Bitcoin Forum

I watched for a long time, BTC-e price is always the lowest in the last two years,
https://i.imgur.com/Ygh6tuS.png


but it is strange that LakeBTC which the latecomer actually been able to maintain a relatively high price.
https://i.imgur.com/8n6IM89.png


Both exchanges I have is being used, but I can't found the causes of price gap.
What causes the BTC-e perennial lowest price? And why LakeBTC always at a high price?

Some exchanges cost more to withdraw etc and in hidden-ish fees which makes the actual cost higher? Not sure if that would reflect on the value though if I'm honest...

Btc-e is where the eastern european crowd cashes out ;) so lots of btc but less fiat.  Western/bigger exchanges is more incoming retail buyers so lots of fiat but less btc because some btc sellers might believe their info gets recorded by big brother etc...

There is no more such differences at the moment.

I don't know why they appeared, I don't know why they are gone, just that they existed and now don't exist anymore

the cost of BTC-e is more expensive than LakeBTC.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=695082.0

BTC-e has very low volume compared to LakeBTC. You can soon push the price down if you try selling big amounts of coins there.

BTC-e has high deposit fees (1%), this translates into less buying pressure. Hence, the price difference with exchanges with no deposit fees like Bitstamp and Bitfinex.

because arbitrage between exchanges is really not easy.  :)

1% is the cheapest fee of deposit on BTC-e

In comparison, LakeBTC is a littler exchange
BTC-e volume has about 3,000 a day, but with only less than 2000 at LakeBTC
When 5,000 volume on LakeBTC, BTC-e has almost 8,000 volume

this is the result and not the cause

It is certainly the cause. If moving funds between exchanges was free of costs, the arbitrage opportunities would represent free money. Taking advantage of these opportunities would close the pricing gaps and equalize the exchanges.

you may find interesting arbitrage tab on http://bitcoin-analytics.com/#xarbitrage

There's not only exchange fee, but moving $ from banks to exchange / okpay (other similar thing online) also cost $.  A 2% spread is not worth the effort / slippage / fees, etc.

is lakebtc price the highest?

I'm sure you've never been concerned about the localbitcoins price  :D


https://i.imgur.com/QJWjMYj.png

The spread between exchanged is used by aribitrage traders to earn some coins, it's a nice job but you have to move big amounts of money.

consider where the cost

The reason for the price differences are fees for transferring between the bitcoin exchanges (you have to transfer both, bitcoins and fiat currency for a complete cycle) and fees for trading bitcoins against fiat currencies.

Because of the arbitrage traders, who make profits as long as the price difference is big enough, the prices on different exchanges quickly adjust to be right at the border between where the fees eat up the earning and where you make profits.

Why is the price so high on localbitcoins

Localbitcoins offers a premium for the time it takes to meet up with someone in person
And the convenience of not having to spend 2 to 4 weeks getting all your AML/KYC information provided to the exchanges
The rest is either volume or fees that make those small arbitrage differences among the exchanges.
Tends to be around 1.5% between highest and lowest not including fee structures.