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Why The Return Of The Kimchi Premium Doesn’t Bode Well For Bitcoin

Bitcoin price is currently trading at a substantial premium on South Korean crypto exchanges – more than $6,000 per coin in USD equivalent. However, in the past this so-called “Kimchi Premium” has signaled the end of the bull trend.

Is this a sign that things  across the crypto market could soon turn bearish? Or is there something else afoot going on with the US dollar and the South Korean won that is causing the discrepancy?

Bitcoin FOMO Comes To A Boiling Point In South Korea, According To Price Premium

Bitcoin is an asset unlike anything else in the world before it. There’s no company involved like stocks; no country like fiat currencies; nor does it have a physical form like a commodity.

Because the decentralized cryptocurrency technology is controlled by no state actor, the underlying asset could some day become the first non-sovereign global reserve currency.

Related Reading | Mathematical Mystery: Why Did The Bitcoin Rally Stop At The Golden Ratio?

The crypto market like these other assets, however, also trades globally, and is subject to deviations in price data depending on how aggressive one region’s currency is being exchange to buy up BTC.

Once again, crypto FOMO has taken hold in the country of South Korea, resulting in the return of something called the “Kimchi Premium.”

bitcoin kimchi premium

The Kimchi Premium has Bitcoin priced nearly $6,000 higher in South Korea | Source: BTCUSD on TradingView.com

The Return Of The Kimchi Premium Could Spell Danger For The Ongoing Crypto Bull Run

The chart above demonstrates the sizable deviation between BTCUSD and BTCKRW. The discrepancy is roughly $6,000 USD currency and climbing. The crypto community has dubbed this unusual phenomenon the “Kimchi Premium.”

Related Reading | Heads Up: Bearish Bitcoin Technical Pattern Shouldn’t Be Shrugged Off

It isn’t clear what’s causing such FOMO amongst South Korean investors, but the so-called premium hasn’t been around since the last week of 2017.

bitcoin kimchi premium zoomed

The last time the Kimchi Premium was so prominent, it was the peak of the last bull market. | Source: BTCUSD on TradingView.com

Zooming out, the last time the Kimchi Premium moved away from the standard BTCUSD ticker priced in dollars, that was the grand finale for the previous bull market.

While the USD trading pair made lower highs, the KRW trading pair made another higher high before together falling into the 2018 bear market. Thus far, the premium has never been used as a signal to take action, as historically, it hasn’t appeared often enough to take action on.

But its existence is undeniable, nor what came after the two country’s Bitcoin price tickers separated by this much in the past. Whatever the case may be, the Kimchi Premium should be something to pay close attention to for the near future.

Featured image from Deposit Photos, Charts from TradingView.com
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Buying With Bitcoin? PayPal Fine Print Reveals Swap To Fiat

Today, news broke that PayPal is ready to launch cryptocurrency payments to merchants, allowing its massive userbase of millions to pay with Bitcoin and the other altcoins has offered since the middle of last year.

However, like all things related to centralized platforms getting involved in cryptocurrencies, there’s a catch.

PayPal To Allow Customers To Pay With Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum and BCH

As the company promised when cryptocurrency support was first announced, PayPal has followed up with rolling out support to allow customers to pay at its 29 million merchants globally.

PayPal users can now pay for goods and services through the platform using the four assets offered, including Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum, and Bitcoin Cash.

Related Reading | Internet Celebrities Lead $5M Investment In Bitcoin Reward Program Lolli

The initial announcement that the company would offer cryptocurrencies is the spark that set off the bull run, but the execution of their plan has been criticized since.

PayPal doesn’t allow users to move cryptocurrencies out of their custody to a wallet of their own choosing – defeating the purpose of the technology itself. In addition to issues with storing crypto assets, there’s also a catch when it comes to spending crypto.

bitcoin btc paypal fiat dollar news

Could the PayPal news be enough to push Bitcoin through resistance to new all-time highs? | Source: BTCUSD on TradingView.com

Paying With Crypto Involves First Swapping To Fiat

The PayPal news caused Bitcoin to once again rocket higher, and it could be the necessary momentum to push the cryptocurrency through resistance and to new all-time highs.

The initial PayPal news caused the breakout to begin with, so another leg higher could be in the cards. Regardless of the bullish price action resulting from the more recent news, once again its not all positive for cryptocurrency users.

Related Reading | Pizza Day 2.0: Buying A Tesla With Bitcoin Could Be A Mistake

In the same vein as other technology-defeating methods the company utilizes, PayPal also swaps any crypto assets out for fiat immediately before making the transaction. What’s really happening is that cryptocurrencies themselves aren’t being spent, but instead are being sold into cash and cash itself is being exchanged.

Rather relying on each cryptocurrency’s respective protocol to handle the transaction from wallet to wallet, PayPal has instead created a centralized system and wallet garden yet again. Companies like the brand have taken on a “if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em” approach with crypto over the last year or so, but have stopped short of fully embracing what the technology itself has to offer.

Who knows, though. Perhaps PayPal is doing its users a favor by encouraging them to hold rather than spend, which in the past has proven to be a mistake anyway.

Featured image from Deposit Photos, Charts from TradingView.com