South Korea’s “Kimchi Premium” turned negative again; in other words, cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin are now cheaper to buy on South Korean exchanges than in the rest of the world.
Kimchi Premium – whose name derives from a well-known South Korean dish, kimchi – refers to a fairly common phenomenon in the cryptocurrency markets: Bitcoin (BTC) tends to cost more in South Korea than in other markets.
However, according to CryptoQuant data, we are currently witnessing a fairly rare phenomenon: Korea Premium Index turned negative, fluctuating from -0.24 to 0.01 since February 17.
Currently, CoinMarketCap shows that BTC is selling for $24,464 on Coinbase and $24,487 on Binance. On the South Korean exchange Bithumb, on the other hand, it is priced at $24,386, while on Upbit it is around $24,405. A similar situation also for Ether (ETH), the second cryptocurrency by market cap: ETH is sold for around $1,687 on Coinbase and $1,691 on Binance, but for $1,682 on Bithumb and $1,683 on Upbit.
According to Stablenode Chief Operating Officer Doo Wan Nam, negative Kimchi Premium denotes a decline in interest from South Korean investors:
“Korean (Kimchi) Premium has turned into Korean Discount.
It generally indicates a waning interest in cryptocurrencies from Korean retail investors. Ironically, this is generally a good time to buy, because you know you can sell them to Korean gamblers in the future, when the market is flooded with FOMO and Premium hits 20%.
Korean (Kimchi) Premium is now turned into Korean Discount
Generally it means fall in interest in crypto from Korean retail, which ironically is generally a better time to buy cause you know you can always sell yours to Korean gamblers for 20% premium later when they FOMO pic.twitter.com/FFcvdi93PE
— Doo | StableLab @Seoul (@DooWanNam) February 19, 2023
Some traders try to make a profit by trading assets between exchanges – a practice known as arbitrage.
