When buying or selling on a cryptocurrency exchange, you will sometimes see the words 'maker' and 'taker' used to determine how you are charged for your transaction. These terms relate to how high or low your trading fees will be on some of the most popular exchanges in the world – including advanced accounts with Coinbase and Gemini. In this article, we explain the difference between maker and taker fees, and how much you can expect to be charged with each across five of the most popular cryptocurrency exchanges.
When do you need to pay maker or taker fees?
Most cryptocurrency exchanges only use a maker-taker fee model for those with advanced or pay-to-use accounts, such as Coinbase Pro or Gemini’s ActiveTrader. The standardised fees for using an exchange (usually dictated by the volume of cryptocurrency you are trading) tend to be much higher, so investors that make regular or large transactions may find that switching to one of these advanced accounts with a maker-taker fee model could save them a significant amount in usage fees.
What is a maker fee?
Put simply, a 'maker' fee is the charge applied to your transaction if your order adds liquidity to the market.
Usually this applies when you place an order for a cryptocurrency, which is not immediately fulfilled and deposited into your wallet (such as a limit order, in which you do not buy or sell until the cryptocurrency you have ordered has reached a specified price). Your transaction then sits 'on the books' waiting to be completed, adding liquidity to the market and demand for a certain price point. A maker fee is charged on these types of transactions because the buyer is effectively 'making' the market demand for the cryptocurrency in question.
Maker fees are typically less expensive than other fees as exchanges want to encourage buyers to generate liquidity, which is often treated as an indicator of market interest, and so they offer lower fees to incentivise customers to help 'make' the market. The downside to playing the role of a maker is that your order will likely take longer to complete than an instantaneous trade, but you have the benefit of only completing your transaction once the cryptocurrency reaches your specified price point.
What is a taker fee?
A 'taker' fee will be applied to your order if the transaction 'takes' liquidity away from the market.
This is typically the case with instantaneous transactions, such as a market order paid with a debit card (in which your order is placed and executed immediately using the market value at the point of purchase), because your order is fulfilled instantly. The immediacy of this type of transaction often comes with a higher fee because you are 'taking' the order you want, as soon as you place it, without driving demand for a particular price point as you would with a 'maker' transaction.
Ideally, you want to play the maker role to incur the lowest fees, but if you’re looking for speed and convenience then you will need to pay a bit extra for a taker order.
The cheapest maker and taker fees
Maker and taker fees differ between different cryptocurrency exchanges, but maker fees are almost always less expensive, as a maker transaction benefits both yourself (in fulfilling your order) and the exchange itself (by driving market interest). We’ve listed the maker and taker fees from four of the most popular cryptocurrency exchanges to show you how much the amount can differ, and where to access some of the lowest charges.
| Exchange | Maker Fees | Taker Fees |
| CEX.IO | 0.00%-0.16% | 0.10%-0.25% |
| Kraken | 0.00%-0.16% | 0.10%-0.26% |
| Gemini | 0.00%-0.25% | 0.03%-0.35% |
| Coinbase | 0.00%-0.50% | 0.00%-0.50% |
Is cryptocurrency taxable in the UK?
Yes, cryptocurrency is subject to tax in the UK. Anyone who lives in the UK and holds crypto assets – such as Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies – is taxed on the profits they make from them, but only when they exceed the annual CGT (Capital Gains Tax) tax-free allowance. These profits (or 'gains') must be recorded and reported to HMRC as part of an individual's self-assessment tax return. The tax-free allowance, and the amount of tax you must pay, differs depending on which type of tax HMRC decides applies to you.
Capital Gains Tax on cryptocurrency explained
The tax which most investors have to pay on cryptocurrency is Capital Gains Tax (CGT), and is calculated as a percentage of the difference between the price you acquired your cryptocurrency for and how much you sold it for, i.e. the profit you make from trading it.
You only need to pay CGT on your cryptocurrency holdings if your overall gains exceed the annual tax-free allowance, which is £3,000 for the 2026/27 tax year. If your gains remain below this threshold, you will not be liable to pay any CGT at all. This also means that if you do not actively trade any cryptocurrency, you will not need to pay CGT, as it only applies to your gains, not your holdings themselves.
For example, if you were to purchase £5,000 worth of Bitcoin and not conduct any transactions with it over the course of the tax year, you would not need to pay any CGT. However, if you purchased £10,000 worth of Bitcoin and sold it at a later date for £30,000 (amounting to £20,000 in gains), you would be liable to pay CGT on the amount of your gains which exceed the tax-free allowance. Therefore, although the first £3,000 of your gains is tax-free, you would have to pay CGT on the remaining £17,000 you profited above this threshold.
The amount of CGT that you pay is different depending on which tax bracket you fall under.
The advantages and disadvantages of cryptocurrency
The popularity of cryptocurrency is based on a number of advantages that make it more attractive to some than traditional money, but there are a number of disadvantages that need to be considered carefully:
| Advantages of cryptocurrency | Disadvantages of cryptocurrency |
| Low fees - One of the reasons why cryptocurrency has proven so popular around the world is that there are very few, and generally low, fees associated with using it. However, fees do fluctuate depending on demand. | High volatility - Most cryptocurrencies are extremely unpredictable. The value of traditional money such as USD or GBP often changes slightly day by day, but rarely enough to dramatically impact its utility as a payment option. Cryptocurrency value can plummet at very short notice and could leave you stranded with much less to your name than you had just a few days, or even hours, earlier. |
| Independence - Cryptocurrencies are not subject to an overarching authority such as a government or financial institution. In theory, this means that cryptocurrency can remain stable even in the face of political turmoil that might affect the value of traditional money. In reality, they tend to reflect investor risk sentiment in traditional assets such as equities. | Potentially endless supply - Although most cryptocurrencies boast a limited supply of coins, which helps to keep their value as stable as possible, there is nothing to stop the launch of new cryptocurrencies which could tilt the supply-demand scales and cause the value of existing cryptocurrencies to fall due to sheer volume. |
| Ease - As awareness increases, there are increasingly more avenues for you to use and spend cryptocurrency, most of which are linked to a mobile device so you can access, spend or trade your cryptocurrency wherever you are in the world. | Limited acceptance - While there are increasingly more ways to store, spend or sell cryptocurrency, there are still far fewer options than with traditional money. Until it catches up, you could find yourself struggling to use your cryptocurrency as a form of payment in day-to-day life. |
| Security - Traditional money is increasingly at risk from cybercrime, but cryptocurrency's strong encryption methods often make it safer than usual payment by protecting your personal information. The caveat to that is that exchanges have been hacked in the past and investors have had their Bitcoin stolen. | Unregulated - Some see cryptocurrency's independence from banks to be a significant advantage, but it equally leaves your digital assets vulnerable to exploitation without the regulation or monitoring provided by traditional financial institutions such as the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). The anonymity that cryptocurrency offers also means that it is increasingly used for illegal transactions. |
| No financial protection - As buying and selling cryptocurrency is unregulated, investors do not receive any financial protection from the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). | |
| Storage security - Cryptocurrency cannot be physically carried around in your wallet and accessed simply by opening it like traditional money. Digital wallets require the use of a password, and should you forget what that is, the encryption used in cryptocurrency storage means it would be impossible to recover. |
More on cryptocurrency
For more information on what cryptocurrency is and how it works, check out our beginner's guide, and make sure to find out what a crypto wallet is and how to mine cryptocurrency. You should also read our step-by-step guide on how to buy Bitcoin. Finally, make sure you are aware of the risks. Crypto-assets are highly volatile and there is little or no financial protection if things go wrong. Investing in crypto-assets is suited to sophisticated investors who understand the associated risks and are prepared to lose all the money they invest in cryptoassets. Read our article How cryptocurrency is regulated in the UK for more information.
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