In the digital asset trading market, participants can generally be categorized into two roles: Makers and Takers. Makers place orders into the order book and wait for them to be executed, rather than completing transactions immediately. For example, when you place a limit sell order to sell 1 Bitcoin at a price of USD 50,000, the order will be added to the order book and will only be executed once the market price reaches the specified level. Such orders inject liquidity into the market, enabling other traders to buy or sell Bitcoin at that price. Traders who choose immediate execution are considered Takers, meaning their trades directly match with and consume orders already placed by Makers.

To encourage users to provide market liquidity, exchanges typically offer more favorable fee rates for Maker trades. If you review ETZ’s fee structure, you will notice that the platform applies differentiated fee rates for Makers and Takers.

Definition of a Taker: When you submit an order that does not wait in the order book and is executed immediately by matching with existing orders, you are acting as a Taker. Whether the order is partially filled or fully filled, it is classified as a Taker trade. Market orders always result in Taker trades, as they are not added to the order book but instead directly “take” liquidity from existing orders to complete the transaction.

Definition of a Maker: When you submit an order (such as a limit order) that is partially or fully placed into the order book and waits to be matched, any subsequent execution of that order is classified as a Maker trade. These orders add depth to the order book and contribute to market liquidity, effectively performing a market-making function.

Important Notes:

Submitting a limit order does not necessarily guarantee that it will be classified as a Maker order.
If you wish to ensure that your order must be placed into the order book before it can be executed, you may select the “Post-Only (Maker Only)” option when placing an order. This feature is currently available only on the ETZ website and desktop application.

For more detailed information, please refer to the “Detailed Explanation of Makers and Takers” documentation.

What Are Makers and Takers?