Trading fee
OPALE charges a flat 5 % operator fee on buys and sweeps. There’s no fee on sells, no fee on sends, no fee on withdrawals. The trading fee is shown explicitly in the receipt before you confirm.
Fee structure
Section titled “Fee structure”| Action | Operator fee |
|---|---|
| 🛒 Buy | 5 % of the BTC you spend |
| 🧹 Sweep floor | 5 % of the BTC you spend |
| Limit buy when it fires | 5 % of the BTC spent at fill |
| 🏷️ Sell (manual or limit) | None |
| 📨 Send Tokens | None |
| 📨 Send BTC | None |
Network fees (Bitcoin miner fees) are separate and paid in BTC at the current rate. See network fee.
How it’s taken
Section titled “How it’s taken”OPALE’s 5 % is not added on top of the trade. OPALE rebuilds the seller’s transaction at settlement time and inserts a flat 5 % fee output paid to OPALE, alongside your inputs and change.
In short:
- The seller’s transaction is signed in a way that fixes only the seller’s input/output pair. Anyone settling the trade can add their own inputs, modify change, and add or remove other outputs without invalidating the seller’s signature.
- OPALE inserts its flat 5 % fee output, adds your inputs and a change output, signs and broadcasts.
The seller still receives exactly what their listing said — their signature is untouched. The marketplace database still tracks the listing as filled. The only thing changing is which fee output the buyer-side transaction carries.
Worked example
Section titled “Worked example”For a buy where the cheapest listings sum to 0.01 BTC of seller payment:
- Seller receives: 0.01 BTC (untouched — their signature is unchanged)
- Operator fee (5 % of seller payment): 0.0005 BTC
- Network fee: depends on current network conditions, deducted from your inputs
- You spend: 0.01 BTC + 0.0005 BTC + network fee
What’s not in the trading fee
Section titled “What’s not in the trading fee”- Network fee — paid to Bitcoin miners. Variable. See network fee.
- Postage — the small BTC carried by token transfers. Doesn’t apply to 🛒 Buy (only 📨 Send Tokens). See deposits → postage.
What about referrals
Section titled “What about referrals”If you came in via a referral link, part of OPALE’s 5 % gets shared with the person who referred you (35 / 30 / 25 % of the operator fee depending on their tier). You pay the same 5 % either way — the referral split happens on OPALE’s side after the fact.