Bitcoin Forum

Is it actually possible that bitcoins are actually cheaper (not by small margin) when bought in certain currencies or will the price for BTC across currencies self adjust throug exhange rate market force.

Price is same all over all currencies but there may be small % difference in price from one trading platform to another but if you are not doing arbitrage trading this difference doesn't matter a lot.

yes it is possible.
a while (2-3 months ago if I am not mistaken) back bitcoin was so much cheaper in USD than it was in Chinese money.


yes it will be adjusted accordingly reaching the balance eventually. the price can not stay different for ever.

the prices are actually various in every exchanger sometime in x echanger is quite high but the margin is not too far compared with y exchanger but the market will be following each other,you need to analyze every exchanger and see the price margins but don't expect that much,and the price is depend on the exchanger not on the currencies,correct me if i'm wrong

Yes it is possible, different exchangers have different prices for bitcoins. But we must take into consideration that the difference is not significant which means that big difference in prices comes only rarely. Traders usually do arbitrage as to where and what exchange they will buy or sell their bitcoins. Though the price difference is small but if we are talking of volumes it really matters.

I really depends o whic exchange to wherever in the world someone is using to change his btc to fiat. Let's just say maybe somewhere where rate of $ is low , there is also a possibility that bitcoin rate is lower compared to other because most exchange uses $ as a rate.

I don't think arbitrage margin in the currency against another  will be profitable enough if there is any

There is no such thing. What you wanna ask is arbitrage trading between the exchanges. 1 btc is ~630$, ~573€. Which one looks cheaper to you? € or $? If you collect your paychecks with €, $ is cheaper.

In any currency, the price of Bitcoin would be the same. I don't see any currency which you can use to buy Bitcoin in a much cheaper price. If there's one that exists, people should have always used it in the beginning. There would be some small difference when you convert a certain fiat currency into another but it's not enough to make some actual profit.

You could buy and sell between the currencies, if one currency strengthens against another, but the margin for arbitrage is so thin between these deviations that you will have to buy and sell significant amounts to make a decent profit. So you buy with € at a specific price and then sell for US Dollar, when the price dropped against the €. Is that what you want to do?

there will always be some small differences in any kind of market and the bigger the market the smaller these differences are and they will always last shorter too.

in short this is not something that is fixed, sometimes x is higher and sometimes x is lower you have to find it yourself.

and may i ask why you are interested in this?

Yes theoretically but more so about learning about btc than trading margin

Just learning more, no specific motives :) and thanks for the answers

the only way to truly measure it. is in comparison to minimum wage and also price of buying groceries.

EG
california minimum wage is $10 so for 60 hours of labour ($600) you can get ~1btc
Idaho minimum wage is $7.25, so for 82 hours of labour ($600) you can get ~1btc

trying to think about only the $$ as is is futile. because in most cases buying with uk pound us based on the exchange rate via dollars.

but if you think of it from minimum wage (£7.20)
UK minimum wage is £7.20, so for 67 hours of labour ($489.52=$600) you can get ~1btc
which out of the 3 examples make it "cheaper" to buy bitcoin in california, then UK, then idaho

ill let you do the maths for REAL VALUE. for all area's.. and not the fiat value based on fiat exchange
its also worth adding in the 'cost of living' metric to get a more defined real "cheap" list of places to live to get bitcoin

EG
fiat:
california min wage= $10, loaf of bread $2
idaho min wage= $7.25, loaf of bread $1.50

now imagine they asked each other for one hours labour.
Idaho gets $10 from cali' and can then buy 6.66 loaves.. = happy
cali' gets $7.25 from idaho and can only buy 3.625 loaves = not happy

btc:
california min wage= 0.01666666btc, loaf of bread 0.003btc
idaho min wage= 0.01208333btc, loaf of bread 0.0025btc

now imagine they asked each other for one hours labour.
Idaho gets 0.01666666btc from cali' and can then buy 6.66 loaves.. = happy
cali' gets 0.01208333btc from idaho and can only buy 3.625 loaves = not happy

Price differences might be due to the fact that there are capital controls against the currency bitcoin is traded in.
For example - just because bitcoin is say costlier in yuan terms doesn't mean that there is an arbitrage possibility.

it doesn't mean that but it is still possible.
it is not that profitable that you may think because the market balances out itself in a very short time and also because there are fees involved but there is always times that there is a bigger difference so balancing out takes time.

Always figured that bitcoin selling/buying would work on the same principle transacting with a currency exchange.
They ding you on either side of the sale and you end up with less no matter.
The edge seems to be slight and tricky to navigate for the common folk and that would be me.

Franky, I think he is referring to different currencies, not a single currency. In the USA a dollar is a dollar.. no matter where you spend it,

you will get the same amount of Bitcoin for it, no matter where you are. { If you are in California or Idaho, and you buy at exactly the

same exchange, you would get the same amount of bitcoins. } He wants to buy Bitcoin with the cheapest currency. Try the Zimbabwian

dollar. { Just joking...  you will still get the same amount, no matter what currency you use. } 

I dont think its possible that bitcoin rates can be different for different currencies because they are all connected to each other directly or indirectly so that would mean the same and hence the value will be the same and change equaly in every currencies because they are themselves proportional to each other.

As I know bitcoin has the same price in every kind of currency. In my currency (rub) 1 bitcoin cost like 40000 rub and in dollar 600$. And 600$ Cost as 40000 rub. So there is no difference.

There is price difference in every exchanger depending upon lots of things and one of it is the currency based on which bitcoin is being traded there as well as the payment method each trading platfrom have. So even if you find somewhere bitcoin cheaper you may get same amount of bitcoin due to deposit/withdraw fee that you will get from buying from other trading platform where price is quite higher. So basically there is no any good margin between buying bitcoin from exchanger with cheaper trading price.

i know what he was suggesting. but i was adding the real outside the box VALUE
EG if i shouted right now rupee is 1% cheaper.. by the time the OP reads it. its gone.
before the OP even got to convert dollar to rupee to then buy btc, speculation and arbitration has changed the value. now rupee is not cheaper

i mention this. because say you had $600(already earned).. it doesnt matter if you converted it to any currency in the world to then buy btc. because the small fiat<->fiat exchange rates do not offset the 'fee' to swap dollars to another fiat before even buying bitcoin.
arbitrage is speculative and only gets you small percentages if timed right.. because arbitrage/demand/supply equalizes the fiat <-> fiat +-1% and there is never a real stable currency to choose and stick with.

but say you are thinking about earning $600 a fortnight to later convert to btc
you want to actually move to a place that can get you "cheap" bitcoin. someone from cuba, UK, Idaho would be better off moving to california and they will see they have to work less to then get bitcoin.

now say you are willing to put 80 hours of sweat a fortnight into getting btc.
in cuba your 80 hours will get you 0.00666667btc
in california you will get 1.3btc

so based on the big picture. of ongoing bitcoin purchasing.. you will earn more btc moving to california.. or even, montana to earn fiat and buy bitcoin for the rest of your life.

No I Don't think that Bitcoin is Cheap in Any Country .
According to me It has Same Value in all Currency No Currency will Change its Price So I Don't think that Bitcoin Price Can Be Changed By Exchanging it to Some Other Currency....

Yes it's possible , if you use many exchange you can see the difference of the price some is lowest and some is highest but its almost the same only small amount  difference in any exchange.

They have almost the same price in every currency they only addapt to that currency like in euros you have:

1 BTC = 570,0€ (620$)

and in USD:

1 BTC = 633,2$ (582€)

and if you convert the prices they are almost the same the only thing is that in some currencies or countries you have taxes and that's the difference in price. Unfortunately.  :(

They are the same no matter what currency is that and maybe its possibe that price could be higher in the current price if you wanted to buy in a local exchange site(of course using your own local currency)but lower than the current price when your going to sell.

Interesting I had no idea the value changed from Euro to USD.

so true . it depends on the price of an exchanger. we find it difficult to get the lowest price. because almost all exchange has a price that is not far adrift. for me is getting exchange of reliable and safe. it is the most important thing.

No it depends also in law of supply and demand. For example every halving of bitcoin there is a certain matter that the bitcoin will rise the value and it is definitely double the previous value so it is a law of supply and certainly the currency of your country will definitely low in the value bitcoin therefore it is a law of demand.

that's right its always depend from what currency are we using and which currency we wanted to exchange our btc, i think usd is the main basis of its current price but going to our local exchanges we will need to stay on their current price as well.

Even in this calculation there is some price difference however there will be currency exchange fee between converting one currency to another so this small difference will not make bitcoin cheaper anyway.

The ex-changer is very important for the price no doubts about that, I think that its very important if I have to be honest.
The price is almost on every currency the same so that does not make sense at all ..

Well, like others, I think the price of bitcoin varies depending on the exchange site. But the difference isn't really that big. It's not about the currency its in.

But,prices at local exchanges may be higher/more expensive.
Like for my local exchange. Let's say at coinbase Sell 1 bitcoin = $630, but for my local exchange when converted to my currency it'll be Sell 1 bitcoin = $615 - $620. The currency conversion/exchange (fee/charge?) really takes out a lot. So in this case, when selling bitcoin, the value actually goes down. As for buying, it's more expensive.

Sorry frank, I don't agreed with your logic...
For example if this guys earn 1 bitcoin each other in gambling or something....
so Idaho = not happy and Cali = happy

Bitcoin have the same value, nothing with minimum wage... Just have difference between exchanges and it's very low because people do arbritage...

If you are thinking of arbitrage opportunities then I suggest you take a look at Localbitcoin's prices. Sometimes you could get cheap Bitcoins over there and sometimes you could sell at a premium. This is mainly because of the low volume of some trades created there but if you are patient and motivated you could make a decent profit. Notice the regulars there who have made over 1000 trades still active thru all these years. They must be making some money.

I just got this point, actually like the example if he are wanna for buying 1 btc for his pouch and asking about 579 euro for 1 btc and comparing the price buying in the another currency like USD and will got $630 for a btc. and if we are wanna for comparing what is more cheap between buying in the USD or EURO and the result are totally there is no gap of the price between buying in USD or EURO, and using the currency calculator EUR579 = USD630 = 1 BTC, and that's just not applied for both of the fiat currency but for all kind of the fiat currency.

You are making a point there, but I still think that there are somehow significance price difference in some instances. Believe me that is the advantages some people use to make huge profit in trading the currency. That little price difference matters alot to some traders.

I don't think so, the bitcoin price besides in USD is different in other currencies because the exchange rate between USD/CHF or USD/EUR is applied.

So if 1BTC costs 650 USD doesn't mean that the same rate will be in other currencies because it is depending of the stock market in fiat.

To the OP, since the bitcoin value is estimated in USD then in USD is the cheapest price comparing with other currencies.

It fluctuates all the time actually. Sometimes yen, sometimes yuan, sometimes USD. It eventually evens out though because that's when people take advantage of arbitrage.

The only differences bitcoin prices does have its at some exchanges where the difference can reach around 20- 50 dollars, but the thing is the price are a bit different if you have some capital you can play with those game.

Never checked, but I think in developed countries the bitcoin is more cheap because the accessibility and maybe lower taxes...

Anyone can confirm my theory?

I live in developed country seems like the price is same with other currency, however you can buy bitcoin here without tax so i think i might agree with you that bitcoin is more cheap here but price differences between my currency and others is not too far away, it must be tax charges or something that caused additional fee, that's why bitcoin in somewhere is cheaper than others.
Anyway i never checked the price differences before.

Price is not necessarly the same on all currencies but the margins are too small to make a profit I would say, it's like the margins between exchanges, it takes too much time to move coins from exchanges so its too risky to do arbitrage.

I do not think there will be people who want to launch an arbitrage with exchanges in various countries, because I think the advantage will be cut by the fee

NO.

All prices are equal, because the currencies themselves are equal of value at exchange rate.

SO 1 BTC = 664$ 
     1 BTC = 39315.11 RUBLES

BUT 664$ = 39315.11 RUBLES

So it will be the same, doesnt matter what currency you buy it in.

That's kinda interesting.  OP wants arbitrage opportunities, and I'm always kinda surprised when bitcoin sells for different prices on different exchanges.  Usually, like in stocks, those opportunities don't last for long because traders are always looking for and taking advantage of them.  In the bitcoin world somehow it seems that people aren't doing it...because the price discrepancies persist.  I wasn't aware that bitcoin was valued differently based on the currency.  It would seem that shouldn't be how it works.

I think a lot of the discrepancies between everything stem from the transaction times that exist, and if the transactions were immediate we would see a lot more people participating in arbitrage. It could simply be that a deal might exist at one point, but be gone soon after. Having transactions with >3 confirmation requirements means that we could see people waiting 30+ minutes.

The value of bitcoin in all kind of the currency are same and totally the developed or development country are not giving any effect for that. because the tax is just depending on the miner charge and the exchange charger. totally wrong in your statement.

where in the world did you find an exchange that accepts RUBLES?

and it is not right if you are just assuming the price in RUBBLES because if you check the exchange price in different currencies like USD, EUR, JPY, CNY,RUR that exchanges are offering you can see that there in fact is differences even when you change it from fiat to fiat that is why forex has been created!

https://btc-e.com/exchange/btc_rur

You are talking nonsense, prices are relative not absolute.

The value you are transfering is absolute   1 BTC = A *  USD = B * RUR = C * CNY = D* EUR ,etc etc

Where   A* USD = B* RUR, where the A/B is the USD/RUR rate and so on, but they all equal 1 bitcoin.

i am saying prices change so there is always going to be a difference between prices. you can check it online if you don't believe me.

1 BTC = $649.50 (from btc-e)
1 BTC = 551.04 GBP (from CoinsBank)
1 dollar = 0.81753 GBP (from XE)
which makes your A/B equation wrong

you can go to https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/bitcoin/#USD (it converts everything to USD) change the price to show the USD values and see the difference which is starting from $571.33 to $675.97

This is similar to thread that I've read from this forum months ago. The OP of that thread was asking in which country is gold the cheapest and that he was asking that to buy from a country that sells the lowest and then sell it to the country that buys the highest. One guy replied that even if there are differences with the price of the gold, if he were to travel into another country and sell it there, the transportation fee and all those stuffs will just be the same as the profit. Meaning, he'll not earn any money.

I think that can be applied here too. Even if there are small differences in the bitcoin's price in different currencies, you'll still not earn any profit doing it because of the exchange fee, transaction fee, etc.

you don't have to go there physically if you want to do the trade, these days everything is being done online and on exchanges. especially with digital currencies it is this way. you buy from one place and sell to the other all digitally and online.

the problem is not with the travel but as you said in the last part it is with the two things: the fees (trading fee and withdrawal fee) and the price difference (it is small)

Yes you are right, in the developing countries there are zero taxes on so many transaction that take place, I mean even normal transaction not to talk more of bitcoin that is not even known by most of the citizen. It does not attract attention to the government, so they do not even think of taxing people who are using bitcoins.

I do not think there are traders who want to make a profit or do these methods, even if they find the price difference in an exchange and they find the lowest prices on the site, but I'm sure the price difference will not be too great dude, and you will not be able to profit because you will get a big fee ?

Lol I think in any country, there is no given bitcoin transaction taxes dude. I think it makes no sense to be given taxes. even if you make a purchase and sale bitcoin in any country in any exchange you will not be given a tax. so the actual price difference is not about taxes This is pure arbitrage

very hard to find the cheapest. because almost all exchange rates have prices a little way. you would be futile, as some exchange that has a low price, even applying the withdrawal fee is very expensive.

Yes! it is very possible, As far as I know not all exchangers have the same price of bitcoin, there are some exchange bitcoin is too high and some are not, try to check the different exchange platform you will see the difference.

Yes! it is very possible, As far as I know not all exchangers have the same price of bitcoin, there are some exchange bitcoin is too high and some are not, try to check the different exchange platform you will see the difference.

From my point of view and my limited (but somewhat long) experience trading with Bitcoin, I think the most important factors is on the trading platform you use. For example, certain platforms have higher fees which result in seller or buyer trying to regroup their lost over another the other low-fees trading platform. One example is CoinHako who only accept SGD and MYR and they charge 0.9% for each transaction. OKCoin on the other hand only charge 0.20% fees for transaction. If I am right OKCoin China website do not have any trading fees at all - correct me if I am wrong.

TLDR; Most probably affect by the trading platform fees and what currency they accept. Not the currency itself.

actually i don't check one by one for all market, i only check with my country currency and with euro as euro is still the highest currency depend from all currency. and for the rate of bitcoin on each market, i think it will have little difference between all market. maybe i do this later to make sure the price and who know i can make arbitrage but i think its should not good because the time spending while we are transfer the fund from one market into other market.

bitcoin is for the same worth in every currency, when you same amount of bitcoin in to Dollar and then dollar into Euro it will have the same value if you convert the same amount from bitcoin in to Euro.