Minimum Sizes Where the Fixed Fee Stops Mattering

Every conversion carries a flat component. Below a certain size that component is most of the cost, and below a smaller size the conversion is not worth making.

The calculation

Decide what proportional cost you are willing to accept. Divide the flat cost by that proportion. The result is the minimum size worth converting.

At a three dollar flat cost and a one per cent tolerance, the answer is three hundred dollars. At a one per cent tolerance and a twenty cent flat cost, twenty dollars.

The table

Flat cost	Minimum at 1%	Minimum at 0.5%
$0.20	$20	$40
$1.00	$100	$200
$3.00	$300	$600
$10.00	$1,000	$2,000

Read down the column that matches your venue and network.

Why dust accumulates

Balances too small to move economically sit where they are. Across several assets and several venues, a meaningful total can be stranded in amounts individually not worth a transfer.

Consolidating these costs a fee per asset, which is exactly the problem that created them.

The practical handling of dust

Convert it inside the venue where the flat network cost does not apply, rather than withdrawing it. Internal conversions usually carry a spread and no network fee, which changes the arithmetic entirely.

Some venues offer a dust conversion specifically for this. Where offered it is almost always worth using.

Why the threshold moves

Network fees change hourly. A transfer uneconomic at midday can be economic at three in the morning, on the same network for the same amount.

For small amounts, timing the transfer to a quiet period is the single largest lever available.

What to know about your own setup

The flat withdrawal fee for each asset and network you actually use, and the venue’s internal conversion cost. Two numbers, checked once, that determine every small-amount decision afterwards.

Exchanges that price the network fee separately from the spread publish the first. A venue with a published conversion schedule publishes the second, and Collect & Exchange lists both per asset rather than as a single blended number.