P2P ViewMaker vs taker in P2P arbitrage: which side should you be on?
In P2P trading a taker accepts someone else's advert and a maker posts their own. How each earns, what each costs, which book a maker actually competes in, and how to combine the two in one bundle.
· 4 min read
Every P2P trade has two sides. The maker posted the advert; the taker opened an order against it. Which of the two you are changes almost everything about P2P arbitrage: your price, your speed, your fees and your risk.
The taker: fast, simple, pays the spread
As a taker you browse the book, choose an advert and trade at its price. When you buy, you pay the seller's asking price; when you sell, you accept the buyer's bid.
- Speed. The trade starts the moment you open the order. A taker-only bundle can be completed as fast as the counterparties respond.
- Price. You pay the spread rather than earn it. Your profit has to come from a gap between books — between exchanges, payment methods or assets — because inside one book the taker always buys high and sells low.
- Fees. On many marketplaces the taker pays no trading fee at all; check your exchange's current fee page.
- Control. You choose who you trade with, advert by advert.
The maker: slower, earns the spread, needs work
As a maker you post your own adverts and wait for takers to come to you. The arbitrage maker posts a buy advert just above the other buyers and a sell advert just below the other sellers, and keeps the gap whenever both fill.
- Speed. You wait. In a busy market it may be minutes; in a quiet one, hours.
- Price. You earn the spread instead of paying it, which is why makers can profit inside a single book where a taker cannot.
- Fees. Exchanges that charge P2P fees usually charge the maker, and the rate often depends on the currency.
- Work. Other makers undercut you constantly. Staying at the top of the list means updating your price throughout the day, and your coins or fiat are committed while the advert is live.
- Requirements. Some exchanges let anyone post adverts; others require a merchant application, a deposit or a trading history.
- Risk. You do not choose your counterparties — they choose you. A maker receives more payments from more strangers, which raises the risk of fraud and of a bank freezing the card.
The book a maker competes in is the opposite one
This trips up almost everyone at first, and it matters for any price comparison.
Marketplaces label their tabs from the taker's point of view. The "Buy USDT" tab lists sellers' adverts — what you can buy from. So when you, as a maker, post a buy advert, it does not appear in the "Buy" tab. It appears in the "Sell" tab, next to the other people who want to buy USDT, where takers who want to sell will see it.
That means:
- To price a maker buy advert, look at the Sell tab: you are competing with the best existing buyers, and you need to bid a little above them.
- To price a maker sell advert, look at the Buy tab: you are competing with the best existing sellers, and you need to ask a little below them.
Get this backwards and every maker price you calculate is wrong — and nothing will warn you, because both tabs show perfectly plausible numbers.
Combining the two in one bundle
A bundle does not have to be all maker or all taker. The common combinations:
| Buy leg | Sell leg | What it trades off |
|---|---|---|
| Taker | Taker | Fastest; you pay both spreads, so you need a real gap between books |
| Taker | Maker | Buy at once, then post a sell advert and wait for a better price |
| Maker | Taker | Collect coin cheaply over time, then sell at once where the bid is high |
| Maker | Maker | Earns both spreads; slowest, most work, most counterparties |
A taker leg is better when speed matters — when the gap you found may close, or when you do not want to hold the coin. A maker leg is better when the book is liquid enough that your advert will fill and the spread is worth the wait.
Which should you choose?
Start as a taker. It is simpler, it teaches you how books, payment methods and counterparties behave, and every mistake costs one trade rather than a day of exposure. Move to making when you know a market well, have the time to manage adverts, and have banking set up to receive many payments from strangers safely.
How P2P View handles maker legs
P2P View's bundle calculator lets you mark any step of a bundle as maker or taker. For a maker step it previews the opposite book — the one your advert would actually compete in — and prices the leg against the best advert there. Because a maker leg has no counterparty yet, the calculator says "your advert" rather than putting someone else's name on your order, and shows the advertiser you would be undercutting, labelled as such.
This article is for education and is not financial advice. P2P trading carries the risk of loss, fraud and frozen bank accounts, and the rules differ by country — check yours before you trade.
