Execution quality is the missing parameter in the Bitcoin and Ethereum markets.

Comment by: Arthur Azizov, founder of B2 Ventures

Transaction cost analysis (TCA) has long been an important tool in equity trading. With this tool, traders can see the hidden costs of trading and reduce the difference between the expected and the actual price.

As crypto matures, it will begin to resemble traditional financial markets and begin to perform the same functions as other trading instruments. Crypto transactions also come with costs: fees that investors pay every time they buy or sell crypto.

However, there is one thing that is clearly not going along with this development. Execution costs for crypto are systematically analyzed. Understanding how much it costs to get a deal done leaves a lot to be desired.

This transparency requires the crypto industry to urgently embrace transaction cost analysis before it kills market confidence.

Invisible costs in the crypto market

To the untrained eye, major crypto pairs may appear fluid; Order books are deep, and quoted spreads are competitive. In the end, the final execution price may deviate from what is expected.

For example, an investor wanted to buy 1 Bitcoin (BTC) for $90,000, but due to sudden market volatility, the final price was $90,900. The slippage in this scenario would be $900 or 1% of the proposed trade volume.

This problem is not unique to crypto; It is also in traditional finance. In equity markets, however, these costs are accurately measured, compared and analyzed using TCA combined with optimal performance.

In contrast, for crypto, the exact price of entry or exit is often difficult to manually calculate or predict. This is where TCA comes in handy as it allows crypto traders to break down the exact execution price by knowing exactly bid-ask spreads, market impact and order fees.

With TCA tools, crypto transactions can be more transparent, and traders can easily identify the sources of costs associated with conducting business.

Crypto transactions can be hard to find value for.

If it were that simple in real life, TCA analysis would already be an integral part of crypto markets. The main issue is that cryptocurrency prices are very volatile, they change every millisecond and trading happens every hour. Sometimes investors are not available on time when making purchases, which has a significant impact on business performance costs.

The flow is low, and the cut, due to the presence of many exchanges, is high. This is exacerbated by the fact that some platforms may be disconnected or less accessible, leading to more slippage.

Things become clear in crypto when we talk about costs. Some costs can often be quietly included in business prices, complicating “total consideration.” It's hard to know exactly the full cost of a business.

There is also the problem of lack of information. Meaningful transaction cost analysis requires standardized data. For example, in equity markets, information is typically available from centralized sources. Due to the decentralized nature of cryptocurrencies, trading activity is scattered across multiple exchanges and platforms, making it difficult to collect data and make reliable analyses.

The crypto market also suffers from a lack of regulation and a global definition of TCA or best practice. As a result, the performance of the portfolio depends on external factors such as trading speed or the “health” of the position and not on the ability of the asset manager or investor.

to measurable performance

Regulators are beginning to recognize this performance gap. For example, in 2025, the European Securities and Markets Authority revised its standards, including best performers, to include asset classes beyond stocks such as foreign exchange, commodities and, above all, crypto.

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This does not introduce per transaction cost analysis and does not define specific performance indicators, but it is an important prerequisite. Performance transparency will be more compelling for digital assets.

Although standardization alone cannot solve the problem of invisible trade costs, it still makes investors think more about the importance of TCA. Markets become more efficient if market participants can see what transaction fees are and how these surcharges vary between exchanges.

The problem of fragmented data and standardization is now being solved by cloud computing and big data analytics, which has made it much easier and more cost-effective to collect and process large amounts of data. Powered by machine learning, platforms can conduct transaction spend analysis everywhere and identify previously inaccessible patterns.

The widespread use of TCA helps traders reduce costs and increase liquidity. Transaction volume flows will gradually move to the place where there are better conditions, which will stimulate competition between exchanges and assets.

Comment by: Arthur Azizov, founder of B2 Ventures.