AUGEA RESEARCH · ARCI v2 · CAPTURED APR 28, 2026
What it costs a retail buyer to acquire BTC across Tier A countries using card or bank transfer rails — captured Apr 28, 2026, snapshot-backed, methodology-frozen. The wider full-matrix coverage (every supported country × asset × rail cell) is enumerated as an appendix and as expansion-in-progress, so the headline claim and the coverage gaps stay readable side by side.
Methodology cycle: 2026-Q3 (frozen publication-window label per the v2 methodology — used for citation continuity, not a calendar-quarter claim) · Captured Apr 28, 2026 · Published May 2026.
What this edition can say
What this edition cannot say yet
AUGEA RESEARCH · ARCI v2 · CAPTURED APR 28, 2026
ARCI v2 enumerates the full coverage universe — every supported (country × asset × rail) cell — and labels each with one of four honest inclusion tiers: headline, appendix, tracked, or no_data_yet. Snapshot-backed; methodology-frozen per edition.
Estimates, not quotes. Coverage varies by exchange, country, asset, and payment method.
HEADLINE
Cells that clear the rankability + freshness + completeness thresholds for top-line claims. Every other cell is enumerated honestly under the appendix, tracked, or no_data_yet tiers.
APPENDIX
Real evidence captured but below the headline-claim threshold. Surfaced under the appendix tier with reason codes — not hidden, not promoted.
TRACKED · NO DATA YET
Cells we know exist but haven't finished capturing under the v2 methodology. ARCI publishes the gap honestly so coverage growth is auditable across editions.
The headline benchmark below cites only cells that clear the headline thresholds. Appendix cells carry real evidence with MID/LOW confidence labels. Tracked and no-data-yet cells make coverage gaps auditable across editions — they do not contribute to any benchmark conclusion.
Headline benchmark-ready
9
cells
Appendix-ready
11
cells
Tracked but not benchmarked
884
cells
No usable data yet
20
cells
Reading guidance: each row below is the cross-exchange retail cost band — low to high — for buying BTC in a single Tier A country on a single rail at the captured snapshot. The rows support claims like “in this country on this rail the observed cost band was X–Y%”. They do not support a universal global ranking, do not generalise to other assets or rails, and do not single out individual exchanges by name.
Cells passing all four headline thresholds (≥ 5 distinct exchanges, ≥ 5 rankable rows, FRESH freshness, tight cross-exchange range < 0.4 percentage points). Confidence tier: HIGH.
| Australia | BTC | bank | 0.20% | 0.20% | 5 |
| Germany | BTC | bank | 0.20% | 0.10% – 0.20% | 5 |
| France | BTC | bank | 0.20% | 0.10% – 0.20% | 5 |
| United Kingdom | BTC | bank | 0.20% | 0.20% | 5 |
| Netherlands | BTC | bank | 0.20% | 0.10% – 0.20% | 5 |
| Poland | BTC | bank | 0.20% | 0.10% – 0.20% | 5 |
| Sweden | BTC | bank | 0.20% | 0.20% | 5 |
| Singapore | BTC | bank | 0.20% | 0.10% – 0.20% | 5 |
| United States | BTC | bank | 0.20% | 0.10% – 0.20% | 6 |
Appendix rows clear the appendix threshold but not the headline threshold — wider cross-exchange range or partial coverage. Confidence tier: MID. These cells are visible for coverage transparency, never as headline conclusions, and never as recommendations.
| Canada | BTC | bank | 0.30% | 0.30% – 0.80% | MID |
| Poland | BTC | card | 1.40% | 1.20% – 1.60% | MID |
| Germany | BTC | card | 1.50% | 1.20% – 1.70% | MID |
| France | BTC | card | 1.50% | 1.20% – 1.70% | MID |
| United Kingdom | BTC | card | 1.50% | 1.20% – 1.70% | MID |
| Netherlands | BTC | card | 1.50% | 1.20% – 1.70% | MID |
| Sweden | BTC | card | 1.50% | 1.20% – 1.70% | MID |
| Australia | BTC | card | 2.10% | 1.60% – 2.80% | MID |
| United States | BTC | card | 2.10% | 1.70% – 2.60% | MID |
| Singapore | BTC | card | 2.30% | 1.90% – 2.60% | MID |
| Canada | BTC | card | 4.90% | 4.10% – 5.60% | MID |
Stablecoins are route infrastructure, not benchmark peers. ARCI v2 surfaces them in a separate slice with separate methodology. In Phase 1 every cell is tracked with reason stablecoin_route_slice; per-cell entry/exit cost data lands in a future edition.
48 cells across 12 Tier A countries × 2 rails × 2 stablecoins.
Every supported cell appears in the dataset with its honest tier and readiness bucket. Hiding cells behind silent drops is forbidden. The audit-grade buckets below come from the deterministic FIL-017 readiness audit, which separates active tracking from methodology-gated holds and from true coverage gaps so each is read for what it is.
12 COUNTRIES × 18 ASSETS × 2 RAILS = 432 CELLS
What users experience on /buy and /cheapest. Tracking is active across every cell; the dominant active-tracking bucket is awaiting per-cell snapshot-backed readiness wiring before promotion.
FULL MATRIX — 924 CELLS
The full country-tier × asset-tier × rail-tier landscape including Tier B / Tier C countries and Tier 2/3/4 rails. Methodology-gated cells are intentionally held back by doctrine (FIL-010 / FIL-012 / FIL-013) until ratification.
The 904 tracked and no-data-yet cells across the full matrix, grouped by reason code. Each reason has a dictionary definition; expand a row to see the per-country breakdown.
Per country
Per country
Per country
Per country
Per country
Per country
Per country
Per country
Total tracked + no_data_yet · 904 cells
Full per-cell matrix in the dataset pack — every supported cell enumerated with its country, asset, rail, inclusion state, reason code, and readiness bucket.
Tier definitions, threshold rules, reason-code dictionary, claim boundaries.
Full-matrix dataset; every supported cell as a row.
Safe headline claim snippets, attribution, license note.
Retained for citation continuity. Slug and edition: 2026-Q2 metadata are frozen to preserve external citations.
Series map, methodology principles, and other published editions.
Estimates, not quotes. Aggregate-only — no per-exchange named comparison. Phase 1 ships the full-matrix infrastructure; the appendix tier expands in Phase 2 when per-asset and per-local-rail ingestion data clears the appendix threshold. Survey-derived findings are governed by a separate contract and do not appear in ARCI.
Augea, Augea Retail Cost Index v2 — 2026 Q3 Edition (Augea Research, 2026), https://augea.io/reports/arci-v2-2026-q3, accessed [DATE]. CC-BY-4.0.