How RemitRoutes Calculates the True Cost of International Transfers

All-in cost = (mid-market rate × send amount − receive amount) / (mid-market rate × send amount) × 100. This captures both the explicit transfer fee and any hidden FX markup in a single comparable figure. Both provider types — traditional fintechs and crypto/stablecoin rails — are ranked on the same basis.

Data sources

Traditional providers are quoted via the Wise Comparisons API, which returns live, new-customer web quotes for the amount and corridor you request. Crypto/stablecoin rails are measured from live order books and withdrawal fees on local exchanges (CCXT + custom REST scrapers), refreshed every 6 hours. That is an important distinction: traditional numbers are quotes a provider is showing right now; crypto numbers are prices observed on public markets.

Data licence (CC BY 4.0)

All datasets published by RemitRoutes — corridor-level cost data, weekly snapshots, monthly index reports, and study downloads — are released under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0). Free to use, share, adapt, and republish, including commercially, with attribution to RemitRoutes and a link to remitroutes.com.

How to cite

APA format for studies: RemitRoutes Data Desk. (YYYY). [Study title] [Dataset]. RemitRoutes. https://remitroutes.com/data/studies/<slug>

APA format for weekly reports: RemitRoutes Data Desk. (YYYY). Stablecoin Sandwich Cost Report — week of YYYY-MM-DD [Report]. RemitRoutes. https://remitroutes.com/data/weekly/YYYY-MM-DD

Methodology changelog

• 2026-09-30 — Cost index moved to all-in-vs-mid basis. Both provider types now use (mid × send − recv)/(mid × send) × 100. Traditional costs are typically 0.3–1.5 pp higher under the new basis.
• 2026-09-30 — All published datasets relicensed to CC BY 4.0.
• 2026-09-30 — latest_rates view DISTINCT ON key extended to include send_amount, fixing a band-collapse bug.
• 2026-06-16 — History pipeline launched. /api/history now accessible.

Data Hub · studies · compare rates.