0-Gas Arb: Understanding Zero-Gas Arbitrage in Crypto Trading

When you hear 0-Gas Arb, a trading strategy that exploits price differences across exchanges without paying blockchain transaction fees. Also known as zero-gas arbitrage, it’s not magic — it’s smart use of layer-2 networks, rollups, and protocol-level fee subsidies to skip the usual gas costs that eat into profits. This isn’t just for whales. Even small traders can use it if they know where to look — and which platforms actually support it.

Gas fees, the cost to process transactions on blockchains like Ethereum used to be the biggest barrier to profitable arbitrage. A $50 fee on a $200 profit? That’s a loss. But with DeFi trading, automated financial systems built on blockchain that let users trade, lend, and earn without banks evolving, some protocols now cover gas for users. Think of it like a store paying for your parking so you’ll shop there. Platforms like Arbitrum, Optimism, and zkSync have built-in fee relayers or sponsor transactions through smart contracts. That’s where 0-Gas Arb lives — in the gaps between these subsidized chains and the ones still charging high fees.

It’s not about buying low and selling high on the same chain. It’s about spotting the same token priced at $1.02 on one layer-2 and $1.00 on another — then moving it instantly, with zero cost. The profit? A few cents per trade. Multiply that by hundreds of trades a day, and you’re talking real returns. But it’s fragile. One protocol changes its fee model, a liquidity pool dries up, or a bot competition spikes — and the edge vanishes. That’s why the best 0-Gas Arb strategies aren’t just technical. They’re observational. You need to track which DEXs are offering gas subsidies, which tokens are being moved between chains, and which projects are quietly paying for user activity to attract volume.

Most of the posts here aren’t about 0-Gas Arb directly — but they’re all connected. You’ll find guides on how blockchain transaction costs, the fees users pay to execute operations on a blockchain network affect DeFi yields, how fake airdrops trick people into paying gas for nothing, and why exchanges like MDEX or Pearl v1.5 failed because they didn’t solve the cost problem. You’ll see how rug pulls exploit users who can’t afford to wait for cheap gas, and how tax rules in Switzerland or Portugal ignore these micro-transactions because they’re too small to track. This collection isn’t just about trading tactics. It’s about understanding the hidden infrastructure beneath every crypto trade — and how the people who master gas costs end up winning, even when the market crashes.