How to use: RWA spreads
How spreads of stocks, metals and currencies differ from crypto — with examples from the service's spread history.
What RWA is on a crypto exchange
RWA are instruments on real-world assets: stocks, funds, indices, metals and currencies. On crypto exchanges they come in two kinds.
A contract on the asset's price. There is no asset behind it: a position can only be closed, there is nothing to withdraw. The exchange checks its price against the asset's quote.
An issuer's receipt for the asset — xStocks, Ondo, PAXG and the like. It lives on a blockchain and trades on DEXes and exchange spot markets around the clock, weekends included.
A spread on the page is the price gap of one ticker between two venues. One ticker does not always mean one asset — see the last case study.
The key difference from crypto — the price has a reference
A cryptocurrency has no price other than the exchanges' own prices. A stock does — the quote of its exchange. While that exchange trades, venues check against it and the spread between them stays narrow. When it is closed, there is nothing to check against.
Most RWA on crypto exchanges are US stocks, funds and indices. That is why the RWA spreads page has the "US exchanges" line above the table: which session is on and how soon the regular one opens or closes.
US trading day, UTC
- Overnight session 01:00–09:00
- Pre-market 09:00–14:30
- Regular session 14:30–21:00
- After-hours 21:00–01:00
- Regular session — venues share a reference, most of the trading happens.
- Pre-market, after-hours and overnight — trading is thin, and not every venue uses these prices.
- Closed — US weekends and holidays: no reference at all.
When the US changes clocks (second Sunday of March, first Sunday of November), every boundary shifts by an hour in UTC. The chart shows the current ones.
What our data showed
We went through the spread history from Saturday 24 to Tuesday 27 October 2026: the weekend, Monday's open and a working day. 344 RWA pairs are counted; 13 pairs where one ticker hides different instruments are covered separately, in the last case study. For comparison — 495 random crypto pairs.
of the time an RWA pair held a price gap of 0.5% or more. Crypto pairs — 5.2%.
than in crypto the gap reached 1%: 0.09% of the time versus 2.8%.
briefly diverged by 0.5% or more in the first hour of Monday's regular session — more than in any other hour. A usual hour sees about 11. Within an hour or two everything was back to normal.
share of time with a gap of 0.5%+ in the hour before the US overnight session started and in the three hours after: trading resumed — the gaps closed.
RWA pairs on the page at the weekend: some exchanges stop updating prices. Bitget — about a quarter fewer.
This is one weekend and two working days, not a law. The case studies below show what to look at, not what will happen.
Case studies
The strips cover three days, from Saturday 08:00 to Tuesday 07:00 UTC. The top strip is the US exchanges' phase, below are pairs: when their legs' prices diverged.
- Regular session
- Pre-market, after-hours, overnight
- Closed
- Gap 0.5–1%
- 1% or more
- No quotes
- Moment discussed
1. A token at the weekend: NKE
While US exchanges were closed, NKE perpetuals on every exchange stayed level: no pair of perpetuals diverged even by 0.5%. The NKE token on Jupiter kept trading at the weekend and drifted below them: below the OKX perpetual — almost 7 hours in total on Sunday. The last gap ended at 23:44, a quarter of an hour before the US overnight session started at 00:00 (dashed line). On Monday it was gone.
A weekend gap between a token and perpetuals is not one venue's mistake: the token trades, the perpetuals stand still. It closes when trading resumes and may hold for hours until then.
2. One exchange against the rest: IBB
Gate priced the IBB fund 0.5% or more above MEXC almost without a break from 17:32 on Saturday to 18:16 on Sunday — about 25 hours. MEXC and Bitget, whenever both traded, did not diverge from each other. On Monday the gap came back in the morning and ended at 13:29 — a minute before the regular session opened (dashed line).
If two venues agree and the third differs, the third one is off. Before treating a spread as an opportunity, compare the price with a third exchange: filter the page by the coin.
3. A stock from another country: LAOPU
Laopu Gold is listed in Hong Kong: its regular session runs from 01:30 to 08:00 UTC with a lunch break. On Monday, after Hong Kong had closed, Gate and Bybit diverged by 0.5% or more and stayed so for almost 11 hours — from 15:47 to 02:39. Before Hong Kong opened on Tuesday the gap grew to 1–2%, and an hour after the open (dashed line) it closed.
The "US exchanges" line tells nothing about such assets. Find out where the asset trades and follow the hours of its exchange.
4. One ticker, different instruments: XAU, OURA, H100
These pairs diverged by more than 1% for all three days whenever there were quotes: at the weekend and in the regular session alike. The prices show why — the legs trade different instruments.
| Ticker | Prices on 27 October, 08:05 UTC | Gap |
|---|---|---|
| XAU | gold perpetuals — about $4,010 on seven exchanges; the XAU token on Jupiter — $5,051 | +26% |
| OURA | Gate — $52.77; Bitget, KuCoin, OKX and LBank — $48.69–49.06 | +8% |
| H100 | OKX — $3.55; Bitget and Gate — $2.70–2.74 | +30% |
Such a spread will not converge: the legs track different assets. The sign is a gap of tens of percent that holds for days, the same at the weekend and on weekdays.
How to check a spread before entering
- Look at the "US exchanges" line. In the regular session venues share a reference; in pre-market, after-hours and overnight it is weaker. When exchanges are closed, a spread may hold until they open — case studies 1 and 2.
- Compare with a third exchange. Filter the page by the coin: if two venues agree and one differs, that one is off — case study 2.
- Make sure it is one instrument. A gap of tens of percent that holds for days almost certainly means different assets under one ticker — case study 4.
- Token or perpetual. A DEX token trades at the weekend, a perpetual does not (case study 1). A perpetual cannot be withdrawn, only closed.
- Not a US stock? Check the hours of its exchange — case study 3.
- Keep a margin buffer for the open. In the first hour of a session the legs' prices do not update at the same moment: on Monday 58 pairs briefly diverged.
Risks
- A jump at the open. After a weekend the price moves to a new level at once. Each leg's margin is on its own exchange: the losing leg can be liquidated before you top it up.
- No trading. At the weekend some exchanges stop updating RWA prices — there may be no price to close a leg at.
- Thin order books outside the regular session. The spread at the best price may not fill for the size you need.
- Tokens. Deposits and withdrawals depend on the issuer and the network; not everyone can redeem a token with the issuer.
- Dividends and splits. A token may account for dividends while a perpetual does not; on a split day venues recalculate prices at different moments.
Case studies are based on the service's spread history for 24–27 October 2026, times are UTC. This page explains how to read the numbers and is not investment advice.