Nexus Market fees: buyer, vendor, escrow, withdrawal
What the market takes at each step of a trade, and where the money sits while the trade is open. Numbers are the market's current published rates; if a profile or an announcement inside the market shows a different one, the market is the source of truth, because rates change and pages do not.
The fee table
| Step | Who pays | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Buyer fee, per order | Buyer | 2.5% of the order total. Waived entirely for buyers at level 2 and above. |
| Vendor fee, per sale | Vendor | From 1.1% for high volume, high rating vendors, up to 5% for new or low volume ones. The tier is visible in the vendor profile. |
| Listing a digital good | Vendor | Same vendor fee as physical. Digital listings can be single or multiple download copies. |
| Escrow hold | Neither | The order total sits in multisig escrow from payment to confirmation. The market does not charge for holding. |
| Withdrawal | Buyer or vendor | Network transaction cost only. No percentage on the withdrawal itself. |
| Referral credits | Neither | Referral programs grant fee credits, not cash. A referred account earns a fee reduction up to a capped amount in its early orders. |
What the 2.5% actually covers
The buyer fee is the market's main income, and it is the number to sanity check a vendor's price against. A vendor who lists at the market's price plus "service charge" is charging for the same escrow twice. It is a rare vendor and an easy one to spot: the order total on the checkout screen is the number the fee applies to, and anything above the listing price should come with a line item you understand.
The level system is why regular buyers pay less over time. Level 2 is reached at a modest order history and is the point where the buyer fee drops to zero. For anyone who buys more than a few times a quarter, the fee is not a recurring cost, it is an onboarding cost.
Escrow, the part that matters more than the fee
When you pay, the coins do not go to the vendor. They go into a multisig escrow controlled by the market and both parties. The release happens when one of three things occurs:
- You confirm receipt. You got the goods, you mark the order complete, the escrow releases to the vendor. This is the normal path.
- The auto finalize timer expires. Every order has a finalize window that starts when the vendor ships. If you do nothing by the end of it, the market treats silence as receipt and releases. The default window is set per vendor profile, commonly seven days, and the countdown is visible on the order. This is why "I forgot to confirm" is the most expensive sentence in the category.
- A dispute resolves. You open a dispute before the timer ends, the order locks, moderators look, and the release follows the outcome. Full refund, partial, or release to the vendor. The market's own moderation resolves most disputes within a day, and the disputed coins stay in escrow the whole time, not in anyone's pocket.
Withdrawals
Your balance withdraws to a Bitcoin address you enter in your profile. Two habits:
- A fresh withdrawal address per withdrawal. The address is visible to vendors during open orders. Reusing one links your orders to each other and to that address on the blockchain. New address, withdraw, done.
- Watch the confirmations, not the button. The withdrawal is queued when you submit it and moves when the network confirms. A queued withdrawal that has not moved yet is normal. A balance that shows zero while a withdrawal is queued is normal. Panic-sending a second withdrawal is how people pay the network fee twice.
What the market does not charge for
Browsing, without an account, is free. Reading vendor pages and feedback is free. Receiving order tracking, where the vendor provides it, is free. Opening the market through any of the three addresses costs nothing. If a page outside the market asks you to pay to "unlock" the link, the link was never locked.