Kimchi premium on Bitcoin in South Korea gives way to Kimchi discount

Bitcoin prices on South Korean trading platforms have fallen below those on global exchanges. Previously the opposite was observed—the so-called “kimchi premium” reached 15% or more.

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

All else equal, this points to a waning interest in digital assets, according to the COO of Stablenode, Du Van Namu.

Cointelegraph, citing CryptoQuant, noted that from February 17 to 19 the kimchi premium index fluctuated between -0.24 and 0.01. At the time of writing, prices on local platforms had returned to global levels.

Earlier, ForkLog wrote that from 2016 to 2018 the “kimchi premium” averaged 4.8%. At its peak the metric reached nearly 55%. Such calculations were conducted by researchers from the University of Calgary.

In 2019, Bitcoin traded 3–5% higher in Asian countries than on other markets.

Arbitrage opportunities disappeared amid authorities’ crackdown on illegal currency transactions using digital assets. From January to August 2021, their volume exceeded the previous year’s figure by 40 times. Also, the FSS during investigations into such offenses assessed the volume of overseas transfers to crypto exchanges at $6.5 billion.

In September 2022 authorities arrested 16 people in cases related to the “kimchi premium.”

In February 2023, local media reported regulators’ attention to staking services.