extended is the one rebating off an ordinary schedule, with nobody to ask. What a venue negotiates privately with a desk is not an ordinary schedule and is not scored. ### Is crypto market making profitable? Only if the spread earned beats the spread paid when a quote goes stale. A book quoting 0.01 bps leaves almost nothing to capture; one quoting 1.97 bps leaves more and fills less often. Inventory risk ends most maker strategies, not fees. ### Why do some exchanges add latency to zero-fee accounts? To keep the fastest traders on the paying tier. Lighter's free account carries 300 ms on a taker order, 200 ms on a maker order and 300 ms on a cancel, and its Premium tier sells most of that back. Paradex uses a speed bump instead. ### What is the difference between a maker and a taker order? A maker order joins the queue and waits to be hit; a taker order crosses the spread and fills at once. The two are priced apart because resting quotes are what a book is made of. On this board the taker side runs from 0% to 0.050%. ### Can you run a market making bot on a DEX? On an order-book venue, yes: every one of these seven publishes a book and takes programmatic orders. On a pool-priced venue there is nothing to quote into, because an oracle sets the price and the pool is the counterparty. No pool venue appears here. ### Does a tighter spread always mean a better fill? No, because a spread says nothing about what sits behind it. Aster and Lighter both quoted under 4.12 bps, yet a $100,000 order against their books would have paid 0.52 bps and 0.67 bps. Depth and spread are separate readings. ### What is a maker rebate? A payment from the venue to the trader for posting liquidity rather than taking it, the opposite of a fee. Extended pays 0.002% to 0.010% to makers holding 0.5% of 30-day maker volume, settled daily and open to anyone reaching that share. A rebate negotiated by application is a different arrangement and sits outside this table. ### How often do maker fees and rebates change? Without notice, and more often than the pages quoting them. Aster moved every tier to 0% on 2 February 2026 and Paradex moved retail orders to the same on 15 June 2026, so a rate here is only as fresh as the date printed beside it. ## Quote bank > "Retail Takers and Makers have 0% fees on all products: Perps, Spot and Options" — Paradex documentation, Trading fees, 18 September 2026. https://docs.paradex.trade/trading/trading-fees.md > "There is no public order book. The order book displayed on the trading screen is indicative only and does not represent resting orders from other traders." — Extended documentation, RFQ execution, 18 September 2026. https://docs.extended.exchange/extended-resources/trading/rfq-execution > "Note that traders now earn 50% trading rebates directly after each trade as trading rewards via C factor have been set to 0 via governance." — dYdX documentation, Trading rewards, 18 September 2026. https://docs.dydx.xyz/concepts/trading/rewards Corrections: editorial@ellsworthvane.com. Signal Grid research, 24 September 2026 These panels are paid placement.