Market Order
An order to buy or sell a digital asset immediately at the best available current price.
What is Market Order?
A market order executes instantly at prevailing prices from the order book, prioritizing speed over price certainty. On Coinbase, placing a market buy for $100 of BTC fills at the lowest asks available, potentially spanning multiple levels if volume is insufficient at the top. These are always taker orders, removing liquidity and incurring higher fees, like 0.5% on some exchanges.
In volatile markets, market orders risk slippage; for example, a large sell might execute below expectations. Protection collars, like Coinbase’s 10% limit, prevent excessive slippage. Unlike limit orders, market orders guarantee execution but not price.
Related Terms
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HTTP 402 Payment / x402 Protocol
A standardized HTTP response code and protocol for requesting and processing digital asset payments.
Core Personal Consumption Expenditures (Core PCE)
A variant of PCE excluding volatile food and energy prices to gauge underlying inflation trends, favored by the Fed for policy decisions.
Funding Rate
A periodic fee exchanged between long and short traders to balance market positions.
DLT
Distributed Ledger Technology - a decentralized digital system for recording transactions across multiple computers, ensuring security and immutability.
Bridge
A protocol or service that enables the transfer of digital assets or data between two distinct blockchain networks, such as moving ETH from Ethereum’s mainnet to a Layer 2 scaling solution.