How a grid makes money when BTC goes sideways

A grid does one simple thing. It places a ladder of buy and sell orders at even steps across a price range, buying a slice each time price drops a level and selling a slice each time it rises one. As long as price keeps moving back and forth, every buy low, sell high round trip earns one level’s spread.

Take the spot BTC grid on Binance, which splits its range into 48 levels. The tighter the levels, the less each one earns and the more often they fill. When BTC trades sideways it often crosses several levels back and forth in a single day, and those small spreads add up to the grid’s return.

Grids don’t mind chop. What hurts them is a one-way move.

Below the range. The grid has been buying all the way down. Once price leaves the range it stops buying, you are left holding BTC, and the position shows a loss until price comes back.

Above the range. All the BTC has already been sold to USDC, so any further rise passes you by. You don’t lose money, but you miss that part of the move.

So before picking a grid, look at whether BTC has been moving back and forth inside a range or heading in one direction. The first suits a grid better. Every grid’s detail page lists its range, number of levels and profit per level, so you can compare.