In the crypto market, the same asset almost never costs the same on different exchanges. These price discrepancies—spreads—are the bread and butter of an arbitrageur. But catching them manually is practically impossible: the gaps rarely exceed fractions of a percent and last only a few seconds. By the time a trader notices the opportunity and places two orders, the market has already closed the window.
The Arbitron platform automates this process, handling all the routine work. The service monitors order books and funding rates on the 20 largest exchanges in real time, independently placing both sides of the trade. Meanwhile, funds remain on the trader's exchange accounts, eliminating risks associated with transferring assets to a third party.
Four obstacles on the path to profit
The raw spread shown by the scanner is merely the theoretical difference between two quotes. Four factors "squeeze" it down to actual profit: taker fees on both legs, order book depth for the required volume, slippage during execution, and the speed at which the spread itself decays. A full two-legged arbitrage cycle involves four market orders, making the choice of an exchange pair with low fees critically important.
Arbitron's key advantage is speed. The platform is connected to every trading pair on 20 exchanges, amounting to about 10,000 order books simultaneously. Each account is allocated a dedicated AWS server with its own static IP, which can be located in Tokyo, Singapore, Frankfurt, or London. This is critical: a 200-500 ms delay when requesting from another continent can cost nearly 0.8% in slippage, which is several times the typical spread.
Backtest instead of pretty numbers
The main difference between the Arbitron scanner and conventional screeners is that it shows not the momentary spread, but the result of a backtest. The platform runs the last 8 hours of quotes through the same strategy used by trading cards, with fees already deducted. This filters out illusory opportunities that cannot be realized in practice. Each row in the table is a verified simulation accounting for delays and the trader's personal fee schedule.
Trading cards are the heart of the platform. They link a pair of exchanges, a specific coin, and two spread thresholds (for opening and closing). The system automatically exploits the discrepancy in either direction and protects positions with three levels: a hard stop, a soft exit, and liquidation insurance. Special mention goes to delisting protection—a three-level monitoring system that catches announcements about contract removals 3-14 days before the event.
Security and transparency
Arbitron operates on a non-custodial model: API keys have no withdrawal rights and are stored using an "envelope" scheme with AES-256-GCM encryption. Each user is assigned a separate encryption key. All trades are recorded in a full log, and balances and open positions are available in the portfolio, including through a Telegram terminal.
The payment model deserves special attention: a fee is charged only on realized profit. Losses are carried forward to future periods, and until the trader exceeds the previous profit peak, the platform receives nothing. This aligns the interests of the service and the user.
My conclusion: Arbitron is not just a tool for "quick money," but a full-fledged infrastructure for systematic arbitrage. The service solves the main problem of retail traders—speed and execution accuracy that are unattainable manually. However, it is worth remembering that even the best automation does not eliminate the need to understand the market and properly configure risks. It is best to start with small amounts, thoroughly testing strategies on backtests.