Every now and then, I see someone scream 'scam' just because a token has a different price on two exchanges. I used to wonder the same, so I asked myself: why does this happen? It made me curious enough to dig deeper. Turns out, it's not a scam. It's structure. And once I understood that, I figured it might be worth sharing with others who’ve had the same doubt. So let's begin!
We are on a centralized exchange (Binance), in case that realization just hit you. And if you’ve ever searched for a token and checked its price across other centralized exchanges (CEXes) like MEXC, BingX, or KuCoin, you’ve probably noticed something strange:
It’s not the same price everywhere. Sometimes the difference is tiny and other times, it’s big enough to make you wonder if something’s wrong.
Let’s break it down in simple terms:
The Exchange Is a Bubble
People like to imagine there’s one universal crypto price, but there isn’t. Binance has its own order book, KuCoin has another, BingX has a third. Each exchange has its own order book, completely separate from the others. A trade on KuCoin stays on KuCoin. What happens on Binance doesn’t ripple out anywhere else. Every exchange is self-contained. The price reflects what’s happening inside that one system, not across the whole market.
Bots Don’t Think Like You
Many tokens rely on automated market makers to provide liquidity. These bots place buy and sell orders and update them based on algorithms. But every exchange has different rules, fees, and liquidity setups, so the market makers behave differently. That leads to small (or sometimes large) pricing gaps between platforms.
Timing Is a Glitch
Some tokens are listed on one exchange earlier than others. In the early minutes or hours, prices can swing wildly until things stabilize. Even after that, if a token is harder to buy or transfer on one exchange, the price can reflect that friction.
That Number Isn’t What You Think
Exchanges show different types of "price": last traded price, best bid, best ask, or an average. Sometimes you’ll see a price on a token that hasn’t been traded in hours, especially on low-volume platforms. So the number on the screen might be outdated or misleading.
So in short: exchanges don’t coordinate with each other, every platform has its own market, its own traders, and its own liquidity, and even the best-known tokens can have different prices depending on where you look.
So next time you see a token at $0.000009 on KuCoin and $0.0000094 on Binance, don't overthink it; it's just market structure in action.
Prices don’t match because markets don’t merge; central or not, they follow who’s trading, not what you think is fair.
