Study ID
card-vs-bank-2026-04
Methodology · Frozen specification · v1.1.0 · Card vs Bank Study
Card vs Bank BTC Buying Cost Gap Methodologyv1
Every headline ratio in the Card vs Bank Study is produced by a fixed pipeline on paired exchange data. This page is that pipeline, frozen for this edition, designed for citation and verification.
Version
v1.1.0
Published
2026-04-15
Window
April 2026 snapshot
Baseline
BTC · $1000 · US
Data source
First-party exchange fee schedules
How the study works
The study pairs card and bank costs on the same exchange, computes the ratio, and publishes the paired rows without any weighting tricks.
Step 1
Exchange catalog
Enumerate tracked exchanges from the shared catalog; require both card and bank to pair.
Step 2
Cost model
For each exchange, read low and high fee, low and high spread from the deterministic fee model.
Step 3
Midpoint ratio
Average the four inputs, compute card divided by bank midpoint, sort descending.
Step 4
Publish
Report, methodology, dataset, and press assets are derived from the same study build.
Pairing rule
An exchange only enters the paired sample if it offers both card and bank for BTC buys.
Cost metric
Midpoint of low and high fee plus low and high spread, per exchange and method.
Ratio
Card midpoint divided by bank midpoint. Sort descending by ratio.
Same-exchange slice
BTC · US · $1000 baseline. No country or exchange weighting.
Country slice
Per country: cheapest card option vs cheapest bank option. No aggregation across exchanges.
Current median ratio
12.00x across 21 paired exchanges
- Card higher than bank on 20 of 21
- Ties on 1 exchanges
- Bank beats card in 13 of 13 countries
What this can support
- The observation that card typically costs materially more than bank on the same exchange.
- Order-of-magnitude framings on the same-exchange paired slice.
- Country-level claims that cheapest bank beats cheapest card.
What this does not prove
- No causal explanation for why card rails cost more.
- No ranking of exchanges by quality, reliability, or trustworthiness.
- Withdrawal fees, network fees, and FX conversion costs are not included.
- Not a guaranteed execution price.
Definitions
- Midpoint cost percentage
- Average of low and high fee plus low and high spread for a given exchange and method, divided by two.
- Paired exchange row
- An exchange that offers BTC buys on both card and bank, with both costs modeled. The ratio is card divided by bank midpoint.
- Country cheapest row
- Per country, the single cheapest card exchange and the single cheapest bank exchange, ignoring the rest.
- Extra on $1,000
- Delta in dollars for a $1000 BTC buy at the paired gap.
- DCA annual extra
- Median gap compounded across 12 monthly purchases at the chosen monthly contribution.
How to cite
Augea, Card vs Bank BTC Buying Cost Gap — Augea Data Event (April 2026), https://augea.io/reports/card-vs-bank-study, accessed [DATE].
Augea. (2026). Card vs Bank BTC Buying Cost Gap: Methodology (v1). https://augea.io/methodology/card-vs-bank-v1
@misc{augea2026cardvsbank,
author = {Augea},
title = {Card vs Bank BTC Buying Cost Gap --- Methodology (v1)},
year = {2026},
url = {https://augea.io/methodology/card-vs-bank-v1},
note = {Accessed [DATE]}
}