Search results on crypto trading costs often stop at the word commission-free, and a $0 commission line covers only half of the bill. Every buy or sell also crosses the spread between what buyers pay and what sellers receive, and a venue either keeps part of that spread or charges a separate percentage fee.
Robinhood Crypto now runs both models in one app. Its default route sends orders to market makers and shows no fee line, because Robinhood's revenue on that route is a rebate built into the spread. The optional exchange route charges a visible fee of up to 0.95% of each order's dollar value (source: Robinhood, Crypto order routing).
Sending coins off the platform adds a third cost, the blockchain network fee, which sits apart from the Robinhood crypto withdrawal limits that cap how much can leave each day.
What are Robinhood crypto fees?
Robinhood crypto fees are the main charges on a Robinhood Crypto account: the trading cost on each buy or sell, the network fee on each withdrawal, and separate rates on staking rewards and Robinhood Connect purchases. Only the trading cost depends on the order route, which is why the route matters.
A Robinhood Crypto account is held with Robinhood Crypto, LLC, separate from the Robinhood Financial investing account that holds stocks, ETFs, and options (source: Robinhood, Buying and selling crypto). Every trade you place from it takes one of two routes. Orders you place in the app or on web classic go to market makers by default (source: Robinhood, Crypto order routing). The alternative sends supported coins to partner exchanges, and you can switch it on from the order type menu before each order.
The spread is the reason a commission-free order still costs money. A bid-ask spread measures the gap between the best price a buyer offers and the best price a seller accepts for an asset (source: Investopedia, Bid-Ask Spread). Outside of commissions, that difference is the main transaction cost of any trade, and narrow spreads usually mean an asset is cheaper to trade.
Beyond the two trading routes, staking rewards carry a 25% commission and Robinhood Connect purchases cost up to 1.5% by debit card or bank transfer (source: Robinhood Crypto, Fee Schedule).
| Activity | What you pay | Who receives it |
|---|---|---|
| Buy or sell on market maker routing (default) | No commission; the cost is the spread | The market maker, which pays Robinhood Crypto a rebate |
| Buy or sell on exchange routing | Up to 0.95% of the executed dollar value, by volume tier and maker or taker | Robinhood Crypto, less a small partner-exchange share |
| Send crypto off Robinhood | The blockchain network fee | The network that processes the transfer |
| Staking | 25% commission on staking rewards | Robinhood Crypto |
| Robinhood Connect purchase | Up to 1.5% by debit card or bank transfer; $0 from buying power | Robinhood |
Market maker routing and the bid-ask spread
On the market maker route, you trade at the ask when buying and at the bid when selling, while the chart shows the mid price between them. The distance from the mid price to your fill price is the buy or sell spread, and it contains Robinhood's share of each order.
The price on a coin's detail page is the mid price, the midpoint between the bid and the ask (source: Robinhood, Why do the crypto mid price and order price differ?). A market buy can fill at the ask, which usually sits above that mid price, and a market sell can fill at the bid below it. The buy spread is the gap from the mid price up to the ask; the sell spread is the gap from the mid price down to the bid (source: Robinhood, Crypto order routing). Both prices appear on the order review screen, so you can read the spread before you submit.
Part of that spread is Robinhood's revenue. As of June 15, 2026, the market maker pays Robinhood Crypto $0.95 for every $100 of crypto that fills on this route; the payment is included in the spread you pay (source: Robinhood, Crypto order routing). On a $100 buy with a 0.96% buy spread, $0.95 of the $0.96 spread goes to Robinhood Crypto, which leaves one cent for the market maker. A $100 sell at the same spread splits the same way.
US stock brokers use a similar arrangement called payment for order flow, the rebate income a broker earns for routing retail stock orders to a market maker that takes the other side (source: Congressional Research Service, Payment for Order Flow and Broker-Dealer Regulation). That rebate model is widely credited with making zero-commission stock trading viable for discount brokers. On the crypto side, Robinhood Crypto receives volume rebates from the market makers on its default route (source: Robinhood Crypto, Fee Schedule).
Market orders on this route also carry a price buffer. A market buy becomes a limit order buffered up to 1% above the price; a market sell becomes one buffered up to 5% below it (source: Robinhood, Buying and selling crypto). The buffer caps slippage in crypto, the gap between the quote and the fill, and a market order still open after 2 minutes may be canceled automatically. Spreads also differ by coin, because a heavily traded coin such as Bitcoin converts to cash more easily and usually shows a smaller spread than a lesser-known coin. That link between trading activity and spread is the same liquidity and market depth trade-off every venue faces.
Exchange routing fee tiers: maker and taker rates
Exchange routing sends a Robinhood crypto order to partner exchanges and charges a percentage of the executed dollar value. The rate falls as your trailing 30-day exchange routing volume rises, and each order pays either the maker rate or the higher taker rate, depending on how it fills.
Robinhood Crypto receives no rebate from its partner exchanges on this route. Promotions can also lower some customers' rates (source: Robinhood, Crypto order routing). Market orders and stop orders always pay the taker fee. A limit or stop-limit order pays the lower maker fee when it waits on the order book before a match; it pays the taker fee when it matches at once. Maker and taker pricing is still rolling out (source: Robinhood, Crypto fee tiers).
Fees fall across nine volume tiers, from 0.95% taker and 0.50% maker under $10,000, through 0.75% taker and 0.35% maker up to $50,000, to 0.03% taker and 0.00% maker above $25 million. Between 0.00% and 0.02% of each fee goes to the executing partner exchange, already included in the rate (source: Robinhood Crypto, Fee Schedule).
| Trailing 30-day exchange routing volume | Taker fee | Maker fee |
|---|---|---|
| $0 to $10K | 0.95% | 0.50% |
| $10K to $50K | 0.75% | 0.35% |
| $50K to $250K | 0.25% | 0.125% |
| $250K to $500K | 0.15% | 0.075% |
| $500K to $1M | 0.125% | 0.06% |
| $1M to $5M | 0.10% | 0.04% |
| $5M to $10M | 0.04% | 0.02% |
| $10M to $25M | 0.03% | 0.01% |
| $25M and above | 0.03% | 0.00% |
Your tier is fixed when you place the order, and that order is left out of the volume that sets it. Orders sent through market maker routing never count toward tier progress. Robinhood sizes a limit order at the higher taker rate when it checks your buying power (source: Robinhood, Crypto fee tiers). If the order then fills as a maker, the fee difference returns to your buying power.
On a buy, the total cost is the dollar value of the coins plus the fee; on a sell, the credit is the dollar value minus the fee (source: Robinhood, Crypto order routing). On an exchange, a market buy still pays the ask and a market sell still receives the bid (source: Investopedia, Bid-Ask Spread). The exchange's own spread therefore sits on top of the fee.
Limit orders generally rest on Bitstamp, the exchange that joined the group through the Robinhood Bitstamp acquisition. A limit price that appears only on another partner exchange can therefore leave the order unfilled. The exception is a better price on another partner exchange that covers the higher taker fee. The order then goes to that exchange and pays the taker rate (source: Robinhood, Crypto order routing).
Spread vs exchange routing fee on a $1,000 buy of ETH
On a $1,000 market buy of ETH in the first volume tier, a 0.96% spread on the market maker route costs $9.60, and exchange routing costs a $9.50 taker fee plus the exchange's own spread. The two totals can sit close together, so the difference is often where each cost appears on your screen.
Say you buy $1,000 of ETH with a market order on the default route, and the order review screen shows a buy spread of 0.96%. Treat that spread as an example, since the figure on your screen moves with the market. The spread costs $9.60 on the order, so the ETH you receive is worth about $990.40 at the mid price. Of that $9.60, $9.50 goes to Robinhood Crypto at $0.95 per $100, and the remaining $0.10 stays with the market maker. Selling the same ETH later at the same sell spread costs about $9.60 again, so the round trip costs close to $19.20 before any price change.
Same order, exchange routing, first tier: the taker fee is 0.95%, so the fee line reads $9.50 and the total debit is $1,009.50 for $1,000 of ETH. The ETH fills at the best available ask across the partner exchanges, so that market's spread comes on top. A limit buy that waits on the order book and fills later pays the 0.50% maker rate, which is $5.00. Your buying power is first sized for the $9.50 taker fee, and the $4.50 difference returns after the fill.
A common mistake is a $1,000 market sell of a thinly traded memecoin during a sharp drop. Lesser-known coins tend to show wider spreads, and a fast fall can push the price past the 5% sell buffer, so the order stays unfilled and may be canceled. The no-fee label never capped the cost, because the spread and the buffer did. A limit sell at a price you chose, one of the market, limit, and stop orders Robinhood supports, keeps the loss inside a number you set in advance.
Once your trailing 30-day exchange-routed volume passes $10,000, the next order moves to the second tier, where the rates are 0.75% taker and 0.35% maker (source: Robinhood Crypto, Fee Schedule). The same $1,000 market buy then pays $7.50 in fees. Trades on the default route never counted toward that $10,000, so an account that trades mostly through market makers stays in the first exchange routing tier.
All-in costs can end up higher or lower on exchange routing than on the default route, partly depending on how much you trade; neither route guarantees a better price (source: Robinhood, Crypto order routing). Spreads also tend to widen during slower hours and fast-moving markets (source: Investopedia, Bid-Ask Spread). Crypto trades 24/7, so the same $1,000 order can cost more in a quiet overnight session than during a busy one. At larger sizes the gap between Robinhood spreads and exchange fees widens as exchange tiers fall, a pattern shared by crypto trading fees on order-book venues.
Network fees when you send crypto off Robinhood
A network fee is the payment a blockchain collects to process a transfer, and every on-chain send from Robinhood Crypto carries one. Robinhood shows the estimate before you confirm, adds it on top of the amount you send, and keeps none of it, because the full fee goes to the network.
Robinhood adds no charge of its own to send or receive crypto. The fee depends on the coin and on how busy that coin's network is when you send (source: Robinhood, Crypto transfers). Robinhood estimates the fee and adds it to the amount, so the balance falls by the send plus the fee. With an illustrative 0.002 ETH fee, a 0.50 ETH send debits 0.502 ETH and the destination receives 0.50 ETH. Send All reverses that order and deducts the estimated fee from the full balance, so the destination receives slightly less than the balance you held.
ERC-20 tokens on Ethereum pay their network fee in ETH, the gas asset explained in Ethereum gas. Robinhood converts that fee into the token and debits it from the token balance (source: Robinhood, Crypto transfers). A USDC or UNI send therefore needs no separate ETH balance. The USDC transfers across chains choice matters here, because the same token can cost different amounts to move on different networks.
When you withdraw crypto from Robinhood, the review screen shows the network fee estimate before you confirm the send. Read it against the amount you want the destination to receive, and pick Send All only when you want the balance emptied and accept the smaller delivered amount.
Moving ETH off Robinhood is often the first step toward trading it somewhere else, and that choice brings a different fee model. If you want another way to trade ETH, BloFin offers ETH/USDT Spot for buying and selling the coin itself and the ETHUSDT Perpetual, a perpetual futures contract that tracks the price of ETH.
Maker and taker rates for each fee tier are on the BloFin fee schedule. Check your rate and the live bid and ask before the coins arrive, so you can weigh the full cost of the next trade against the Robinhood one.
Robinhood crypto fees vs trading ETH on BloFin
If you move ETH to BloFin to trade it there, each order is priced differently from a Robinhood trade. A Robinhood order pays a spread or a tiered exchange routing fee, while an ETH/USDT Spot or ETHUSDT Perpetual order on BloFin pays a maker or taker fee plus the order book's own spread.
Compare the two on the same size and the same side. On Robinhood, read the ask against the mid price on the review screen, or read the fee line if exchange routing is on. On an order book, read the best ask against the best bid, then add the taker fee for a market order or the maker fee for a resting limit order. BloFin spot trading works on that order-book model.
A maker order on BloFin is a limit order that enters the order book before it fills. Your fee discount rises with your fee tier, which BloFin sets from your 30-day trading volume or total assets and updates daily at 1:00 UTC.
The ETHUSDT Perpetual carries one cost that Spot does not. A perpetual futures contract has no expiry date. A funding rate keeps its price close to the spot price through periodic payments between long and short holders. When the rate is positive, longs pay shorts; when it is negative, shorts pay longs. Perpetuals also carry the risks of leverage and margin requirements (source: Investopedia, What Are Perpetual Futures?). Because funding keeps changing hands while the position is open, holding a perpetual costs or earns more the longer it stays open. Size a perpetual position with leverage and liquidation in mind.
A cost-aware plan for a $1,000 position in ETH starts with the order type. Size the position at $1,000, and enter with a limit buy at or just below the best bid so it rests as a maker order. Set a stop below the price where your trade idea stops holding, and set a target far enough above entry to clear the costs of both legs. With first-tier Robinhood costs near $9.50 a side, a target worth less than about $19 on $1,000 only returns what the fees took. Exit with a limit sell where the order book allows, and count the network fee once if the ETH moves between venues. On the Perpetual, add the funding you expect to pay for the days you plan to hold.
The crypto-specific part of the plan is timing and transfer. Both venues trade 24/7, so choose a busy session when spreads are usually narrower, and move coins only when the network fee is small against the position.
Looking to trade ETH on BloFin? To get started, you'll need to first create a BloFin account, fund your account with cryptocurrency, and navigate to the ETH/USDT Spot trading page or the ETHUSDT Perpetual page.
Frequently asked questions
Do recurring crypto buys on Robinhood follow exchange routing?
A recurring order uses whichever routing setting is on in the app at the moment each order is placed. Switching your default from market maker routing to exchange routing moves future recurring orders to exchange routing, unless that coin is unsupported, in which case they stay on market maker routing. An order keeps its route once it is placed, though the next order can use a different one, so set the default before the next scheduled buy runs.
What is the smallest crypto order Robinhood accepts?
The minimum order is $0.01 on market maker routing and $0.03 on exchange routing. A balance below the minimum marketable order is called crypto dust, and it can be too small to sell. To clear it, buy enough of the same coin to lift the balance above the minimum, then sell the whole position in one order. Check which route the order will use first, since the exchange routing minimum is the higher of the two.
Can a Robinhood crypto fee tier drop right after an upgrade?
A tier upgrade is locked in for 7 days. During that week your tier can move up again but cannot move down, and the reduced rate starts with your first order after the upgrade. Lock periods can differ under special offers. Every tier upgrade triggers a push notice and an email, and fee tier status alerts in the app settings can warn you when you are close to an upgrade or a downgrade.
Which Robinhood platforms support only one routing option?
Robinhood's desktop trading product and the mobile crypto ladder use exchange routing only. Web classic uses market maker routing only. Mobile advanced charts use exchange routing and fall back to market maker routing for coins that exchange routing does not support. Exchange routing is also unavailable to North Carolina residents, who stay on the default route. The platform you trade on can therefore decide your fee model before you pick an order type.
Does the Robinhood Trading API count toward fee tiers?
Orders placed through version 2 of the Robinhood Crypto Trading API count toward your exchange routing volume, and they are charged the taker rate until maker and taker pricing is fully available. Orders placed through version 1 of the API are left out, and so are orders placed on web classic. Fees you pay are also excluded from the volume that sets your tier, so only the executed value of eligible orders moves you up.
When can I withdraw cash from a Robinhood crypto sale?
Sale proceeds are available right away for buying stocks, options, or more crypto. Moving them to a bank account follows the standard ACH (Automated Clearing House) settlement period, which can take up to 5 business days. Open Account, then Transfers, and read the pending deposits list to see whether earlier deposits are still settling. Plan a cash withdrawal around that window, since reinvesting the proceeds inside the app is available immediately.
Which exchanges fill Robinhood's exchange-routed crypto orders?
EDX Markets and Bitstamp USA are the partner exchanges on exchange routing. When one partner exchange is temporarily unavailable for a coin, the order goes to the next available exchange. The market makers on the default route are unnamed, since Robinhood Crypto does not disclose which firms fill those orders. Exchange-routed prices therefore come from those two order books, while the review screen's bid and ask remain the only price check you control on the default route.
Researched and written by the BloFin Academy editorial team with AI-assisted drafting. Updated September 2026. Primary sources: Robinhood Crypto order routing, Robinhood Crypto fee tiers, the Robinhood Crypto fee schedule, Robinhood Why do the crypto mid price and order price differ, Robinhood Buying and selling crypto, Robinhood Crypto transfers, Investopedia Bid-Ask Spread, and the Congressional Research Service brief on payment for order flow. All facts independently verified against cited documentation current as of September 2026.
This article is educational and general in nature, not financial or investment advice. Cryptocurrency prices are volatile, trading costs vary by route, coin, and market conditions, and fee schedules can change. Nothing here is a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any asset. Do your own research, and consider a licensed professional before making financial decisions. BloFin does not provide investment advice.