Bid price
A bid price is the price a buyer is willing to pay for crypto. You’ll usually see the highest open bid, known as the best bid.
What is a bid price?
On a trading platform, buy and sell orders are often listed in an order book. It shows people who want to buy or sell. The highest buy order sets the best bid.
The bid price isn’t always the price of the most recent transaction. That price comes from an order that was already filled.
If you want to sell right away with a market order, your crypto is usually sold at the highest available bid prices. If your order is larger than the amount available at those prices, some of it may sell for a lower price.
An example of a bid price
Say there’s a buy order for 0.5 bitcoin at €50,000 per bitcoin, and it’s the highest bid. Then €50,000 is the best bid.
If you then sell 0.1 bitcoin with a market order, you’ll receive €5,000 before trading fees, assuming the orders haven’t changed. This is only possible while enough buy volume is available at that bid price.
Why is a bid price important in crypto?
The bid price helps you understand what price you might get at that moment if you sell a limited amount of crypto. It isn’t guaranteed: a buyer can cancel the order, or someone else can fill it first.
In crypto news, the term often comes up when discussing spreads and liquidity. Here, liquidity means how many buy and sell orders are available. The difference between the best bid and the lowest ask is called the bid-ask spread. The spread is part of the trading cost, in addition to any fees charged by the platform.
Bid prices can vary by trading platform and trading pair, because each order book has its own orders. A high bid price also doesn’t automatically mean the price will rise.
