Why is the price of BTC (and any other crypto) always higher in Asian countries?

[imstillthebest]

never think that its based per country but before i think its differ from company to company  . now i know that this issue also happens to other asian countries . high value prices is not new here and not just on cryptos but this applies to all items  compare to u.s and richer country that they sold all items cheaper  .

 on the crypto wallet that i used , the rates are high but some users said that other local wallets have a cheaper rate but im not familiar to it so i didnt switch out  .

[kryptqnick]

Its consistently higher that what the normal currency exchange rate would suggest in Asian countries.

For example if you multiply the USD rate of 1 BTC with the CNY rate, its 1 BTC = CNY 73,600, but exchanges there have it around CNY 75,500.

In other countries in Asia and South America also BTC is more expensive to buy in non-USD currencies than in USD.

Why is this the case?

Maybe it's because of the double conversion? You're using USD (naturally) to assess the value of BTC in CNY. Perhaps this leads to this difference? I think Yogee suggested a similar thought. I'd also like to see some proof that there's indeed a consistently visible difference. And if we're talking about local exchanges, their price of Bitcoin can include an additional fee, that accounts for making profit when someone buys or sells there. Then again, you were talking about a different type of exchanges, I believe... So there might be a real tendency due to the local market being somewhat isolated and Bitcoin being very actively used in Asia, but I think there's a bigger chance that this tendency is not real, but arises from some assessment mistakes.

[reliable]

In Exchanges there won't be big difference in the price between countries, but on p2p trading platforms user will get to have a difference in price between traders as well as with exchanges. This is all because of different users having different profit margin.

With exchanges that operate within specific country, there won't be much of price difference. Arbitrage trading is possible between exchanges, and majority of the exchanges located in Asia. That might also be the reason why Asian Countries have higher price always.

Are you sure that arbitrage exists like after calculating the trading fees etc may not be much and withdrawal time etc needs to be consider? This is where the chances start to get slim though at times it may be possible, but that risk factor still exists if market rises or fall during the same time.

[aesma]

I haven't seen anyone mentioning currency controls. In China, Venezuela, Zimbabwe, and basically all non democratic countries (and a few democratic ones too, developing ones) you have currency controls. You can't just send or receive money to/from these countries easily. That's precisely why BTC is popular there, because BTC isn't in a country, it's in a blockchain. That's also why the price is higher, because there is that demand, but no arbitrage opportunities : if I sell my BTC to someone in China, I will have trouble getting that fiat back to me in Europe. Too much hassle, too much bank fees, everything could even be blocked with no recourse for me.

[Killrbit]

Its consistently higher that what the normal currency exchange rate would suggest in Asian countries.

For example if you multiply the USD rate of 1 BTC with the CNY rate, its 1 BTC = CNY 73,600, but exchanges there have it around CNY 75,500.

In other countries in Asia and South America also BTC is more expensive to buy in non-USD currencies than in USD.

Why is this the case?

Often this has to do with liquidity and demand. Now in china the difference is still very small when compared to the international aggregated price, however when you look at other Asian, south american, African the premiums can often be as high as 20% for purchases.

These differences are largely owing to a number of factors with most being linked to liquidity. For instance low liquidity in the that country or maybe just on that particular exchange. Also demand for crypto currencies would also be higher in certain countries that impose heavy capital controls and regulations on cross border transfers Iran for instance. While in some cases price differences could be due to weakness/ high inflation/volatility in the local currencies being used Venezuela here.

 Further all these  premiums are also heavily impacted by bull and bear trends. If i recall the Price of BTC in South Africa had reached nearly 30k USD at the height of the bull run in 2017.

[aesma]

Further all these  premiums are also heavily impacted by bull and bear trends. If i recall the Price of BTC in South Africa had reached nearly 30k USD at the height of the bull run in 2017.

Imagine having paid 30000$ each for a few bitcoins just before the crash in 2017 ! Man that would suck so bad !

I'm sure some bitcoiners with the right relations are living off meeting the demand with supply. Right relations to be able to get the money out of the countries where this is difficult.

[fiulpro]

First of all it's the Demand secondly in many Asian countries it's actually not so Supported by the government , in the Case of India , the price of Bitcoins is a little higher on the exchange rate , which is due to :
- Many banks being against Bitcoins
- Harder to own cryptocurrencies because in many cases bank will freeze the account if you are dealing in cryptocurrencies.
-High number of users on the most popular exchange thus most of the time they support instant buying/selling which might change the price a little.
- The charges taken by the particular exchange also increases the price .

[Shimmiry]

Maybe it is just a coincidence when you see those prices. There's no fixed amount of bitcoin in any area in this world. But prices really varies on different exchanges, depending on the traders on that platform, they can set their preferred buy/sell of bitcoin. Plus, the fee of the exchange is added to you when you buy/sell bitcoin on any pairs. Exchanges has different trading fees, you should be aware of that.

[pixie85]

It's not always higher.

I've compared aBinance to a Japanese exchange Coincheck and when Binance was trading for 10618 USD Coincheck was at 1119900 Yen which is currently worth 10624.
Prices from the time of writing this post.

It's not a big difference just 6 USD which isn't even 1%.
Small exchanges are more volatile so they react violently to every pump.

[worldofcoins]

Its consistently higher that what the normal currency exchange rate would suggest in Asian countries.

For example if you multiply the USD rate of 1 BTC with the CNY rate, its 1 BTC = CNY 73,600, but exchanges there have it around CNY 75,500.

In other countries in Asia and South America also BTC is more expensive to buy in non-USD currencies than in USD.

Why is this the case?

Is it accurate to say that you are discussing the cost of US Dollars?.
It doesn't make a difference, Since expanding the cost of USD makes everything costly.
In my nation USD cost is higher than other nations and each stuff in my nation is costly. So it doesn't matter if the price is higher or not you'll cost higher when you buy things

[hd49728]

Each nation has local reasons for difference (higher) price in Asian countries. Laws, limited access to good exchanges, limited experience in crypto exchanges. Without knowledge and experience, people often invest from advice (group, community, relatives). And they accept any price to make entries when they get investment advice or command from leaders, influencers, KOLs.

Western nation citizens have better knowledge and experience in crypto investment and they less likely accept any price to do entries.

https://www.bestchange.com/ Bestchange is a good exchange to give difference in entry price. Check their ann thread for details and trading guides: Forget about exchanger search! Use BestChange!

[CryptopreneurBrainboss]

It's not always higher.

It's not a big difference just 6 USD which isn't even 1%.
Small exchanges are more volatile so they react violently to every pump.

Funny, I thought the example you'll be giving based on your opening statement will be a scenario where that of Binance would be more costly than your local exchange. I have tried but seems that's unlikely to be the case as at every point I look at the market in my country, my local exchange always trade above other western exchange and it got me wondering what are they trying to achieve.

Initially you would think in order to win back the customers already patronizing foreign exchange that of the local exchange would be less costly and very user friendly to use but that's not the case. Which is probably why Binance and the other top exchanges are more popular than our local exchange even in the country.

The only time, I have witnessed what you tried highlighting was through peer2peer exchange. But when I encounter such offers it gives me a second thought of potential scam attempts.

[pixie85]

It's not always higher.

It's not a big difference just 6 USD which isn't even 1%.
Small exchanges are more volatile so they react violently to every pump.

Funny, I thought the example you'll be giving based on your opening statement will be a scenario where that of Binance would be more costly than your local exchange. I have tried but seems that's unlikely to be the case as at every point I look at the market in my country, my local exchange always trade above other western exchange and it got me wondering what are they trying to achieve.

Initially you would think in order to win back the customers already patronizing foreign exchange that of the local exchange would be less costly and very user friendly to use but that's not the case. Which is probably why Binance and the other top exchanges are more popular than our local exchange even in the country.

The only time, I have witnessed what you tried highlighting was through peer2peer exchange. But when I encounter such offers it gives me a second thought of potential scam attempts.

What I was trying to say is there can be small differences but as long as it's 1% or less it's the same as no difference.

It won't allow you to profit from arbitrage, it won't really be worth it to send your coins there to exchange to a foreign currency and back to your bank.

Many EU and US exchanges have larger price differences within the same fiat currency like USD or EUR.

[ReiMomo]

It's obvious because the Asian country is the most lower value currency compared to the dollar since bitcoin is based on the dollar.

The value of a country's currency was determined by their economic condition, economic growth, foreign trade, and high inflation which is commonly indicator of the currency value.

Therfore, bitcoin in other country like Asian is different from the US if you are there. So now, you can figure out which bitcoin price of each countries are totally different.

[Asuspawer09]

Its consistently higher that what the normal currency exchange rate would suggest in Asian countries.

For example if you multiply the USD rate of 1 BTC with the CNY rate, its 1 BTC = CNY 73,600, but exchanges there have it around CNY 75,500.

In other countries in Asia and South America also BTC is more expensive to buy in non-USD currencies than in USD.

Why is this the case?

I guess it is because compared to the USA bitcoin is not used in some Asian countries a lot making the price a bit higher than the countries that are already exposed to bitcoin technology.

And maybe because the government does not really support this kind of technology yet just my opinion here in my country, they do not really hate what it is just not really support this yet so companies that want to bring this technology to the country would tend to pay high tax one thing is because it is maybe a poor country. So the tax was just high that the company needed to put the market price of bitcoin higher when converting.

So that the company is going to make its profit and at the same time it would be controlled in the country's fiat currency value.

[Ryker1]

I guess it is because compared to the USA bitcoin is not used in some Asian countries a lot making the price a bit higher than the countries that are already exposed to bitcoin technology.

And maybe because the government does not really support this kind of technology yet just my opinion here in my country, they do not really hate what it is just not really support this yet so companies that want to bring this technology to the country would tend to pay high tax one thing is because it is maybe a poor country. So the tax was just high that the company needed to put the market price of bitcoin higher when converting.

So that the company is going to make its profit and at the same time it would be controlled in the country's fiat currency value.

Well, this is completely irrelevant answer among those replies above. Government and the price does not have a correlation.
The main reason is, bitcoin value was based on USD and we have USDT that back by USD value, it should be 1:1 rate. Now, --let us compared Asian country national currency to the USD. For example, the country Philippines where I am live tat part of Asian. The current value as of now is 1 USD= 48.48 Peso. 1 USD is a tiny amount for them but for us, you can buy 1 kilo of rice that enough for you to eat in a day. That is the rellevance the value of bitcoin into Asian countries.

[AmoreJaz]

It's obvious because the Asian country is the most lower value currency compared to the dollar since bitcoin is based on the dollar.

The value of a country's currency was determined by their economic condition, economic growth, foreign trade, and high inflation which is commonly indicator of the currency value.

Therfore, bitcoin in other country like Asian is different from the US if you are there. So now, you can figure out which bitcoin price of each countries are totally different.

and to add the fact that a lot of local exchanges are taking advantage of their clients. because if you want to convert it to your own local fiat, you need to use their platform. so whatever they are offering as the buy/sell rate of btc, you have no choice but use them. though they are offering no fees, but their rate is higher when you are buying, and much lower when you are selling.
 as youve mentioned also, the conversion rate of your local fiat vs dollar affects this price.

[Sadlife]

I'am from a asian country and the value is the same here in USD. Maybe, the price is set to high amount because thw custodial wallet abuse it because it has no standard law currently. What you should do is buy, low cheap Bitcoin from other alternatives then resell it there. So its some of arbitrage trading, and you gain profit from it, instead of treating it as a bad luck.

[Lorence.xD]

I'am from a asian country and the value is the same here in USD. Maybe, the price is set to high amount because thw custodial wallet abuse it because it has no standard law currently. What you should do is buy, low cheap Bitcoin from other alternatives then resell it there. So its some of arbitrage trading, and you gain profit from it, instead of treating it as a bad luck.

It definitely is the wallets, in my country there is a monopoly in this and the government does not have a clear stance whether cryptocurrency in general is a bad thing. Maybe if there is an introduced competition they can atleast do something to keep their customer base steady.

[abuya55]

Price is determined by the market in which it trades: by means of supply and demand. The price may vary from one exchange to another one.