Bitcoin is trading near $66,000 in South Korea as 'Kimchi Premium' returns

by Yogita Khatri

Bitcoin • April 5, 2021, 4:25AM EDT

UPDATED: April 5, 2021, 5:20AM EDT

The Block

Bitcoin is trading near $66,000 levels in South Korea as "Kimchi Premium" has returned.

Kimchi Premium is the spread between bitcoin's price on South Korean crypto exchanges and Western exchanges.

Bitcoin is currently trading at around $66,200 on Bithumb, according to TradingView. That is whopping about 15% or $9,000 higher than bitcoin's price of around $57,000 on Coinbase.

Ether (ETH) is also trading higher at around $2,350 on Bithumb compared to $2,020 on Coinbase, according to TradingView.

The Kimchi Premium suggests rising demand for bitcoin and ether in South Korea as the cryptocurrency market continues to soar worldwide.

While there is Kimchi Premium, that doesn't mean one can buy bitcoin or ether at a lower price globally and sell it at a higher price in South Korea. That is because Korean crypto exchanges don't accept foreign clients due to local regulations.

Korean citizens also cannot buy cryptocurrencies at lower prices on global exchanges because these exchanges don't support Korean won. Binance and OKEx had local exchanges in Korea, but both shut them down recently.

The Kimchi Premium first appeared in 2016, according to the University of Calgary. Between 2016 and 2018, the Kimchi Premium averaged nearly 4.80% and was as high as almost 55% in January 2018, per the report.

About Author

Yogita Khatri is a senior reporter at The Block and the author of The Funding newsletter. As our longest-serving editorial member, Yogita has been instrumental in breaking numerous stories, exclusives and scoops. With over 3,000 articles to her name, Yogita is The Block's most-published and most-read author of all time. Before joining The Block, Yogita wrote for CoinDesk and The Economic Times. You can reach her at [email protected] or follow her latest updates on X at @Yogita_Khatri5.