September's hero: Bitania
In September we ran 15 services through one identical test: 0.001 BTC → XMR, every single deposit made inside one fan-out transaction — same amount, same moment, same market. Identical swaps returned anywhere from +1.3% to −3.8% vs market.
Bitania came out on top of everything:
- Paid +1.3% ABOVE their own quote — the float upside was passed to the user, not pocketed
- The whole swap finished in 7 minutes
- A Letter of Guarantee issued for the swap
- For our users they hold a $50k OrangeFren Guarantee deposit
⚠️ BitXchange's shortfall
At the other end, BitXchange not only paid considerably below their promise, but also took 29 minutes:
- Their page quoted 0.13546921 XMR (Variable) → 0.13033374 arrived
- That's −3.8% after market adjustment — and the market was flat, nothing explains the gap
- Their homepage advertises 0.7% fees; our measurement says otherwise
0trace (−2.5%) looks similar, but isn't the same thing: their order page locked 0.14323674 XMR before the deposit and paid exactly that 🔒 — a locked rate honoured to the letter, no bait and switch.
What each service actually charged
Fee definition: measured against Kraken XMR/BTC at execution. 0% = swapping at market with no fee at all.
| Service | Actual cost of the swap |
|---|---|
| Bitania | −1.00% (paid above market) ✅ |
| CCE Cash | 0.62% ✅ |
| 0trace | 0.72% ✅ |
| PegasusSwap | 0.90% ✅ |
| Swapuz | 0.94% ✅ |
| SimpleSwap | 1.14% |
| Exolix | 1.15% |
| BitcoinVN | 1.69% |
| GhostSwap | 2.32% |
| StealthEX | 2.64% |
| Explace | 2.66% |
| WizardSwap | 4.24% |
| ChangeNOW | 6.11% |
| NanSwap | 6.68% |
| BitXchange | 10.49% ❌ |
Quick summary: Bitania sent us MORE than promised, CCE Cash, 0trace, PegasusSwap and Swapuz all stayed under 1%.
Methodology
All 15 swaps were 0.001 BTC → XMR, executed simultaneously and funded from a single fan-out Bitcoin transaction — one deposit tx splitting into 15 identical outputs. This removes timing luck from the equation: every service received the same amount at the same market price.
Our deposit transaction, for the skeptics: mempool.space/tx/1f007312…a0d5915
Fees were measured against the Kraken XMR/BTC rate at execution time, then adjusted for market movement during each swap window.
One plot twist we found on-chain: ChangeNOW and NanSwap paid us in a single Monero transaction — same tx hash, two amounts summed. Aggregators aggregating the aggregators.
What we recommend
For BTC → XMR today: Bitania is September's clear winner — they paid above their own quote, above market, in 7 minutes, with a Letter of Guarantee. CCE Cash, 0trace and Swapuz all delivered under 1%. Avoid BitXchange — 10.49% real cost is not a fee, it's a toll.
All of the above services can be compared and used directly through OrangeFren.com. We test, you trust — that's the deal.