This guide explains how spreads are formed on the Kinesis Exchange and what supports liquidity across markets.
What is a spread?
The spread is the difference between the highest buy price (best bid) and the lowest sell price (best ask) in the order book.
On the Kinesis Exchange, spreads are not fixed or set manually. They are determined by live buy and sell orders placed by market participants. When bids and asks sit close together in price, the spread is narrow. When order activity is lighter, spreads may widen.
This is standard behaviour on an exchange which uses an order book model, where users place limit and market orders, and pricing is formed from live bids and offers.
Spreads on the Kinesis Exchange are:
- Determined by user-generated buy and sell orders
- Influenced by order book depth and trading activity
- Fully visible in real time within the exchange interface
Users can review current market depth and bid–ask spreads directly via the live exchange view at any time.
1. Limit Order Book Model
The Kinesis Exchange operates a central limit order book, where:
- Users place limit orders to buy or sell at a chosen price
- Users place market orders to execute immediately at the best available price
- Orders are matched using price–time priority
Because pricing is formed directly from visible bids and offers, spreads reflect real-time supply and demand.
Users can see the full order book and recent trade activity by logging in to their Kinesis account.
2. Order Book Depth & Market Activity
Liquidity refers to how much volume is available at different price levels in the order book.
Greater depth, meaning more buy and sell orders across price levels, generally supports tighter spreads and smoother execution. When multiple participants place competitive limit orders near the current market price, the bid–ask gap narrows naturally.
The Kinesis platform supports trading across numerous markets, including gold (KAU) and silver (KAG), leading digital assets, and stablecoin pairs. Active participation contributes to visible depth within each order book.
3. Minting & Circulating Supply
The Kinesis system includes a minting process of creating digital, gold-backed (KAU) or silver-backed (KAG) digital assets, whereby physical gold and silver can be converted into gold (KAU) and silver (KAG). Once minted, these assets can be traded on the exchange.
This process introduces additional circulating supply into exchange markets, contributing to available bids and offers within the order book.
4. Transparent, Real-Time Verification
Spreads and liquidity can be assessed directly through the live trading interface.
Kinesis provides access to a guest view of the exchange, where users can view:
- Best bid and best ask prices
- Full order book depth
- Recent trades
You can view the Kinesis guest exchange here.
Because spreads change continuously based on market conditions, the live order book provides the most accurate and current measure of pricing and liquidity.