Tutorial 5 of 6
What a crypto round trip and a gas fee really cost
Beginner 6 min
Use the Crypto costs desk to estimate spread, slippage, trading fees, a withdrawal fee and the break-even exit, and an Ethereum EIP-1559 transaction fee.
A price rise is not a profit until it covers the spread, slippage and fees on both sides. The Crypto costs desk shows how much it takes. Every price and fee rate is an assumption you enter — nothing is fetched and nothing is sent. Open File → Start from an example… → Crypto cost scenario, then the Crypto costs desk.
1. The spot round trip
The example buys 0.5 ETH at an entry mid price of 3,000 USDT and sells at an exit mid of 3,050, with a Full spread (bps) of 20, Slippage per side (bps) of 10, Entry trading fee (%) and Exit trading fee (%) of 0.26 and a Network or withdrawal fee (base units) of 0.002 ETH (for example moving the coins to another exchange).
| Figure | Value |
|---|---|
| Estimated buy fill | 3,006 USDT |
| Estimated sell fill | 3,043.9 USDT |
| Base left to sell | 0.498 ETH |
| Total entry cost | 1,506.91 USDT |
| Net exit proceeds | 1,511.92 USDT |
| Break-even exit mid | 3,039.89 USDT (needs a move of +1.33 %) |
| Estimated P&L | +5.01 USDT |
| Cost at a flat price | 19.77 USDT |
How to read it: the buy fill is the mid plus half the spread plus slippage; the sell fill is the mid minus both. The withdrawal fee is paid in ETH, so only 0.498 ETH is left to sell. A rise of 1.67 % earns about 5 USDT, and if the price does not move at all the round trip costs 19.77 USDT.
Change Exit mid price to 3030: the estimated P&L turns negative, because the move is smaller than the break-even move.
2. The Ethereum gas estimator
Ethereum gas estimator (EIP-1559) applies the fee rules of EIP-1559 to your numbers. The example is a token swap: Gas used 150,000, Gas limit 200,000, Base fee (gwei) 12, Max fee (gwei) 20, Max priority fee (gwei) 1.5 and Your ETH price (optional) 3,000.
- Effective gas price: 13.5 gwei — base fee plus tip, capped by the max fee.
- Estimated execution fee: 0.002025 ETH (gas used × effective price), about 6.07 at your ETH price.
- Maximum execution fee: 0.004 ETH (gas limit × max fee), at most 12.00. Unused gas is not charged.
Set Max fee (gwei) below the base fee, for example 10: a warning says the transaction is not eligible for inclusion at that base fee.
The estimate covers execution gas only — no transferred value, blob fees or Layer 2 data fees — and the base fee changes every block.
3. Keep the scenario
The planner inputs are saved with the desk when you leave a field. Use File → Save workspace file to keep a copy, or write down what you learned in the Journal. The same calculations are available as the tools RavingDesk Crypto Spot Round-Trip Cost Planner and RavingDesk Ethereum EIP-1559 Gas Fee Estimator.
Next steps
Learn how to keep, share and report a desk in files, reports and the API.
Ready to try it?