For newcomers entering crypto markets, one of the first confusing discoveries is that the same coin can trade at different prices across exchanges at the exact same moment. A token quoted at $1,000 on one platform might appear at $1,010 on another. This discrepancy often raises suspicion: Is one price wrong? Is one exchange manipulating markets? In reality, price differences across exchanges are not anomalies — they are structural features of how decentralized, fragmented mar