Bitcoin (BTC) "Kimchi Premium," i.e., the price gap between the spot BTC price on South Korean exchanges and Binance's BTC/USDT pair, has jumped to levels unseen since early 2022. Surprisingly, Korean buyers might have nothing to do with this, the CryptoQuant CEO explains.
Bitcoin (BTC) Kimchi Premium hits 12%: CryptoQuant CEO shares reason
Bitcoin Kimchi Premium, the difference between the largest crypto's valuations on South Korean and international exchanges, hit three-year highs today. During periods of the most accelerated sell-offs, it jumped to an unbelievable 12%, as noticed by Ki Young Ju, CEO and founder of CryptoQuant analytics platform.
However, this unusual disrepancy should not be attributed to the appetites of the Korean market. As explained by Mr. Ki Young Ju, the strong position of DXY (Dollar valuation index) is to blame for the spike.
The Kimchi Premium jumped when BTC/USDT touched the local bottom at $92,000. It happened not because Koreans were buying the dip but because BTC is being converted to USD.
During this process, direct BTC swaps in Korean won (KRW) remained at their regular levels, CryptoQuant CEO explained in a thread:
Few Koreans are converting BTC into KRW. Other countries are likely seeing a similar trend.
Some commentators attributed this abnormal jump to panic-selling on oveeseas markets that did not affect Korean segment dynamics.
Bitcoin (BTC) surprisingly outperforms all top 25 cryptos as market tumbles
Coinbase Premium, i.e., the gap between the Coinbase and Binance prices of the USDT pair, also stayed positive during today's sell-off.
As covered by U.Today previously, cryptocurrency markets experienced their worst drop in years. The net capitalization of crypto assets lost $280 billion, being 7% down in 24 hours.
However, Bitcoin (BTC), the largest cryptocurrency, seems to be standing strong amid the bloodbath. It only lost 3.5% and recovered to $95,000 by press time.
As such, Bitcoin (BTC) is the best performer in the top 25 assets, excluding stablecoins.
