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I run a rate comparator at swapquotes.dynv6.net/swap/. Every five minutes it asks three no-account exchanges for floating quotes: ChangeNOW, Exolix and StealthEX. SideShift is listed too, but it has Monero turned off. The site carries affiliate links, so an exchange may pay the site when someone uses it.
The data runs from 2026-10-05 10:07 to 2026-10-08 07:02 UTC, about 2.9 days. Each direction has 816 rounds, about one every five minutes. Each round quotes a small amount and a large amount, ten times apart. The small amount is 0.005 BTC or 1.5 XMR. The site labels the small BTC amount "about $400". I did not check that, so amounts are in the coin. These are quotes, not executed swaps.
- Cheapest means the highest payout in that round.
- Spread means (best minus worst) divided by best, in the same round. There is no mid-market price in the data, so spreads are against the best quote, not mid-market.
Results
| Direction, amount | Exolix highest | StealthEX highest | ChangeNOW highest | Spread median | Spread p90 |
| BTC to XMR, 0.005 BTC | 98.5% | 1.5% | 0% | 1.50% | 1.60% |
| BTC to XMR, 0.05 BTC | 71.4% | 2.1% | 26.5% | 0.42% | 0.57% |
| XMR to BTC, 1.5 XMR | 99.0% | 0% | 1.0% | 1.25% | 1.37% |
| XMR to BTC, 15 XMR | 97.9% | 0% | 2.1% | 0.41% | 0.53% |
Each row covers 816 rounds with no ties at the top. Exolix returned no quote in 12 BTC to XMR rounds and 8 XMR to BTC rounds.
Three numbers:
- At the small amount, Exolix was highest in 98.5% of BTC to XMR rounds and 99.0% of XMR to BTC rounds.
- For 0.005 BTC into XMR, best and worst differed by a median of 1.50%. The 90th percentile was 1.60%.
- Exolix's reported minimum was 4.0 to 4.4 times the others'. For BTC to XMR, the median minimum was 0.000573 BTC, against 0.000139 (StealthEX) and 0.000142 (ChangeNOW).
Size
A larger amount narrowed the spread. For BTC to XMR the median fell from 1.50% to 0.42%, and the large amount was narrower in 810 of 816 rounds. For XMR to BTC it fell from 1.25% to 0.41%, narrower in all 816 rounds. For BTC to XMR, ChangeNOW's median gap to the best fell from 1.50% to 0.10%. StealthEX's fell from 1.23% to 0.36%.
Time of day
I found no time-of-day effect on the spread. In 4-hour UTC blocks, the median BTC to XMR spread at the small amount stayed between 1.38% and 1.40%. Across all 60 directions, each block stayed within half a percent of that direction's median.
A change at the large amount
On 5 and 6 October, ChangeNOW often beat Exolix at 0.05 BTC. Before 21:30 UTC on 6 October it was highest in 206 of 424 BTC to XMR rounds (48.6%). After that, it was highest in 10 of 392 (2.6%). From 7 October on, it won 2 to 3% of rounds in every 8-hour block. At the small amount it was never highest. I do not know the cause. It could be a rate change at ChangeNOW or the timing of quote updates.
Stability
At the small amount, Exolix was highest in 98% to 100% of rounds on every day. The BTC to XMR median spread stayed between 1.49% and 1.51%.
The site's 7-day leaderboard gives the same totals across all 60 directions: Exolix was highest in 15,253 of 17,681 rounds (86.3%).
Limits
- About three days, in one period. Market conditions and exchange behaviour can change.
- Quotes, not executed swaps. The exchange sets the final rate when the deposit arrives.
- No mid-market reference, so the spreads understate cost against mid-market.
- Two amounts, ten times apart. I did not test other sizes.
If you have compared quotes against swaps you executed, I would like to know how far apart they were.