Finding 1 · Country gap
Canada is 3.50× Poland on matched card medians.
Augea Research · Edition 1 · Q2 2026 · Next: July 2026
The Retail Crypto Cost Gap
A $100 retail BTC buy costs about 3.50× more in Canada than Poland on matched card routes. Every number here is reproducible from public country-level snapshots.
3.50×
Canada median card cost is 3.50× Poland on this benchmark slice.
- Canada median
- 4.90%
- Poland median
- 1.40%
Three findings
Finding 2 · Rail gap
Card routes run 9.67× bank routes across country medians in this slice.
Finding 3 · Coverage
All 10 countries measured on both rails with 18 matched assets each.
Headline ratio
3.50×
Canada vs Poland · card rail
Coverage
10
countries · card routes 10 · bank routes 10
Comparable assets
18
per country for matched card and bank slices
What this means
The gap isn't about which exchange you pick. It's about where you buy from.
Retail users in different countries can face materially different estimated buy costs even when the base scenario is held constant. Country and payment rail often matter more than people expect.
The card-versus-bank gap is structurally consistent across countries in this slice. Card rails cluster around 2.03%; bank rails cluster around 0.21%. That holds even in countries where overall cost is well below the median.
This is a benchmark, not a price quote. It supports evidence-backed comparisons and route choices while staying out of causal claims about why the spread exists.
Claim boundary
Canada median card cost is 3.50× Poland in this benchmark slice (BTC, $100), with ranges 4.1%+ vs up to 1.6%.
Truth source: Live country summaries (card + bank) · Latest captured /cheapest snapshot (Q2 2026) · adapter cheapest-country-summary-truth/v1
What this proves
- Cross-country retail buy-cost dispersion is visible in the live country summaries.
- Card and bank rails show materially different country-level medians.
- The selected headline ratio is reproducible from published country medians.
What this does not prove
- Do not claim causality from this benchmark alone.
- Do not claim the ratio holds for all amounts, assets, or future snapshots.
- Do not present these values as guaranteed execution prices.
Country benchmark tables
| Card rail | Median | Range |
|---|---|---|
| Canada | 4.90% | 4.10%–5.60% |
| Singapore | 2.30% | 1.90%–2.60% |
| Australia | 2.10% | 1.60%–2.80% |
| United States | 2.10% | 1.70%–2.60% |
| Germany | 1.50% | 1.20%–1.70% |
| Bank rail | Median | Range |
|---|---|---|
| Canada | 0.30% | 0.30%–0.80% |
| Australia | 0.20% | 0.20%–0.20% |
| Germany | 0.20% | 0.10%–0.20% |
| France | 0.20% | 0.10%–0.20% |
| United Kingdom | 0.20% | 0.20%–0.20% |
On-site Chart pack
Selected pair comparison
On-site summary of the claim-gated pair at $100 baseline. Use the press page for the hero stat card export.
Canada
4.90% · $4.90 on $100
Poland
1.40% · $1.40 on $100
Country ladder (card rail)
Country medians for card routes in this benchmark slice.
- Canada4.90%
- Singapore2.30%
- Australia2.10%
- United States2.10%
- Germany1.50%
- France1.50%
- United Kingdom1.50%
- Netherlands1.50%
- Sweden1.50%
- Poland1.40%
Solid bar = median · light range = observed low–high · 18 comparable assets per country
Country ladder (bank rail)
Country medians for bank routes in this benchmark slice.
- Canada0.30%
- Australia0.20%
- Germany0.20%
- France0.20%
- United Kingdom0.20%
- Netherlands0.20%
- Poland0.20%
- Sweden0.20%
- Singapore0.20%
- United States0.20%
Solid bar = median · light range = observed low–high · 18 comparable assets per country
Card vs bank delta by country
Percentage-point difference between card and bank median costs within each country.
- Canada+4.60%
- Singapore+2.10%
- Australia+1.90%
- United States+1.90%
- Germany+1.30%
- France+1.30%
- United Kingdom+1.30%
- Netherlands+1.30%
- Sweden+1.30%
- Poland+1.20%
Dispersion range (card rail)
Low–high observed range per country on a shared percentage axis. Bars show the range; solid dots mark country medians. The dashed guide highlights where the lowest-country range ends.
Canada
4.90%
Singapore
2.30%
Australia
2.10%
United States
2.10%
Germany
1.50%
France
1.50%
United Kingdom
1.50%
Netherlands
1.50%
Sweden
1.50%
Poland
1.40%
Cost %Median
0%
1%
2%
3%
4%
5%
6%
7%
Non-overlap guide: Poland range tops out at 1.60%; Canada range starts at 4.10%.
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