Bitcoin Forum

Hi, why is bitcoin priced differently for different exchanges?
Does it matter because of number of people buying bitcoin?
I mean my exchange where i am is priced a bit high i think, which is weird, and i am trying to understand why.
The coinmarketcap site showed the same btc price in usd 1-3 days ago and the exchange i use is now all of a sudden valuing it a bit more higher, i just dont get it.

Because all exchanges have their own user base and all buy/sell orders are different throughout the exchanges because of different reasons.

No it doesn't matter much as price difference between exchanges is very thin.

Which exchange site you are talking about? Fee for deposits/withdrawals, total funding methods exchange supports, how many active traders platform have all can affect the price of BTC there.

The reason why it is different on all exchanges is the volatility of the value of bitcoins that allows it not to be "fixed" or "stuck" at levels determined on each exchange.


I think no, but everyone has their own targets and the values at which the coins get sold are different on each exchanges, and where some exchanges decide what rate to let the traders buy and sell, some exchanges allow traders to decide the value.


Explained everything above.


Coinmarketcap gives an average of all the exchanges' rates by comparing each.

Some people (or bots!) use arbitrage (https://www.investopedia.com/terms/a/arbitrage.asp):
Arbitrage reduces the price differences again, but to be able to do so, you need to have funds on several exchanges at the same time.
If you notice a price difference without having funds on the exchanges, you can't profit from it. Depositing dollars or Bitcoin takes time, and by the time it arrives prices can be different already.

Less than 2 weeks ago I sold some Bitcoin Cash at Kraken at 0.5BTC, while the price at Bittrex already dropped to 0.3BTC. I was lucky because of 2 things: I had Bitcoin Cash on Kraken at the moment, and Kraken's website was highly overloaded, which caused the lag in price drop.

I would  love to know which exchanges i can use for my currency.
I use ZAR as my currency.

I was told to get a polon...;kraken...;yobit  , but i dont understand why , because they dont support ZAR as far as i know?
Would you be able to tell me what i am missing and what i can do to make use of those exchanges?

Thanks for the replies.

Most of the exchanges we talk about here are US / EU based exchanges and they'll accept only USD or EUR.
There are also Russian or Chinese exchanges which are not on your list, they accept RUR or CNY.
That's where most money flows and that's what everybody talks about. It's an English forum after all.
I am from Romania. There are very few exchanges that accept RON, I've found them on my local board.
Look for people from your country, ask around, maybe you find something. Google for: south africa site:bitcointalk.org
Or check for localbitcoins, a website that allows in most countries such exchanges, just take extra care, since scams can also happen there.