Gas eats small trades
Every on-chain operation pays a network fee, the gas. On Ethereum it can be several dollars; on Base or Solana, cents or less. With 100 dollars, high gas changes the outcome of the trade entirely.
Liquidity: where the market really is
That a token exists on a network does not mean you can buy there without moving the price. xStocks tokenized stocks, for example, exist on Ethereum, but their real market is on Solana. ARIA measures liquidity and volume on that network, not just the global figures.
A look at the four networks
- Solana: very low fees and home to almost all tokenized stocks.
- Base: a layer-2 network with gas of cents, good for tokens in the Ethereum ecosystem.
- Ethereum: the largest and the one with the highest gas; it pays off for large trades.
- BNB Chain: plenty of supply, but also many low-quality memecoins; its USDC is a bridged version.
How ARIA handles it
For each asset, ARIA quotes the buy and the sell, gas included, on every network where it exists, and picks the cheapest. In a recent measurement, the same token cost 0.15% on Base versus 1.61% on Ethereum, because of gas alone. Moving money between networks also costs, and that is accounted for in the test portfolios.
More networks, more risks
Each network adds its own risks: bridges between networks, different contracts, outages. In INVERSHA the product operates on Solana today; the multi-network comparison is part of ARIA's paper tests. More: what ARIA is and why Solana.
General information, not investment advice. Investing carries risk, including losing the money you put in.