Sending Tether Bought with Won Abroad: How Much of ₩1 Million Is Lost?

The cost comes out not in one place but in three: the gap between quotes, the trading fee and the withdrawal fee are added one after another. Let us do a hypothetical calculation of putting in ₩1 million at prices as of the afternoon of October 8. The numbers keep changing, so please read this as a way to see the structure.

Tether (USDT) is a coin designed so that one coin is worth roughly one dollar. Its Korean price was about ₩1,365, and the KRW/USD exchange rate was about ₩1,342.

The ₩1,365 on screen is not the price you buy at

The order book has separate prices: the price buyers are offering (the bid) and the price sellers are asking (the ask). The gap between the two is the spread. The current price shown in large type on the screen is usually the last fill price, so it can differ from the price you would buy at right now.

Suppose the bid is ₩1,364 and the ask is ₩1,366. If you buy with a market order, it fills at the sellers' price of ₩1,366. That is ₩1 per coin more than the midpoint of ₩1,365; ₩1 million buys 732.06 USDT, so it comes to about ₩732. From here on, every cost is calculated at the midpoint of ₩1,365.

The trading fee comes out of the coins you bought

Assuming a fee rate of 0.05%, that is ₩500 on a ₩1 million trade. In coins, about 0.366 USDT, which is 0.05% of 732.06, is taken out, and about 731.70 USDT is left in your wallet. You can check the actual fee rate in the fee guide of the exchange you use.

The withdrawal fee is set in coins, not as a percentage

The withdrawal fee is the cost deducted when you send coins somewhere else. It is often fixed as a number of coins regardless of the amount, and it varies a lot depending on which network (transfer route) you choose. It shows up as soon as you pick a network on the withdrawal screen, so use that number.

Here we will assume 1 USDT. Subtract 1 from 731.70, and about 730.7 USDT arrives at the overseas exchange.

Added up, it is about ₩2,600

• Spread: about ₩732
• Trading fee: about ₩500
• Withdrawal fee of 1 USDT: about ₩1,365

The total is about ₩2,600, roughly 0.26% of ₩1 million. Multiply the 730.7 USDT that arrived by the midpoint of ₩1,365 and you get about ₩997,400, so the calculation adds up.

Because the withdrawal fee is fixed, the smaller the amount, the heavier the burden. The same 1 USDT is about 1.37% if you send ₩100,000, but less than 0.03% if you send ₩5 million. If you send small amounts in several separate transfers, this cost is repeated that many times.

Look at the gap with the exchange rate separately from the costs

Convert the same 730.7 USDT at the exchange rate of ₩1,342, and you get about ₩980,600. Taking Tether as one dollar, Korean price ÷ exchange rate − 1 is about 1.7%, and this is the Tether kimchi premium. It means the Korean price is that much higher than its value converted from dollars; it is not a fee the exchange takes but a gap in the market price itself. It changes from moment to moment, and you can see the current value on the Tether kimchi premium page.

So before you send, first add up the gap between the bid and ask in the order book, your fee rate and the fee for each network on the withdrawal screen. Write the premium down separately from that total and compare the two; that way the premium does not get mixed into your actual costs.