Bitcoin Forum

Economy => Exchanges => Topic started by: Ganglo Saxon on October 23, 2017, 01:39:42 AM



Title: Bitcoin Prices on Different Exchanges
Post by: Ganglo Saxon on October 23, 2017, 01:39:42 AM
Why do different exchanges (And reporting sites) have different BTC prices?  In regular WSJ stocks, the price of Stock X is the same price no matter where you are seeing it (As long as it's up to date).  Prices right this moment on BTC range from $5985 (Blockfolio) up to $6020 (Coinbase) depending on the exchange or reporting app/site.


Title: Re: Bitcoin Prices on Different Exchanges
Post by: HCP on October 23, 2017, 03:58:38 AM
It is natural that different exchanges have different prices as they are effectively separated markets. None of the exchanges are "linked" together.

So while two people might exchange BTC for $6100.00 on Bittrex, setting Bittrex's current price to $6100.00... on another exchange, say Poloniex, two users may be exchanging Bitcoin for only $5900.00, setting Poloniex's current price to $5900.00

There are also latency issues, by the time to you move from one site to the other to check, trades will have occurred further changing the price.


Title: Re: Bitcoin Prices on Different Exchanges
Post by: HeRetiK on October 23, 2017, 03:49:40 PM
Why do different exchanges (And reporting sites) have different BTC prices?  In regular WSJ stocks, the price of Stock X is the same price no matter where you are seeing it (As long as it's up to date).  Prices right this moment on BTC range from $5985 (Blockfolio) up to $6020 (Coinbase) depending on the exchange or reporting app/site.

A BTC range of USD 5985 vs USD 6020 is a price disparity of 0.58%. Depending on the liquidity of a stock you'll see similar price disparities on traditional markets as well. It's largely a matter of how effectively market participants can arbitrage between exchanges with a given title, no matter if its a stock or a crypto-currency.