Localbitcoin Transaction Price Summary Across Major Currency

[stoneIsland]

Hi I did some analysis on most recent localbitcoin transaction price across major FX ccy. Summary below. Any comment welcome.

Column description:
Fiat FX Rate: current official FX rate in the fiat world
BTC Implied FX Rate: FX rate implied from BTC price in different currencies. For example BTC price in CNY divided by BTC price in USD will be USD/CNY numer

BTC FX Premium: positive mean BTC price is more expensive in that currency compared to USD. Not surprising ARS is +53%

I calculate price using volume weighted price.

Surprising thing is you can see BTC is relatively expensive in USD compared to most currencies. For example using CNY as example, if I buy bitcoin in CNY and sell in dollar. I can realize exchange rate of 6.578 which is significaly better than official FX rate of around 7.0

Any comment welcome!

https://i.imgur.com/ZhWCD4I.png

[stoneIsland]

A side question, how do I make the image on page show directly without click the link?

[mk4]

A side question, how do I make the image on page show directly without click the link?

You need to be at least Jr member to post images. Or alternatively, purchase Copper member.

Ranks: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=178608.0
Merits: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2818350.0
Copper member: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=credit;promote

[stoneIsland]

You need to be at least Jr member to post images. Or alternatively, purchase Copper member.

Ranks: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=178608.0
Merits: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2818350.0
Copper member: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=credit;promote

Thanks didn't realize. This forum charges $25 for newbie to post image. Why?

[Yamifoud]

It for sure this is you wanted to see and could answer your query.

By popular demand, newbies can now pay to have some of their restrictions lifted. If you pay the fee, you become a Copper Member, and you can post images. That's the main point of this: allowing newbies to post images. Additionally (and these might change depending on how things go), Copper Members currently have these bonuses:

- Some of the same permissions as Member-rank members, such as reduced signature styling restrictions. (But none of the PM-related restrictions are currently lifted, such as the style limit or per-hour PM limit.)
- Your "you must wait ____ seconds between ___" counter is reduced by 75%. So if you're naturally of Newbie rank, you only have to wait 360-75% = 90 seconds.

If you paid an "evil IP" registration fee, then whatever you paid (in BTC terms) is subtracted from the upgrade fee. If you paid a registration fee a long time ago, you might even get a free Copper Membership due to the increase in BTC price. Just visit the link at the bottom of this post to check whether you have it already.

I am aware that for most people the benefits of this membership are pretty lame. This membership is only intended to fill a specific niche; if you don't need it, don't buy it. It is not intended to be the lower-cost Donator/VIP alternative which I've talked about before as a possibility.

I wrote the system so that I can easily add additional paid memberships in the future, but I might not ever do so. Not sure.

You can buy it here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=credit;promote

You can also read the whole story https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2385104.0

There are a lot of things to consider before allowing you to post an image. But if you have the money, your rank is not the hindrance to work it, lets say...you have to pay some and buy copper member at least.
And I hope this could be a great and helping analysis. And good luck with your crypto journey.

[stoneIsland]

You can also read the whole story https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2385104.0

There are a lot of things to consider before allowing you to post an image. But if you have the money, your rank is not the hindrance to work it, lets say...you have to pay some and buy copper member at least.
And I hope this could be a great and helping analysis. And good luck with your crypto journey.

Thanks for the detail explanation.

[crwth]

A possible explanation for that is the difference between different currencies is the demand in that particular place. Let's say that in ARS, the increase of that price was probably because of the loss of confidence in their fiat currency [1]. Some people might have been looking for another way or another asset to save their money. Compared to other countries, most people are just going out of their way and not giving much volume towards Bitcoin transactions, hence the lower price. You could arbitrage that if you want to profit from that discrepancy.


[1] - https://news.bitcoin.com/1-4m-in-bitcoin-transactions-new-high-for-argentina-as-confidence-in-the-peso-tanks/

[mk4]

You need to be at least Jr member to post images. Or alternatively, purchase Copper member.

Ranks: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=178608.0
Merits: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2818350.0
Copper member: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=credit;promote

Thanks didn't realize. This forum charges $25 for newbie to post image. Why?

You don't necessarily need to pay for the $25 membership. You could manually rank up to Jr member without paying for anything. The $25 membership just exists for those who don't want to spend time in ranking up but instead want to go the shortcut route.

[stoneIsland]

You don't necessarily need to pay for the $25 membership. You could manually rank up to Jr member without paying for anything. The $25 membership just exists for those who don't want to spend time in ranking up but instead want to go the shortcut route.

How do I rank up? Just keep posting?

[stoneIsland]

A possible explanation for that is the difference between different currencies is the demand in that particular place. Let's say that in ARS, the increase of that price was probably because of the loss of confidence in their fiat currency [1]. Some people might have been looking for another way or another asset to save their money. Compared to other countries, most people are just going out of their way and not giving much volume towards Bitcoin transactions, hence the lower price. You could arbitrage that if you want to profit from that discrepancy.

Yes agree some of it is due to exchange control and government set FX rate is not really what people want to pay. ARS is definitely this case.

On the other hand the btc price in USA is relatively high compared to other countries. Guess this is due to more stringent AML monitoring in US. As a result people are willing to pay more to use BTC.

[hd49728]

You don't necessarily need to pay for the $25 membership. You could manually rank up to Jr member without paying for anything. The $25 membership just exists for those who don't want to spend time in ranking up but instead want to go the shortcut route.

How do I rank up? Just keep posting?

Posting with constructions and helpfulness in your posts. If your posts bring benefits to the others, you will receive merit for your contributions.

Read more about merit at the announcement of merit system Merit & new rank requirements

I'm hoping that this system will increase post quality by:
 - Forcing people to post high-quality stuff in order to rank up. If you just post garbage, you will never get even 1 merit point, and you will therefore never be able to put links in your signature, etc.
 - Highlighting good posts with the "Merited by" line.

While we will not be directly moderating this, I encourage people to give merit to posts that are objectively high-quality, not just posts that you agree with.

Up

It is considered as bumping post. As per unofficial rule, it should be deleted. You did not make another bump post after that one but because of there are more posts after that one (from other users), your bump (up) should be deleted.

13. Bumps, "updates" are limited to once per 24 hours per thread. Bumping multiple threads at the same time is allowed if it's not annoying. [2][e]

21. Old bumps should be deleted. [2]

[crwth]

Yes agree some of it is due to exchange control and government set FX rate is not really what people want to pay. ARS is definitely this case.

Well, that’s just the reality with having no control over the complete demand of the supply.

On the other hand the btc price in USA is relatively high compared to other countries. Guess this is due to more stringent AML monitoring in US. As a result people are willing to pay more to use BTC.

I think as more people go out of their way to have cryptocurrency as their asset, They want out of complete control by the banks and the government with relation to money and increasing price of bitcoin. More adoption of crypto would be best for everyone here.

[buwaytress]

On the other hand the btc price in USA is relatively high compared to other countries. Guess this is due to more stringent AML monitoring in US. As a result people are willing to pay more to use BTC.

That seems counter rational to me. Usually, you get better sell prices because of the increased risk of the method of payment -- more chargeback risk and less stringent AML/KYC procedures like Paypal, for example. At least in my case, at places I use to sell where I have to comply with AML/KYC, the tradeoff is slightly better prices and more convenience.

[stoneIsland]

On the other hand the btc price in USA is relatively high compared to other countries. Guess this is due to more stringent AML monitoring in US. As a result people are willing to pay more to use BTC.

That seems counter rational to me. Usually, you get better sell prices because of the increased risk of the method of payment -- more chargeback risk and less stringent AML/KYC procedures like Paypal, for example. At least in my case, at places I use to sell where I have to comply with AML/KYC, the tradeoff is slightly better prices and more convenience.

Yes I agree method of payment matters here. Probably a lot of US payment methods have higher risk of chargeback (for example paypal). Thus people selling btc in US are asking for higher prices to compensate chargeback risk. I will probably try to do some analysis on cash payment price: cash payment btc price in US vs in other countries. Not sure how many data points are available though.

[buwaytress]

That seems counter rational to me. Usually, you get better sell prices because of the increased risk of the method of payment -- more chargeback risk and less stringent AML/KYC procedures like Paypal, for example. At least in my case, at places I use to sell where I have to comply with AML/KYC, the tradeoff is slightly better prices and more convenience.

Yes I agree method of payment matters here. Probably a lot of US payment methods have higher risk of chargeback (for example paypal). Thus people selling btc in US are asking for higher prices to compensate chargeback risk. I will probably try to do some analysis on cash payment price: cash payment btc price in US vs in other countries. Not sure how many data points are available though.

That's what I mean. In my locations, we have other online methods of payments, not as risky as Paypal for chargebacks but the money's a little harder to withdraw and you need KYC (mobile money app) so the price is also a bit higher. So that logic makes sense. You get better prices because of the inconvenience and risk.

[Spenjoyere3]

Most users do not sell at the same exchange rate, but with some difference.
instead of selling 1 bitcoin equal to 8000 euros and fees of 10 euros, I sell at 8010, and many currencies do not have the same exchange rates.
users sell currencies in countries where there are no official platforms for sale, so the exchange rate will be different from the official price, as there is more than one currency exchange rate. For example, in Iran, Turkey and Venezuela, there is more than one exchange rate for the dollar.