Visible spread versus capturable spread
A price difference between venues is only an opportunity if you can transact both sides and move value between them within the window. Withdrawal times, network congestion, transfer fees, and per-venue KYC limits routinely consume the entire gap.
Pre-positioning is the actual strategy
Operators who capture basis reliably hold inventory on both venues in advance, so the trade is two simultaneous local executions rather than a transfer. This converts a latency problem into a capital-allocation problem — the capital is the cost of admission, and it is idle most of the time.
Why the easy version is gone
Simple two-venue arbitrage on major pairs is competed to the millisecond by firms with co-located infrastructure. What remains for a smaller operation is the slower, structural basis — perpetual versus spot, or between venues with genuinely segmented user bases — where the constraint is capital and operations rather than speed.