Category Archives: Bitcoin

The price of bitcoin took a sudden tumblethis week to the lowest level the cryptocurrency has seen in months, falling almost 19% over the last five days.

Bitcoin was trading at $6,977 as of Friday morning, marking the first time it has traded below $7,000 since May. Even with the declines, the price of one bitcoin hasrisen by about 89% so far this year.

Compared to more traditional assets, bitcoin's bull and bear cycles can be difficult to forecast and explain. Bitcoin observers have speculated that recent price action has something to do with moves by China to crack down on illegal exchanges and to formalize the Chinese government's backing of blockchain technologies, as well as recent changes in how hard it is to createbitcoin. China plans to issue its own cryptocurrency, which could launch within the next 18 months.

Although crypto trading has been restricted in China for years, the country is home to many of the world's biggest bitcoin mining operations. And mining is a good place to look to better understand bitcoin prices, according to Michael Kazley of the asset management firm Crescent Crypto.

"Bitcoin's 'difficulty' is a measure of how likely a miner is to mine a block for a given amount of hashrate and time,"Kazley explained. "It serves to keep the network in balance, and aims to keep bitcoin's block time around 10 minutes, adjusting every two weeks,"

Kazley noted that difficulty rallied to new heights in 2018, bringing bitcoin prices along with it. But bitcoin saw a "substantial difficulty decline" two weeks ago, according to Kazley. "Today, difficulty adjusted upwards slightly, but market participants are keenly watching to see if a bearish difficulty trends continue," Kazley said.

After a slump in the latter part of last year, the price of bitcoin hovered in the $3,000 to $4,000 range throughout the early months of 2019 before skyrocketing again between March and August 2019.

"Historically, bitcoin difficulty has been more resilient than price and even managed to climb during the bulk of the 2018 bear market," Kazley said. "However, we did see a steep difficulty decline in October 2018, which coincided with a very large selloff from the $6,000s to the $3,000s in about a month's time."

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Bitcoin Plummets Below $7,000; What's Behind Its Sudden Tumble This Week? - TheStreet.com

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Bitcoin exchange hacks have plagued the cryptocurrency ecosystem since the first platforms for trading were launched in the early 2010s, and these events have caused major public relations issues for the entire crypto asset market. While exchange hacks dont have anything to do with potential technical problems related to the underlying Bitcoin network, its never a good look when millions or even billions of dollars worth of Bitcoin is stolen from thousands of exchange customers in a matter of minutes.

Although the Bitcoin exchange industry has improved its ability to deal with crypto asset security over the years, the threat of another large hack is always looming over the ecosystem. But that could soon change.

One of the main features of Bitcoin is that its programmable money, and developers have figured out new ways to build exchanges in ways that do not require users to turn over control of their funds until the exact moment they want to make a trade. One of the new exchanges that is taking advantage of this technology is Nash.

How Does Nash Secure Customer Funds?

In the past, exchange customers have always deposited their coins onto trading platforms with the exchange taking custody of the funds. That exchange platform then becomes a central point of focus for hackers because theres a big payday in it for them if theyre able to get into the exchanges internal wallet.

With platforms like Nash, users do not need to hand over custody of their crypto assets to a third party before they trade.

Many Bitcoin enthusiasts are excited about the Lightning Networks potential to cut transaction costs, speed up transactions, and potentially improve user privacy. And this same sort of technology can be used to vastly improve the level of security offered by exchanges.

Nash uses a system of state channel smart contracts to handle trades, and the system is currently live on the Ethereum and Neo blockchains. Notably, the Ethereum blockchain recently surpassed Bitcoin in a key measurement of overall adoption. However, Ethereums ETH token is also down heavily against Bitcoin over the past couple of years.

According to Nash co-founder and Lead Developer Fabio Canesin, Bitcoin support is expected to be added to their platform soon.

We initially demonstrated that our proposed architecture could deliver cross-chain markets that compete with the performance of centralized exchanges an extremely important parameter for liquidity, said Canesin when reached for comment. For this reason, we focused on the NEO-ETH market. Now that this is live and functioning well, we can move onto other networks. Bitcoin is the obvious next candidate owing to its importance in our industry.

State channels effectively allow multiple parties to transact with each other in Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies without having to touch the blockchain. This works via a technical trick that involves two parties placing funds into a 2-of-2 multisig address and then creating valid transactions from that multisig address to each of their personal addresses as a way to update how much of the funds in the multisig address belong to each party. None of these generated transactions are actually broadcast to the blockchain. The only transactions that hit the blockchain are the ones at the end when each party is ready to leave the payment channel with the appropriate amount of funds (if this was too confusing try reading this longer explanation of the Lightning Network).

While decentralized exchanges have existed in the past, a key advantage of using state channels is they allow transfers to happen instantly, meaning users dont have to wait seconds or minutes for blockchain confirmations to execute their trades.

It should also be noted that, while customer funds cannot be stolen by hacking an exchanges internal wallet, hackers could still cause plenty of damage if they were able to push out a malicious software update to Nash customers. That said, this is still a huge security gain.

Updates require a signed payload using offline keys, said Canesin when asked about this potential issue. However, if a hacker did somehow manage to push a malicious update, users would also have to log in and sign a transaction before encountering an issue. The data in our software is not enough, since user-provided entropy is also required. We try to mitigate these risks by building several layers of protection.

The high level of security offered by Nash also relies on the integrity of the smart contracts backing the exchange, and vulnerabilities in advanced smart contracts have continued to pop up in 2019.

Other projects that are working on this type of non-custodial trading technology include SparkSwap, which is built on the Lightning Network, and Arwen, which has built its own plugin model for existing exchanges.

In addition to their trading platform, Nash is also working on a mobile wallet, browser extension, and payment processing service for merchants that will all be integrated with each other.

While even the developers behind Bitcoin admit the cryptocurrency is an experiment that could still fail, exchanges like Nash are another step in the right direction when it comes to improving both usability and security of this technology at the same time. This is also the sort of technology that makes it clear that it would be difficult for governments to implement a Bitcoin ban, as two members of the U.S. Congress recently admitted.

Note: This article was updated to point out the potential issues associated with complex smart contracts that are used as the basis for Nashs exchange and other similar platforms, as pointed out by Kraken CEO Jesse Powell on Twitter.

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This New Bitcoin And Cryptocurrency Exchange Cant Be Hacked - Forbes

Bitcoin has been struggling recently after a period of stability, suddenly moving sharply lower at the end of last month.

The bitcoin price, which is still up more than double from where it began the year, fell from its recent plateau of around $10,000 per bitcoin to just above $8,000 in a move widely put down to the lackluster performance of the hotly-anticipated Bakkt bitcoin and cryptocurrency platform.

Now, new data has suggested the slump in the bitcoin price might be more to do with the "coming of age" of bitcoin and cryptocurrency marketswith exciting new competitors distracting investors from the long-time crypto poster-boy.

The bitcoin price has fallen around 30% from this year's highs, dropping from over $13,000 per bitcoin to under $8,000 earlier this month.

Bitcoin, cryptocurrency and financial markets research company Indexica has found that bitcoins strongest predictive measure was its "quotability," it was first reported by Bloomberg, a financial newswiremeaning traders are treating it like any other investment asset and showing bitcoin is most often being talked about in conjunction with more traditional currencies.

"Now that bitcoin is a big kid, anything can make it move, just like anything can make gold or a G-10 currency move, said Zak Selbert, chief executive of Indexica told Bloomberg, adding bitcoins sensitivity to new competitors such as Facebook's troubled libra project and Mastercards partnership with R3 demonstrates the industry's maturity.

"Bitcoin is part of the financial landscape in a very intertwined and mature way."

Many bitcoin and cryptocurrency watchers had hoped that bitcoin's reputation as "digital gold" would mean it began acting as a so-called safe haven asset, with investors buying into bitcoin at times of political and economic uncertainty.

This appeared to happen earlier this year, until the bitcoin price moved sharply lower as gold and the Japanese yen, two traditional safe havens, climbed.

The bitcoin price hit a year-to-date high earlier this year, thought to be due to the interest in bitcoin and cryptocurrencies from some of the world's biggest technology companies, but has since fallen back.

Meanwhile, some have suggested bitcoin's recent bounce back over $8,000 earlier this week was due to the U.S. Federal Reserve's plans to pump cash into the financial market to boost bank balance sheets and drive inflation.

"We know that [Fed easing] has historically helped bitcoin," Joe DiPasquale, chief executive of the bitcoin and cryptocurrency investment firm BitBull Capital, told bitcoin industry news siteCoindesk.

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Is This The Real Reason Behind Bitcoins Latest Sell-Off? - Forbes

Bitcoin (BTC) is trading slightly upwards of $8,300 after losing about 5% in value since last week, when BTC was trading above $8,700.

BTC experienced a substantial dump earlier in the month, when the price crashed by 10%, from $8,500 to $7,700. Afterwards, it started a slow recovery, briefly touching.

Following a number of lower highs, Bitcoin now seems to be in a short-term downtrend, with the price dropping below its 200-day EMA.

Will price recover back to $10,000 and above? If so, when?

Lets take a look at Bitcoins chart.

BTC chart, courtesy of Trading View

As you can see from the chart above, BTC is now back to trading below its 20-day EMA, 50-day EMA and 200-day EMA. Price was swinging between the 20-day and the 50-day EMA during early to mid-September, however, since the last week of the month, we saw the price finally closing below all EMAs.

Last week, I stated Bitcoin should be bouncing back after the drop but we might have to wait for a few more weeks while Bitcoin consolidates between $7,000 and $9,600. It seems were going on that direction.

As history tells us, BTC is prone to huge drops between 30% and 40%, even during bull seasons. Hence, I dont advise to fight the trend, but to always surf it for as long as possible. Hopefully, within the next three to five weeks, we will see a major reversal after a period of serious accumulation by hodlers.

Volume has dropped from a peak of $27 billion earlier in the year to around $14 billion now, although its currently on a positive trend towards $15 billion.

Bitcoins market dominance has also slightly decreased about 2%, since early October, from 68,5% to 66,5% according to CoinMarketCap.

As veteran traders and investors usually say, smart money buys when theres blood on the streets. Looking at the overall market behaviour, Im quite confident that were still in a bull run, but we should enjoy these consolidation periods and take the opportunity to scoop up some more BTC.

These drops wont last forever.

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The reason why Im confident is because its hard to see a different scenario. How can the markets not push higher up throughout the year after the ECBs recent rate cuts, the continuous share buybacks from huge corporations, or the inverted bond yield shoving investors away towards riskier assets?

In addition, the repo market activity as in loans from central banks to commercial and investment banks has spiked to new monthly records. That adds up to another signal of weakness among most banks.

Safe trades!

Current live Bitcoin pricing information and interactive charts are available on our site 24 hours a day. The ticker bar at the bottom of every page on our site has the latest Bitcoin price. Pricing is also available in a range of different currency equivalents:

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In August 2008, the domain name bitcoin.orgwas registered. On 31st October 2008, a paper was published called Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System. This was authored by Satoshi Nakamoto, the inventor of Bitcoin. To date, no one knows who this person, or people, are.

The paper outlined a method of using a P2P network for electronic transactions without relying on trust. On 3rd January 2009, the Bitcoin network came into existence. Nakamoto mined block number 0 (or the genesis block), which had a reward of 50 Bitcoins.

If you want to find out more information about Bitcoin or cryptocurrencies in general, then use the search box at the top of this page. Heres an article to get you started.

As with any investment, it pays to do some homework before you part with your money. The prices of cryptocurrencies are volatile and go up and down quickly. This page is not recommending a particular currency or whether you should invest or not.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the author should not be considered as financial advice.

The post Latest Bitcoin price and analysis (BTC to USD) appeared first on Coin Rivet.

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Latest Bitcoin price and analysis (BTC to USD) - Yahoo Finance

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In a few months, it will have been eleven years since the Bitcoin network was launched by Satoshi Nakamoto. The fact that the digital cash system has simply existed for this long is a grand achievement, but this is still an experimental project that could fail.

Bitcoin price predictions of anywhere from $42,000 by the end of 2019 to $100,000 by the end of 2021 have been made this year, but as Blockstream mathematician Andrew Poelstra has explained in the past, the developers behind the cryptocurrency are worried about just making sure the system doesn't completely fall apart more than anything else.

51% attacks are often brought up when it comes to ways in which Bitcoin could eventually fail, although improvements related to mining decentralization are in the works. Impending government crackdowns on Bitcoin are often talked about by skeptics of the digital cash system, but some U.S. lawmakers seem convinced they wouldn't be able to implement a Bitcoin ban.

So, what are the real threats to Bitcoin? MIT's Cory Fields and former Blockstream CTO Greg Maxwellboth of whom have contributed heavily to Bitcoin's development over the yearsrecently shared their thoughts on the matter in separate forums.

The Social Attack

Maxwell, who can often be found correcting people who are wrong about Bitcoin-related things on various subreddits, recently shared his view on one of the most pressing issues facing Bitcoin today in response to another Reddit user's question about 51% attacks. After explaining why Bitcoin's voting process for ordering transactions is necessary in the first place, Maxwell shared his view that 51% attacks may get more attention than they deserve.

"I think people obsess far too much about '51%' it has some kind of attractive mystery to it that distracts people," wrote Maxwell. "If you're worried that someone might reorder history using a high hash-power collusion just wait longer before you consider your transactions final."

According to the Blockstream co-founder, a social attack vector where the rules of the Bitcoin network are changed in favor of a more centralized model is a much bigger risk to the system.

"A far bigger risk to Bitcoin is that the public using it won't understand, won't care, and won't protect the decentralization properties that make it valuable over centralized alternatives in the first place," wrote Maxwell. "[A] risk we can see playing out constantly in the billion dollar market caps of totally centralized systems. The ability demonstrated by system[s] with fake decentralization to arbitrarily change the rules out from under users is far more concerning than the risk that an expensive attack could allow some theft in the case of over-eagerly finalized transactions."

It should be noted that Maxwell's concerns are not theoretical. In the past, proponents of two Bitcoin forks, Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin SV, have declared their altcoins to be the true version of Bitcoin. That said, neither of those networks gained much traction in terms of being considered the "real Bitcoin" by cryptocurrency users.

Of course, this sort of attack could also pop up in the form of an altcoin that starts from scratch with a much more centralized model and overtakes Bitcoin's network effects to become the world's preferred form of digital money. For example, the innovations enabled by Bitcoin, such as its uncontrolled monetary policy and censorship-resistant transactions, would likely become useless if everyone decided to move over to Facebook's Libra cryptocurrency, which is likely to be much more easily controlled and regulated by governments.

Introducing a New Bug

Like Maxwell, Fields does not view a 51% attack as the most likely way in which the Bitcoin experiment could fail.

"My answer though is that the most likely sudden death scenario for a cryptocurrency like Bitcoin is an accidental bug that gets introduced internal to the system," said Fields during a recent talk at the 2019 MIT Media Lab Cryptoeconomic Systems Summit.

Fields's concerns are also not theoretical, seeing as critical bugs have been found in these sorts of systems in the past.

"There was a Bitcoin Cash bug that I found and disclosed and it kicked off a discussion about responsible disclosure in these systems and how to do it generally," said Fields during his talk. "I was a little smug for a few months until we were effected by a similar bug in Bitcoin Core which potentially would allow for money printing out of thin air."

At the end of his talk, Fields reached out to other Bitcoin developers to work with him on a ten-year plan for making it less likely that these sorts of bugs will find themselves in consensus-critical Bitcoin software again in the future.

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2 Bitcoin Developers Explain How The Cryptocurrency Could Still Fail - Forbes

Bitcoin conspiracy theorists have long suspected the U.S. government, among others, would like to shut down bitcoin.

Bitcoin's first decade has seen its price explode, making early adopters overnight millionaires, and prompting some of the world's biggest technology companies to create their own versions of bitcoin.

Now, it's been revealed federal prosecutor-turned bitcoin and cryptocurrency expert Katie Haun was asked to look into "shutting down" bitcoin by her boss at the U.S. attorneys office in 2012.

Governments around the world have struggled with how to regulate and license bitcoin, with some trying to ban it or shut it down.

"They said 'we have this perfect assignment for you'theres this thing called bitcoin and we need to investigate it," Haun told CNBC in a wide-ranging interview, adding a colleague asked her to take down bitcoin.

"That was the first time Id ever heard of bitcoin."

Over the next few years Haun would go on to sit on the board of U.S. bitcoin and cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase and teach a class on cryptocurrency at Stanford Law School.

Any serious attempt made by the U.S. Department of Justice to shut down bitcoin inevitably came to naught, with Haun saying, "it would have been akin to saying lets go prosecute cash.'"

Haun, who is now the first female general partner at U.S. venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz and co-heads its $350 million cryptocurrency fund, has worked closely with social media giant Facebook in development of its troubled libra cryptocurrency project.

U.S. government opposition to bitcoin and cryptocurrencies has become far more transparent since Donald Trump entered the White House.

Earlier this year, U.S. president Trump sent shockwaves throughout the bitcoin and cryptocurrency industry when he tweeted a vicious attack on Facebook's bitcoin rival plans, branding it and bitcoin "unregulated crypto assets."

Others in the U.S. government were quick to tow the line, with U.S. Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin adding his voice to the assault on bitcoin, Facebook's planned Libra crypto project, and other cryptocurrencies, warning they pose a "national security" risk to the country.

Elsewhere, Apple chief executive Tim Cook has warned companies against creating their own cryptocurrencies.

"What we heard with libra were the same criticisms [I'd first heard about bitcoin]" Haun said.

Bitcoin's epic 2017 bull run catapulted cryptocurrencies into the global consciousness, with some of the world's biggest companies taking an interest in the technology.

"They were just heightened and they got more attention because of the high-profile nature of the project and the fact that Facebook was involved. I think it would be a really dangerous thing, and frankly a dangerous precedent to start shutting down technology before its built."

Facebook's libra has been under fire over the last week, with internet payments company PayPal, one of the Libra Association's founding members, suddenly pulling out of the group on Friday.

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook founder and chief executive, had hoped to work with global regulators to clear libra's path to launch in June 2020 but appears to have underestimated the level of opposition to the scheme.

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The U.S. Government Tried To Shut Down Bitcoin - Forbes

Bitcoin and ethereum, the two biggest cryptocurrencies by market value, suddenly soared yesterday despite the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rejecting the latest attempt at creating a bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF).

The bitcoin price is up some 5% over the last 24-hour trading period, while ethereum has risen almost 6%, both adding to gains earlier in the week.

The bitcoin and cryptocurrency market has swung wildly over the last few weeks as traders and investors seek direction.

"The news that the SEC is not going to approve a bitcoin ETF has not impacted the market with bitcoin heading higher again," Marcus Swanepoel, chief executive of London-based bitcoin and cryptocurrency exchange Luno, wrote in a note this morning.

"Overall, global markets are also up and we are seeing some positive sentiment."

Bitcoin's bounce was attributed to the U.S. Federal Reserve's plans to pump cash into the financial market to boost bank balance sheets and drive inflation.

"We know that [Fed easing] has historically helped bitcoin," Joe DiPasquale, chief executive of the bitcoin and cryptocurrency investment firm BitBull Capital, told bitcoin industry news site Coindesk.

The SEC yesterday ruled the Bitwise Asset Management ETF proposal, filed with the NYSE Arca stock exchange, did not meet legal requirements to prevent market manipulation or other illicit activities.

"Because, among other things, [Bitwise and NYSE Arca] has asserted that 95% of the bitcoin spot market consists of fake and non-economic activity, but has not established that it has, in fact, identified the 'real' bitcoin market, or that the 'real' bitcoin market is isolated from the fraudulent and manipulative activity, we find, in each case, that NYSE Arca has not met its burden to demonstrate that its proposal is consistent with the requirements ... and therefore the Commission disapproves this proposed rule change," the SEC said.

The SEC has so far rejected all bitcoin ETF proposals due to concerns around fraud and market manipulation, with the regulator knocking back the closely-watched VanEck bitcoin ETF application last month.

Bitcoin speculators have long hoped a U.S. bitcoin ETF will mean traders and investors are more easily able to buy into volatile crypto markets without having to navigate clunky bitcoin exchanges.

The bitcoin price jumped sharply yesterday, adding some $400 per bitcoin in a matter of minutes.

Bitcoin and other major cryptocurrencies were sent sharply lower last month after the hotly-anticipated Bakkt bitcoin and cryptocurrency trading platform went live with underwhelming volumes.

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Bitcoin And Ethereum Suddenly Soar Despite SEC Blow - Forbes

Bitcoin BTC is still very much the dark webs favorite cryptocurrency, but those looking to cover their tracks are slowly learning to useprivacy-focused alternatives.

While we have previously reported a small shift towards more privacy-focused cryptocurrencies such as Monero, Bitcoin still remains the currency of choice for both legitimate and criminal use, reports Europol with its latest assessment of internet-based organised crime.

Europol notes that Bitcoins prevalence in the underground economy is a consequence of its familiarity within the customer base, particularly in dark web markets.

In particular, ransomware campaigns have continued to feature Bitcoin almost exclusively. Europol highlighted these attacks as the most prominent cybercrime it tackles.

Hard Fork has previously reported on numerous ransomware attacks thatve demanded Bitcoin to restore encrypted files.

Still, authorities say there has been a more pronounced shift towards more privacy-orientated cryptocurrencies, and expects this trend to continue as criminals become more security aware.

The main developments regarding this trend are on the Darknet [sic] markets, several of which also accept Monero, or in some cases exclusively trade in it, Europol added.

Join us inAmsterdamon October 15-17 to discuss blockchainandcryptocurrencywith leading experts.

Published October 14, 2019 12:45 UTC

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Europol: Bitcoin is the still the dark webs favorite cryptocurrency - The Next Web

The majority of the top-20 cryptocurrencies by market cap are holding steady today after an up and down weekend, and the market leader is no exception.

Bitcoin dropped by about $100, or roughly 2 percent, earlier today, but has recovered to just above the $8,300 mark. Nevertheless, it marks an overall drop of around $500 since the end of last week.

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Crypto traders, at the time, could have been forgiven for briefly thinking Bitcoin was on its way toward a massive recovery. Last Friday, the price of Bitcoin hit the $8,800 markonly to drop way back down again moments later.

For the last few weeks, Bitcoin has struggled mightily to break through the $8,500 resistance mark. Holders, however, might be heartened to know that Bakkt, despite its slow start, is now starting to catch on with institutional players, and has traded nearly $2 million in Bitcoin futures contracts since last Wednesday, according to Forbes.

So if Bakkts slow start really did contribute to Bitcoins tanking price as many analysts suggest, this might provide a glimmer of hope for the Bitcoin traders eager for good news.

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Bitcoin recovers to $8,300 after dropping 2% over the weekend - Decrypt

Up until early 2018, major cryptocurrency markets the likes of South Korea and Japan demonstrated high premiums for Bitcoin. At the 2017 peak, when the Bitcoin price was trading at around $20,000 in the U.S. spot market, Bitcoin was being traded in South Koreas cryptocurrency exchange market for around 26,000,000 Korean won, equivalent to about $22,000. This difference is now known as the Kimchi premium.

Since then, starting with the introduction of various regulatory frameworks by South Korea to reduce regional premiums that included the prohibition of trading cryptocurrencies with foreigners in the local market, premiums in major markets have declined substantially.

Still, due to the lack of supply and the relatively high demand in some markets, Bitcoin is being traded at a premium in certain regions some higher than most.

Following the prohibition of cryptocurrency trading by the Peoples Bank of China, local banks in China were ordered not to work with local Bitcoin exchanges to prevent individuals and businesses from trading digital assets. Over time, the government of China also ordered payment processors such as AliPay to stop processing Bitcoin exchange-related transactions, according to report form Chinese blockchain publication 8BTC.

But reportedly, individual investors have continued to invest in Bitcoin after the ban. The imposition of a ban on cryptocurrency trading by China forced investors to move over to neighboring countries like Hong Kong, essentially initiating trades in a peer-to-peer manner.

On the over-the-counter (OTC) trading platform of OKEx, for instance, investors can trade Bitcoin using Tether (USDT), a stablecoin backed by the U.S. dollar, and then sell the USDT for the Hong Kong dollar. The premium on Bitcoin emerges when investors exchange USDT that they use to buy or sell Bitcoin for HKD, similar to most peer-to-peer OTC markets. On OKEx, USDT is being traded at around $1.02 to $1.04, which indicates a premium ranging from 2% to 4%.

Most fiat-to-crypto exchanges in Japan and South Korea more or less follow the price trend of the U.S. spot market for Bitcoin. On Upbit and Bithumb, two of the biggest cryptocurrency exchanges in South Korea, Bitcoin is being traded at 9,900,000 Korean won, equivalent to $8,365. On Coinbase, Gemini and Kraken, Bitcoins price, as of Oct. 12, 2019, is hovering at around $8,345, indicating a slight premium of less than 0.25%.

While South Korea remains a relatively small market in comparison to Japan, the U.S. and Hong Kong, the prohibition on foreigners trading cryptocurrencies has eliminated a large portion of the demand for cryptocurrencies. In the 2017 bull market, the majority of large-scale trades in the South Korean market are said to have come from Japanese and Chinese investors and miners, decreasing the supply of exchanges.

The Japanese exchange market is also showing a slight premium of 0.2% and has seen most of its premium decline in the past two years. For spot or brokerage buys, which involve a direct wire transfer or a transaction through a payment processor directly to the exchange, there is a premium of 3.59%. On BitFlyers brokerage, the price for Bitcoin buys is estimated to be 936,621 Japanese yen, which is equivalent to $8,635 nearly $300 higher than the global average spot price.

The cryptocurrency exchange markets of Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand are mostly dominated by brokerages such as Coins, which is the largest exchange in the Philippines and was acquired by the largest ride hailing app in Indonesia called Go-Jek. Coins, which has more than 5 million users in the Philippines alone, enables users to buy or sell Bitcoin based on precalculated price like BitFlyers brokerage, which also typically sees a premium of over 3%.

On Coins.ph, the Philippines arm of Coins, Bitcoin has a buy price of 440,280 pesos, around $8,530, indicating a premium rate of 2.2%. BuyBitcoin.ph, the second most widely utilized brokerage in the Philippines, has a buy price of 443,300 pesos, showing a premium close to around 3%. On Coins.th, the Thailand arms of Coins, the buy price of Bitcoin is hovering at 256,637 baht, or $8,425, a premium of less than 1%.

Thailand had a dominant spot exchange called BX Thailand, but the local Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)-approved exchange shut down on Sept. 30, citing a low level of volume. The closure of popular exchanges could result in a larger price discrepancy in the short term as volumes shift to brokerages. However, over the long term, the gap should close.

On exchanges that have been operating for years in South America, the price of Bitcoin closely matches that of the U.S. spot market, even on brokerages that have fixed buy and sell prices. On ChileBit, the Bitcoin price is being traded at around $8,374, with a 0.34% premium and on FoxBit in Brazil, the Bitcoin price is trading at $8,440, with a 1% premium. The premium of brokerages and spot exchanges in South America in general with the exception of a few countries such as Venezuela and Argentina is close to zero.

The low premium may indicate a low demand from local investors as Chile, Brazil and other bigger markets in South America are not known to have large-scale mining centers that provide liquidity to the global Bitcoin exchange market.

Apart from small cryptocurrency exchange markets with relatively low liquidity, strictly regulated products that are often utilized by institutional and accredited investors to invest in the Bitcoin market consistently demonstrate substantially higher premiums.

The Bitcoin Investment Trust (GBTC), for instance, which oversees close to $2 billion in assets and enables institutional and accredited investors to invest in Bitcoin through a regulated OTC exchange in the U.S., has a share price of $9.81. Each share of GBTC represents 0.00097368 BTC, which would imply that around 1,200 shares are equivalent to the price of 1 Bitcoin.

Based on the $9.81 share price of GBTC, each Bitcoin bought through the Bitcoin Investment Trust would be worth more than $10,000. Based on the current price of Bitcoin at $8,300, GBTC indicates a premium of over 20%.

Investors pay higher premiums for products like GBTC and exchange-traded products (ETPs) because they rely on third parties to secure their Bitcoin holdings. In recent months, GBTC has been trying to enable users to invest in Bitcoin at face value without the substantial premium by operating a private placement window. Whether this will decrease the premium of GBTC remains uncertain.

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Bitcoin Price: Which Countries Have the Biggest Premiums? - Cointelegraph