Spot trading competitions look very tempting, but you must know these facts before participating.

**Rule changes are crucial**

The minimum entry barrier used to be at least 500U to have a safety net. Now? The new rules only offer rebates to new users—that is, users who have traded spot before basically no longer get this benefit. Market competition is already fierce, with market makers pumping volume, project teams taking the opportunity to dump tokens, and ordinary players caught in the middle, feeling uncomfortable.

**Cost is the key factor**

To participate in the competition, you need to calculate the costs carefully. Paying fees with BNB can get a 7.5% discount, which sounds significant, but the key is the rebate ratio. Without a rebate of over 35%, you basically can't make money. The minimum capital should be over 5000U to participate effectively.

Here's a typical example: Someone shows off a Christmas event reward of 5BNB, with a trading volume threshold of 10.61 million. Let's calculate the cost: 10.61 million × 0.00075 = 7,957U in fees. The reward part is 5BNB, which at the price of 940U at that time equals 4,700U.

Now, look at the returns:
- 30% rebate: 7,957 × 0.7 = 5,569U, 4,700 - 5,569 = -869U (loss)
- 40% rebate: 7,957 × 0.6 = 4,774U, 4,700 - 4,774 = -74U (break-even)
- 50% rebate: 7,957 × 0.5 = 3,978U, 4,700 - 3,978 = 721U (profitable)

This is a rare case where it overlaps with other activities; to do better, your account should have at least $15,000 to get higher rebates.

**Hidden true costs**

Most altcoins require hedging operations. Just showing rewards without mentioning costs is misleading. Take BREV as an example: 10,000 rewards exchanged for 1,500U, which is just the minimum fee spent—most accounts will spend around 1,600 to 1,800U. If you calculate fees at 1,800U, you also need to prepare an additional 4,000U for volume boosting, and all new tokens need to be hedged at the right time.

For ordinary small players, at least 5,000U must be invested in a trading competition to ensure smooth volume boosting. Plus, considering slippage costs (which vary greatly across trading pairs), if slippage is too high and rebates are low, it results in wasted effort or even losses.

**How to make money**

The only stable way is to earn through rebates—that's the 100% profitable route. Instead of participating in competitions, it's better to become a top-tier player, relying on rebate tiers for long-term gains.