Skip to content
Trenchpilot
Get started
ProLesson 7 of 7 · 3 min read

Why fees decide who wins

A 1% fee on every buy and sell over 100 trades, worked out in SOL, plus the break-even rise every trade needs and how to pay less.

On this page
  1. 100 trades at 1%
  2. Break-even: how much a coin must rise
  3. Ways to pay less
  4. Quiz

A 1% fee sounds like nothing. On one trade it nearly is. But memecoin traders do not make one trade. They make hundreds, and the fee is charged on every buy and on every sell.

100 trades at 1%

Example

The same 1 SOL, a hundred times

You have 10 SOL. You trade 1 SOL at a time, 100 times. Each trade is a buy and a sell, and your app charges 1% on each.

  1. Step 1: 100 trades means 200 fills: 100 buys and 100 sells.
  2. Step 2: Each fill costs about 0.01 SOL, so platform fees come to about 2 SOL.
  3. Step 3: Add 0.002 SOL of priority fee and tip per transaction: 200 × 0.002 = 0.4 SOL more.
  4. Step 4: About 2.4 SOL, almost a quarter of your 10 SOL, is gone even if every coin ended exactly where you bought it.

Now the harsher version. Say you put your whole stack into every trade. Each fee eats a little of what is left, and the next trade starts smaller.

Fee on each buy and each sellYour 10 SOL after 100 flat round trips
0.5%3.67 SOL
1%1.34 SOL
2.25%, a 1% app on a 1.25% bonding curve0.11 SOL
Prices never move in this example. Every bit of the loss is fees.

Break-even: how much a coin must rise

You pay on the way in and again on the way out. So a coin has to go up just for you to stand still.

Total cost on each sideRise needed to break even
1%2.0%
2.25%4.7%
2.45%5.1%
4.25%9.1%
4.25% is a 0.1 SOL trade on a bonding curve through a 1% app, with 0.002 SOL of priority fee and tip each way.

Look at the last row. A small trade with normal priority fees and tips costs far more in percent. That is a big part of why tiny trades so often feel like they never work.

The costs on one tradeA bar for one buy. Most of it reaches the coin, and six slices come off the end: the network fee paid to Solana, which is tiny; an optional priority fee so validators pick your transaction first; a tip some apps add to land the trade faster; the trading app's platform fee on each buy and sell; the fee the coin's launchpad or pool takes on every swap, part of which often goes to the coin's creator; and slippage, the price moving against you before you fill. You pay them again when you sell. Not to scale.One buy, and what it costsWhat reaches the coinNot to scaleNetwork feePaid to Solana for every transaction. Tiny.Priority feeOptional extra so validators pick yours first.TipA bonus some apps add to land the trade faster.Platform feeThe trading app's cut of each buy and sell.Pool or launchpad feeThe launchpad's or pool's cut, part to the creator.SlippageThe price moving against you before you fill.You pay them again when you sell.
Every layer of the stack is paid twice on a round trip: once to get in, once to get out.

Ways to pay less

  • Trade less often. The cheapest trade is the one you skip.
  • Size trades so fixed fees are a small share. Paying 0.002 SOL to move 0.05 SOL is 4% before anything else.
  • Use auto or low priority fees when nothing is racing you.
  • Compare platform fees, and use a referral code where it really cuts your rate.
  • Watch launchpad fees. The same coin can cost more to trade on its curve than later in a big pool.
  • Close empty token accounts to get their deposits back.

Fees are a quiet drag that every winning trade has to pay off first. They are a big reason active traders who pick only average coins still end up behind. Whoever you trade with, Trenchpilot included, find the fee per trade and add it to your stack before you decide.

Look up any fee word in the glossary

Check what you learned

0 of 4 answered

  1. Question 1TrickyYou make 100 trades of 1 SOL, each a buy and a sell, with a 1% fee on every fill. Roughly how much do you pay in platform fees?
  2. Question 2With 2.25% of costs on each side, how much must a coin rise before you break even?
  3. Question 3TrickyYour whole 10 SOL goes into every trade, prices stay flat, and you pay 1% each way. Roughly what is left after 100 round trips?
  4. Question 4Which single habit cuts the most fees for a very active trader?

Finished reading? Tick it off and your progress is kept in this browser.

This guide is for learning. It is not financial advice. Most memecoins go to zero and most people who trade them lose money. Only ever trade what you can afford to lose.