Is crypto scalping profitable? We tested 264 settings
Buy at the floor, sell at the ceiling, take the first small profit. Scalping feels like it works because most trades win. We tested it on six major coins with real fees, in 264 versions, and it lost money in every recent test.
What we tested
Floors and ceilings found on 1, 5 and 15 minute charts, buying near a common floor and selling near a common ceiling, then exiting the first minute the trade was in profit after fees. We varied the number of touches, required a bullish candle in quiet markets, and tried stops at different distances. Coins: BTC, ETH, SOL, BNB, XRP and DOGE. We also tried bigger levels on 1 hour, 4 hour and daily charts.
Why winning most trades still loses
- One loss erases 5 to 12 wins. Taking the first small profit makes wins small. Waiting for a stop makes losses large.
- Fees take the rest. A futures round trip costs about 0.1% before slippage, so a trade needs that much just to break even.
- Floors do not predict direction. At a two hour floor, price broke through within an hour 38% to 67% of the time, depending on how many touches it had, so the level held about as often as it failed.
- Bigger amounts scale the loss. More trades and bigger size multiply a negative average, they do not fix it.
A high win rate is not an edge. What matters is the average result per trade after fees.
What held up instead
Across all our tests, no strategy on minute or hour charts passed. The ones that did were slow. See them on our strategy results page.
Questions
Is crypto scalping profitable?
Not in our tests. Support and resistance scalping on 1 to 15 minute charts won 70 to 80% of trades but lost money after fees, because one average loss erased 5 to 12 average wins.
Why do scalpers lose money?
Small wins, larger occasional losses, and fees on every trade. A futures round trip costs about 0.1% before slippage.
Does a higher win rate mean profit?
No. A strategy can win most trades and still lose money if the losses are bigger than the wins.
What timeframe works best for crypto?
In all our tests, nothing on minute or hour charts passed after fees; what held up was slow and spread over many positions. Trading carries risk.
See every test we ran
Grid bots, RSI, scalping and more, with the few approaches that held up. Then try Treo with 10,000 practice USDT, no sign up.
See the strategy results Try the demo