BTC-E price difference

[Bitcoinismoney]

Is there a reason why the price on BTC-E is so much lower than the other exchanges?  It's currently trading at $1018 while Bitstamp is $1054.  The Chinese exchanges are even higher.  Couldn't someone just buy on BTC-E and sell on Bitstamp?  I'm assuming I'm missing something so if someone could explain this to me it would be much appreciated!

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[deadsilent]

I think it depend on what location you are on or the place of the exhange. Its also depends on the demand of bitcoin in a country. BTC-E i think their base is from Bulgaria and Bitstamp is from Slovenia. These two are different in locations and different on demands of bitcoin. I think thats the reason why the price of bitcoin on BTC-E is different compare to other exchanges.

[asuryan180]

Of course you can buy from the one place and sell on the other,you just have to be fast enough to do it and if you are,then you can make some decent profit doing that,but bear in mind that there are some processes I think which have to be made before you can take your profits so it's better if you research the platform's policies before taking the step into trading so you don't end up stuck

[Pursuer]

Is there a reason why the price on BTC-E is so much lower than the other exchanges?  It's currently trading at $1018 while Bitstamp is $1054.  The Chinese exchanges are even higher.  Couldn't someone just buy on BTC-E and sell on Bitstamp?  I'm assuming I'm missing something so if someone could explain this to me it would be much appreciated!

I am not completely sure about the reason why there is such a big difference and I also have noticed it before. maybe lack of volume?!

but also no it is not possible to do arbitrage trading with btc-e and other exchanges such as bitstamp because the fiat deposit and withdrawals are extremely expensive there. you can check out their page on fees for more information https://btc-e.com/fees and that always makes it non profitable with this much difference.

[SourThunder]

Is there a reason why the price on BTC-E is so much lower than the other exchanges?  It's currently trading at $1018 while Bitstamp is $1054.  The Chinese exchanges are even higher.  Couldn't someone just buy on BTC-E and sell on Bitstamp?  I'm assuming I'm missing something so if someone could explain this to me it would be much appreciated!

Buying BTC will cost few % fees and then selling them again will cost certain % fees too. That will cover up all the profit you might make when selling.
There are certain reasons why some exchange websites have a varying price range. It depends on several factors such as Price rates, website's fame and traffic, bonus offered by such websites, demands from customers and the admin's decision to increase sale. Personally, no fool would buy BTC now. The time to buy had long expired after BTC crossed the 840$ mark. You can hope to earn some coins now and wait for the perfect chance to sell again.

[GMPoison]

Bitcoin is cheaper on BTC-E because getting cash in and out of the exchange is more difficult. I was confused by this at first too. Take note of the price now on BTC-E and on Coinbase. Then check back later on BTC-E and you'll notice it has caught up.

[~Bitcoin~]

It is mainly due to two things one is high fee they have for both deposit and withdraw as well as there is delay in this process of deposit/withdraw. Even though price looks lower than other exchanger you have to pay high fees so that price will be almost near market price.

[Soros Shorts]

Is there a reason why the price on BTC-E is so much lower than the other exchanges?  It's currently trading at $1018 while Bitstamp is $1054.  The Chinese exchanges are even higher.  Couldn't someone just buy on BTC-E and sell on Bitstamp?  I'm assuming I'm missing something so if someone could explain this to me it would be much appreciated!

Have you actually tried depositing USD into your BTC-E account? Just try do it and you will understand the reason why. It is either very costly or very inconvenient to do, depending on where you live and what transfer options you have.. On the other hand selling BTC and withdrawing USD is relatively easier.

[Xester]

BTC-E as an exchanger is available only in selected countries. And the demand on bitcoins by those countries dictates the price of bitcoin in BTC-E. It is not something to be wondered upon, it is very normal. If you go to cryptocompare, a site that enables you to see the difference in buy and sell orders in all exchangers, then you will see that in every exchanger there is a different in price depending on the market price trend.

[pawel7777]

Is there a reason why the price on BTC-E is so much lower than the other exchanges?  It's currently trading at $1018 while Bitstamp is $1054.  The Chinese exchanges are even higher.  Couldn't someone just buy on BTC-E and sell on Bitstamp?  I'm assuming I'm missing something so if someone could explain this to me it would be much appreciated!

Have you actually tried depositing USD into your BTC-E account? Just try do it and you will understand the reason why. It is either very costly or very inconvenient to do, depending on where you live and what transfer options you have.. On the other hand selling BTC and withdrawing USD is relatively easier.

Don't know about convenience, but wire transfers are surely not cheap. https://btc-e.com/fees

                                          Deposit fee                 Withdraw fee
International wire transfer    0.5%, min $20 fee      1%, min $100 fee

There are some cheaper options, such as OK pay and other (I've never heard about before), but these may be charging their own fees.

@OP, on top of that you have to take into account the exchange fees on both BTC-E/Bitstamp (think it's 0.2% on both) and consider rather low BTC/USD volume on BTC-E.

[boyshx]

it's very difficult to buy there, specially if you are american.

[clarkgeneral86]

I thought this was common knowledge.
It's basic arbitrage, different exchanges have different prices because of the fees they charge and how difficult it is to move dollars in and out of them.

[Fatov]

Always btc-e is lower, then bitstamp, bitfinex is higher and huobi higher than all

[BitHodler]

it's very difficult to buy there, specially if you are american.

It's indeed quite a difficult thing to get fiat there, but not impossible.

I do this - At the time the price of BTC-E matches the price of other exchanges, I deposit coins there and sell them then for USD. That's the easiest way of getting fiat there without any hassle.

And when the price of BTC-E is like $30 behind other exchanges, I buy Bitcoin and cash it out to Kraken or Bitstamp and sell it there. Easy profits.

[Vitnasant]

Bitcoin is cheaper on BTC-E because getting cash in and out of the exchange is more difficult. I was confused by this at first too. Take note of the price now on BTC-E and on Coinbase. Then check back later on BTC-E and you'll notice it has caught up.

I heard the theory before.

[mainpmf]

Yeah I don't know why there is this difference. It's always the case without any appearant reason.
But the fact is that you can't really profit from that. There is indeed a difference but it's a tiny one! To buy in a site and sell in the other you have to take all the transactiond tome into account, the variation of price during this moment and the fee when buying and selling everything...

Really I'm not sure it's worth it most of the time. Maybe you can have occasions with a huge price gap allowing you to do that and get a profit from it. But it will seldome be the case and you have a bit of risk still.

[kwukduck]

Because it's a russian scam site.
It's hard to get money on your account and even harder (if not impossible) to get any coins or money out of it.

[mainpmf]

Because it's a russian scam site.
It's hard to get money on your account and even harder (if not impossible) to get any coins or money out of it.

Wut???
I had the best user services experience with them! They're professional as fuck!
I had a problem with some money which disappeared from my account because of a parameter problem (completely my fault here, an option I used but forgot I did) and they helped me tracing my money so I could find it again! When I had a login problem because I lost my phone (so no longer 2FA) they had a simple but secure process making it easy for me to get my account back!

I highly recommend them from a quality point of view!

[pawel7777]

it's very difficult to buy there, specially if you are american.

It's indeed quite a difficult thing to get fiat there, but not impossible.

I do this - At the time the price of BTC-E matches the price of other exchanges, I deposit coins there and sell them then for USD. That's the easiest way of getting fiat there without any hassle.

And when the price of BTC-E is like $30 behind other exchanges, I buy Bitcoin and cash it out to Kraken or Bitstamp and sell it there. Easy profits.

^^^ things that never happened

I hope you're joking, but something tells me you were not. So let's break it down with an example:

1- When price on both sites is say at $1,000 - you're sending BTC1 to btc-e and sell it for $ (and pay 0.2% fee - you got $998 balance left) then you wait...
2- Price goes up to say $1,051 on Bitstamp, but on btc-e is only at $1,020 - so you're buying btc with that $998 - net of fees that's ~BTC0.976 and sending to Bitstamp
3- (ignoring Bitstamp fees) you sell and get ~$1,026!

Pro-tip: by skipping btc-e and sending that BTC1 directly to Bitstamp you'd be $25 richer. But at least now you can say "look mum! I'm an arbitrage trader!"

[mainpmf]

it's very difficult to buy there, specially if you are american.

It's indeed quite a difficult thing to get fiat there, but not impossible.

I do this - At the time the price of BTC-E matches the price of other exchanges, I deposit coins there and sell them then for USD. That's the easiest way of getting fiat there without any hassle.

And when the price of BTC-E is like $30 behind other exchanges, I buy Bitcoin and cash it out to Kraken or Bitstamp and sell it there. Easy profits.

^^^ things that never happened

I hope you're joking, but something tells me you were not. So let's break it down with an example:

1- When price on both sites is say at $1,000 - you're sending BTC1 to btc-e and sell it for $ (and pay 0.2% fee - you got $998 balance left) then you wait...
2- Price goes up to say $1,051 on Bitstamp, but on btc-e is only at $1,020 - so you're buying btc with that $998 - net of fees that's ~BTC0.976 and sending to Bitstamp
3- (ignoring Bitstamp fees) you sell and get ~$1,026!

Pro-tip: by skipping btc-e and sending that BTC1 directly to Bitstamp you'd be $25 richer. But at least now you can say "look mum! I'm an arbitrage trader!"

Hmm... nice try but that's not exactly what he described is it? :3

I mean in your scenario both sites have the same basic price but bitstamp price rises faster! So of course it would be stupid to use btc e and not bitstamp. But what he describes and where arbitrage trader earn money is in the same situation but with and already existing difference! Consider that bitstamp is at 1020 when btc e is at 1000 and then keep the same price rise as before then you'll see it's more profitable to do the arbitrage.

But you're right in pointing at fees! They'll get most of your profit, I'm not sure it's really possible to do arbitrage trades if you're not extremely experimented!