Bitcoin’s Kimchi Premium Is Back: Is South Korean FOMO Driving BTC Higher?

The Bitcoin Kimchi premium is the percentage difference between BTC▲$77,666.00 price on South Korean cryptocurrency exchanges and that of the rest of the world in terms of won.

What Is the Bitcoin Kimchi Premium?

It is positive when the premium is greater in Korea. The Korea Premium Index from CryptoQuant shows Korean buying pressure, often attributed to retail traders.

Why Bitcoin Can Trade at a Higher Price in South Korea

The South Korea Bitcoin premium also occurs when there is greater demand than domestic liquidity and volume arbitrage cannot considerably reduce the price difference, or when capital controls and restrictions on cross-border flow of crypto assets obstruct arbitrage. The South Korea Bitcoin premium may persist longer than price differences in other related markets.

How the Kimchi Premium Is Calculated

CryptoQuant’s Korea Premium Index is calculated by dividing the volume-weighted average Korean prices by the VWAP price of exchanges outside of Korea and is given as a fraction of the price in percentage terms.

If the value of the metric is positive, this means that Korean prices are higher than international prices and vice versa. The Kimchi premium today states how much out of line the local BTC price is compared to international prices.