On-Ramp Volatility and Sizing Mistakes

I've been playing around with various stablecoin on-ramps for some smaller scale merchant processing, and one lesson that hit hard involved underestimating the spread and slippage on what seemed like 'stable' conversions, especially during periods of higher network congestion. My initial sizing assumptions were based on theoretical swap rates, not real-world execution including gas fees and spread capture by the provider. It meant that for smaller transaction volumes, the effective cost per transaction ate a much larger chunk than anticipated, essentially making some of the early tests unprofitable until I adjusted my expected cost basis and sizing per transfer.