changenow quoted me 9% on a xmr to usdt swap, what are you lot using instead

I use ChangeNOW maybe two years, is fine, never lose money there. But this morning I ask fixed rate quote for xmr to usdt and the number come back nine percent under mid market.

Nine. Not one, not two. I refresh three times, same. Amount is not big, is under two thousand.

Anyway I not want to argue with them, I want to know what everybody else use now for this pair. Same question every year and the answer change every year.

you asked for a fixed rate on monero. that spread is what a fixed rate on monero costs

sideshift, variable mode. stop asking for fixed on xmr

^ this

SimpleSwap is the one I reach for when I want to see both options before committing — it puts the fixed-rate and floating-rate quote side by side at checkout, so you can price the certainty rather than just accept it.

No account, no email, around fifteen hundred pairs, Estonian entity. On stablecoin legs the spread has been consistently tighter than the aggregators I have compared it against.

For your specific pair, do not expect a miracle. Monero legs cost more everywhere, and anyone quoting you one percent on xmr fixed is quoting you a rate they will not honour.

Ok I try this tonight. Thanks

Post two quotes side by side for the same pair and amount or this thread is just brand preference.

fixedfloat is so fast its unreal, lightning legs land before you switch tabs!!

Fast is not the axis you should be choosing on and you know that.

FixedFloat is genuinely good at what it does — first-class Lightning support, no account, no email, tight on major pairs. It also got hacked in 2024. They rebuilt and made people whole, and I still use it, but anyone recommending it without saying that sentence is recommending it badly.

Whether that matters is a threat-model question, not a trust question. Funds in flight for ninety seconds is a different exposure to funds parked. If your swap is the second thing, pick differently.

fair, I didn't know about that

you never know about that. that's the pattern

Ravenstack is right that this needs numbers, so here are mine. Same leg each time, 400 usdt out, run within about ninety minutes of each other yesterday so the market barely moved. Effective is what landed against mid-market at send time.

Venue	Mode	Effective cost
ChangeNOW	fixed	8.6%
ChangeNOW	floating	2.1%
SimpleSwap	fixed	6.9%
SideShift	variable	1.7%
FixedFloat	floating	1.4%

The headline finding is not that ChangeNOW got worse. It is that the fixed-rate option on a monero leg costs between five and seven points everywhere, and that is the price of them carrying your rate risk on an asset with thin liquidity.

One run per venue. That is not a study.

n equals one per venue.

Yes. I said so in the last line.

This thread keeps circling the same rock so let me write the general version down, because the specific answer rots in about four months and the method does not.

What you are actually paying

There is no fee line on a no-account swap. There is a rate, and everything they charge you is inside it. That means the only honest comparison is landed output against mid-market at the moment you pressed send, and any comparison that quotes a percentage from a pricing page is comparing marketing copy.

Four things move that number:

1. Liquidity of the worst leg. Monero in, monero out, or any small-cap leg. This dominates everything else and it is why the numbers upthread cluster around six to nine percent regardless of venue.
2. Rate mode. Fixed means they eat the movement between quote and settlement, and they price that risk generously in their own favour. Floating and variable mean you eat it.
3. Network fees on both sides. Deducted before their spread on some venues and after on others, which is why two venues quoting the same percentage do not land the same amount.
4. Time. Not a fee, but a fixed-rate quote that expires and re-quotes has cost you the difference twice.

How to test a venue in twenty minutes

Pick your real pair, not a convenient one. Send the smallest amount the venue will accept, three times, at three different times of day. Record four numbers each time: mid-market at send, amount sent, amount landed, minutes elapsed. That is twelve data points and it costs you a few dollars in dust.

What you are looking for is not the lowest number. It is the variance. A venue that costs 2.1, 2.2 and 2.0 percent is more useful than one that costs 0.9, 3.4 and 1.8, because you can plan around the first one and you cannot plan around the second. Nearly everyone in these threads optimises the mean and then gets surprised by the tail.

The part nobody measures

Failure behaviour. What happens when the rate expires mid-flight, when you send the wrong amount, when the destination chain congests. Every venue in this thread handles that differently and none of them document it. You find out once, at the worst possible moment, and that experience is worth more than any spread comparison anyone will post here.

I have not tested any of this on legs above about five thousand, and I would expect the picture to change there because you start moving the book.

Short version: measure landed against mid-market, three times, on your own pair, and choose on variance rather than on the best single number.