Exchange Arbitrage? Is This Correct?

[digibum]

I'm not a bit Bitcoin player so excuse me if I'm asking anything too obvious.  I did most of my buying and selling years ago before moving here but I just signed up for a Bitkub account and wanted to check things out. 

 

So, Coinbase (US based) is quoting Bitcoin at $50,060.  I get a price within a few dollars of that on other sites like Coin Market Cap and even Yahoo Finance. 

 

Bitkub is quoting 1,650,000 baht which at the current exchange rate of 31.4 baht to the USD puts the price at $52,547.  There even seems to be bids at this price so I assume this is a realistic price you can get if you set a limit price. 

 

I thought that sounded a little high so I checked Coins.co.th and they're quoting 1,692,106 which is $53,888.  They don't show any bid/ask size so this could be a last trade price with an unknown last trade time. 

 

That's a 5% premium on Bitkub and a 7.6% premium at Coins.co.th. 

 

I see people saying these sites are pretty good.  How can a 5 - 7.6% premium over USD exchanges be considered a good deal?  Yes, I know about bid/ask spreads, but the Bitkub price above was the bid price. 

 

Years ago before I found TransferWise I used to buy Bitcoin on Coinbase, move it to Coins.co.th and sell it and depsoit it in my Thai bank account.  I remember taking a hit on the exchange and network fees but I don't remember the price spreads being this wide. 

 

Why aren't people just sitting in front of a computer all day buying on USD exchanges and selling on the Thai exchanges?  Or am I missing something?  Yes, you probably take the risk of waiting for the transaction to clear and then transferring over to a different exchange but it looks like you've got a lot of room since a 5% - 7% swing in a few hours doesn't seem too likely. 

[fdsa]

2 hours ago, digibum said:

Why aren't people just sitting in front of a computer all day buying on USD exchanges and selling on the Thai exchanges?

they are doing it for ages, mostly buying on large exchanges and reselling on localbitcoins.

[digibum]

7 hours ago, fdsa said:

they are doing it for ages, mostly buying on large exchanges and reselling on localbitcoins.

 

Might have to run a few test transactions thru to see what all the fees come out to.  ????

[Heng]

Yeah, plenty of people make their profit that way, in all markets, not just crypto.    There are a handful of individuals who made billions in the early days off the Kimchi premium (S. Korean vs. global btc price arbitrage).   All markets have little niche plays like that, you just have to find them.   But like all economic plays, they don't last long because everyone else gets drawn to the play as well.   

[JBChiangRai]

If you are going to do it, sell on localcoins where you gain some anonymity.

 

Buying on a foreign exchange and selling on a Thai exchange is illegal, it’s money laundering and if you do it regularly, you will get caught.

 

All SEC approved Thai exchanges practice KYC specifically to track transactions and you can be sure they’ll come after the foreigner doing it, not the Thai and then all foreigners will be banned. Just don’t do it.

[timendres]

Arbitrage only works if you can transact instantly, or hedge while you are transacting. If the time between buying and selling is more than a minute or two, you run the risk of Bitcoin moving substantially more than your perceived profit, leaving you with a lot of hurt.

[Sundown]

You can do it xx times successfully but that one time the price moves while you are waiting the transaction, you lose everything...

[alocmrlj]

this works on paper...but moving big amounts of money(fiat) out of Thailand is not as easy as it may seem. Especially continuously.  And with arbitrage you have to transfer big amounts or is not worth your time + fees eat you. 

Edited April 27, 2021 by alocmrlj

[JBChiangRai]

Bear in mind that foreigners being able to transact on Thai exchanges is a privilege not a right.

 

Please don’t do anything to have that privilege revoked for all of us.

 

You cannot, and must not, use it to move funds across the Thai border.