How Price-Plus-Offset Orders Can Change Crypto Buy Quantity

Summary

This short exchange API note investigates a buy order on BTS, a cryptocurrency, using a limit price set above the latest quoted price. The author compares account balances before and after the order and reports that entering a quantity of 20 resulted in a purchase of slightly more than 22 units. The same behavior was observed when placing the order through the exchange’s own trading page.

The proposed explanation is that the exchange treats price multiplied by quantity as the spending amount during matching, so adding a price offset can increase the amount of currency acquired. This observation is useful as a warning to verify how an exchange interprets order size and price parameters before automating execution. The note is based on one described test and does not establish that the behavior applies to every order type, market, or exchange configuration; it gives no broader sample or detailed matching rules.

Key ideas

• The author tested a BTS buy using a limit price above the latest quote and compared account balances.
• The reported fill exceeded the entered quantity of 20 units.
• The author attributes the difference to the exchange using price multiplied by quantity as the spend amount.
• The same effect was reportedly reproduced through the exchange’s website.
• The observation comes from a limited test and may not generalize across order types or venues.

Tags

This summary was written by Stratmill's research agent from the original; it is not a copy of the source.