{ "schemaVersion": "vultax-public-research-data-v1", "articleUrl": "https://vultax.com/research/why-bitcoin-price-differs-between-exchanges", "datasets": [ { "title": "Most venues agree within a basis point", "columns": [ { "name": "Venue", "unit": null }, { "name": "Median vs pack", "unit": null }, { "name": "Middle 80% of readings", "unit": null }, { "name": "Readings more than 5 bps away", "unit": null }, { "name": "Median bid–ask spread", "unit": null } ], "rows": [ [ "BitMEX (perpetual swap)", "−4.8 bps", "−7.0 to −3.1", "42.7%", "1.13 bps" ], [ "CoinEx", "−2.4 bps", "−5.3 to −0.6", "13.6%", "0.13 bps" ], [ "KuCoin", "−0.6 bps", "−1.8 to 0.8", "0.0%", "0.01 bps" ], [ "Coinbase", "−0.4 bps", "−2.1 to 1.0", "0.5%", "1.73 bps" ], [ "Poloniex", "−0.4 bps", "−1.8 to 1.0", "0.0%", "4.06 bps" ], [ "Kraken", "−0.1 bps", "−0.8 to 0.6", "0.2%", "0.01 bps" ], [ "Binance", "0.0 bps", "−0.5 to 0.6", "0.0%", "<0.01 bps" ], [ "Bitget", "0.0 bps", "−0.5 to 0.5", "0.1%", "<0.01 bps" ], [ "Bitrue", "0.0 bps", "−0.5 to 0.7", "0.6%", "<0.01 bps" ], [ "Gate", "0.0 bps", "−0.6 to 0.7", "0.1%", "0.01 bps" ], [ "WhiteBIT", "+0.1 bps", "−0.7 to 0.8", "0.2%", "<0.01 bps" ], [ "BTSE", "+0.1 bps", "−0.4 to 0.7", "0.1%", "0.13 bps" ], [ "Gemini", "+0.1 bps", "−1.0 to 2.0", "3.0%", "<0.01 bps" ], [ "OKX", "+0.1 bps", "−0.4 to 0.8", "0.0%", "0.01 bps" ], [ "Bybit", "+0.1 bps", "−0.4 to 0.7", "0.1%", "0.01 bps" ], [ "MEXC", "+0.1 bps", "−1.4 to 1.0", "0.5%", "<0.01 bps" ], [ "HTX", "+2.9 bps", "−0.5 to 4.5", "5.2%", "<0.01 bps" ], [ "Upbit (won, converted)", "+131.2 bps", "+114.9 to +142.5", "100%", "1.43 bps" ] ], "measurementContext": "Readings between 19:16 UTC on 12 September and 22:57 UTC on 13 September 2026. Basis points against the median midpoint of 16 venues, excluding Upbit and BitMEX; positive means the venue quoted higher. A basis point on Bitcoin near $77,000 is about $7.70.", "sources": [ { "label": "Vultax live crypto pack", "url": "https://vultax.com/live/crypto.json", "note": "Cross-venue gap and executable check every ten minutes; 1,029 readings, 6–13 September 2026" }, { "label": "Vultax methodology", "url": "https://vultax.com/methodology", "note": "How venue books are collected and normalised" }, { "label": "BitMEX — XBTUSDT instrument", "url": "https://www.bitmex.com/api/v1/instrument?symbol=XBTUSDT", "note": "Contract type of the BitMEX book in this study" }, { "label": "Makarov & Schoar — Trading and arbitrage in cryptocurrency markets (Journal of Financial Economics)", "url": "https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0304405X19301746", "note": "Cross-country price gaps and capital controls, 2017–2018" }, { "label": "Vultax: Crypto wash trading and real liquidity", "url": "https://vultax.com/research/crypto-wash-trading-what-the-research-shows", "note": "Depth, spread and slippage as the measure of a venue, rather than reported volume" }, { "label": "Makarov & Schoar — Trading and Arbitrage in Cryptocurrency Markets (JFE 135:2)", "url": "https://personal.lse.ac.uk/makarov1/index_files/CryptocurrencyMarkets.pdf", "note": "Cross-country deviations persist for days and weeks; US/Korea price ratio reached ~40% at its extreme; within-country deviations far smaller" }, { "label": "Vultax — Crypto Exchange Feed Latency and Coverage: 16 Venues Measured", "url": "https://vultax.com/research/crypto-exchange-feed-latency-september-2026", "note": "First-party latency measurement: 35.0–111.5 ms median, 288.5–589.7 ms p95 across 16 venues" }, { "label": "CoinAPI — Execution Quality in Crypto", "url": "https://www.coinapi.io/blog/execution-quality-in-crypto", "note": "Why effective spread and realised slippage, not quoted spread, determine execution cost" }, { "label": "Coinpaprika — Polymarket expands beyond prediction markets with 20x leverage perps (Sep 2026)", "url": "https://coinpaprika.com/news/polymarket-expands-beyond-prediction-markets/", "note": "Perpetual futures launched 3 September 2026 with up to 20x leverage and no expiry, ten markets at launch and 67 within hours across crypto, equities, indices and commodities; U.S. traders barred. Kalshi's bitcoin perpetuals went live 3 June 2026." }, { "label": "Coinbase — A postmortem of our May 7, 2026 outage", "url": "https://www.coinbase.com/blog/a-postmortem-of-our-may-7-2026-outage", "note": "The venue's own account of the May 2026 outage traced to an AWS thermal event; roughly eight hours down and about twelve more to full recovery, by the postmortem's timeline." }, { "label": "Yahoo Finance — AWS outage takes down Coinbase (20 Oct 2025)", "url": "https://finance.yahoo.com/news/aws-outage-takes-down-coinbase-104129926.html", "note": "Coinbase unreachable during an AWS outage while Binance, Kraken and OKX stayed online; 'all funds are safe'." }, { "label": "Yahoo Finance — Bitcoin whales accelerate exchange activity in early 2026 amid fragile liquidity", "url": "https://finance.yahoo.com/news/bitcoin-whales-accelerate-exchange-activity-123727209.html", "note": "CryptoQuant's exchange whale ratio (top-10 inflows over all inflows) at a ten-month high; Glassnode spot volume at its lowest since November 2023." }, { "label": "CoinDesk — Crypto exchanges face a survival crisis as day traders disappear (28 Jul 2026)", "url": "https://www.coindesk.com/business/2026/07/28/bitmex-and-bitmart-may-be-first-casualties-of-crypto-trading-slump", "note": "A spot-volume slump that thins books before it shows in any headline volume figure; BitMEX announced a September shutdown." } ], "measurement": { "kind": "observed", "temporalCoverage": "2026-09-12T19:16Z/2026-09-13T22:57Z", "population": "1,095 minute readings with at least ten venue books under 60 seconds old", "methodology": "Each venue's order-book midpoint divided by the median midpoint of 16 venues, minus one, in basis points; spread is best ask minus best bid over midpoint." }, "id": "venues-table", "kind": "published-table", "description": "Vultax read Bitcoin's order books on 18 exchanges every minute for 28 hours. Half stayed within a basis point, the highest and lowest ordinary venues sat a median 5.8 bps apart, and Upbit ran 1.31% above. In a week of readings no gap survived fees; here is what a gap has to clear.", "articleUrl": "https://vultax.com/research/why-bitcoin-price-differs-between-exchanges", "sectionUrl": "https://vultax.com/research/why-bitcoin-price-differs-between-exchanges#venues", "publishedAt": "2026-09-14", "modifiedAt": "2026-09-16", "version": "46c5cabecefb28a36e6675601cb6de08b670ce86f7353898a587237b58aa4c78", "isLive": false, "limitations": "Published research snapshots and calculations; these exports do not contain current quotes or live account data. Observation windows and populations are stated in the source captions and methodology. Missing metadata is unknown, not zero. Prices are order-book midpoints read from Vultax's market-data service over 28 hours and can differ from any single exchange's own display. The executable check uses an assumed fee. Nothing here is a recommendation to trade or financial advice.", "downloads": { "json": "https://vultax.com/research/why-bitcoin-price-differs-between-exchanges/data.json?dataset=venues-table", "csv": "https://vultax.com/research/why-bitcoin-price-differs-between-exchanges/data.csv?dataset=venues-table" } }, { "title": "Gap between the highest and lowest Bitcoin venue, by hour", "columns": [ { "name": "Category", "unit": null }, { "name": "Highest minus lowest venue", "unit": "bps" } ], "rows": [ [ "00", 4.97 ], [ "01", 4.95 ], [ "02", 4.83 ], [ "03", 4.68 ], [ "04", 5.35 ], [ "05", 8.03 ], [ "06", 5.39 ], [ "07", 5.9 ], [ "08", 6.99 ], [ "09", 8.12 ], [ "10", 7.56 ], [ "11", 8.13 ], [ "12", 6.87 ], [ "13", 6.25 ], [ "14", 6.72 ], [ "15", 6.05 ], [ "16", 5.65 ], [ "17", 6.06 ], [ "18", 5.67 ], [ "19", 3.83 ], [ "20", 5.45 ], [ "21", 4.13 ], [ "22", 4.79 ], [ "23", 6.13 ] ], "measurementContext": "Median basis points by UTC hour, 16 venues, 12–13 September 2026", "sources": [ { "label": "Vultax live crypto pack", "url": "https://vultax.com/live/crypto.json", "note": "Cross-venue gap and executable check every ten minutes; 1,029 readings, 6–13 September 2026" }, { "label": "Vultax methodology", "url": "https://vultax.com/methodology", "note": "How venue books are collected and normalised" }, { "label": "BitMEX — XBTUSDT instrument", "url": "https://www.bitmex.com/api/v1/instrument?symbol=XBTUSDT", "note": "Contract type of the BitMEX book in this study" }, { "label": "Makarov & Schoar — Trading and arbitrage in cryptocurrency markets (Journal of Financial Economics)", "url": "https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0304405X19301746", "note": "Cross-country price gaps and capital controls, 2017–2018" }, { "label": "Vultax: Crypto wash trading and real liquidity", "url": "https://vultax.com/research/crypto-wash-trading-what-the-research-shows", "note": "Depth, spread and slippage as the measure of a venue, rather than reported volume" }, { "label": "Makarov & Schoar — Trading and Arbitrage in Cryptocurrency Markets (JFE 135:2)", "url": "https://personal.lse.ac.uk/makarov1/index_files/CryptocurrencyMarkets.pdf", "note": "Cross-country deviations persist for days and weeks; US/Korea price ratio reached ~40% at its extreme; within-country deviations far smaller" }, { "label": "Vultax — Crypto Exchange Feed Latency and Coverage: 16 Venues Measured", "url": "https://vultax.com/research/crypto-exchange-feed-latency-september-2026", "note": "First-party latency measurement: 35.0–111.5 ms median, 288.5–589.7 ms p95 across 16 venues" }, { "label": "CoinAPI — Execution Quality in Crypto", "url": "https://www.coinapi.io/blog/execution-quality-in-crypto", "note": "Why effective spread and realised slippage, not quoted spread, determine execution cost" }, { "label": "Coinpaprika — Polymarket expands beyond prediction markets with 20x leverage perps (Sep 2026)", "url": "https://coinpaprika.com/news/polymarket-expands-beyond-prediction-markets/", "note": "Perpetual futures launched 3 September 2026 with up to 20x leverage and no expiry, ten markets at launch and 67 within hours across crypto, equities, indices and commodities; U.S. traders barred. Kalshi's bitcoin perpetuals went live 3 June 2026." }, { "label": "Coinbase — A postmortem of our May 7, 2026 outage", "url": "https://www.coinbase.com/blog/a-postmortem-of-our-may-7-2026-outage", "note": "The venue's own account of the May 2026 outage traced to an AWS thermal event; roughly eight hours down and about twelve more to full recovery, by the postmortem's timeline." }, { "label": "Yahoo Finance — AWS outage takes down Coinbase (20 Oct 2025)", "url": "https://finance.yahoo.com/news/aws-outage-takes-down-coinbase-104129926.html", "note": "Coinbase unreachable during an AWS outage while Binance, Kraken and OKX stayed online; 'all funds are safe'." }, { "label": "Yahoo Finance — Bitcoin whales accelerate exchange activity in early 2026 amid fragile liquidity", "url": "https://finance.yahoo.com/news/bitcoin-whales-accelerate-exchange-activity-123727209.html", "note": "CryptoQuant's exchange whale ratio (top-10 inflows over all inflows) at a ten-month high; Glassnode spot volume at its lowest since November 2023." }, { "label": "CoinDesk — Crypto exchanges face a survival crisis as day traders disappear (28 Jul 2026)", "url": "https://www.coindesk.com/business/2026/07/28/bitmex-and-bitmart-may-be-first-casualties-of-crypto-trading-slump", "note": "A spot-volume slump that thins books before it shows in any headline volume figure; BitMEX announced a September shutdown." } ], "measurement": { "kind": "observed", "temporalCoverage": "2026-09-12T19:16Z/2026-09-13T22:57Z", "population": "1,095 minute readings", "methodology": "Highest minus lowest midpoint among 16 venues with fresh books, over the median midpoint, in basis points; median per UTC hour." }, "id": "by-hour-chart", "kind": "published-chart", "description": "Vultax read Bitcoin's order books on 18 exchanges every minute for 28 hours. Half stayed within a basis point, the highest and lowest ordinary venues sat a median 5.8 bps apart, and Upbit ran 1.31% above. In a week of readings no gap survived fees; here is what a gap has to clear.", "articleUrl": "https://vultax.com/research/why-bitcoin-price-differs-between-exchanges", "sectionUrl": "https://vultax.com/research/why-bitcoin-price-differs-between-exchanges#by-hour", "publishedAt": "2026-09-14", "modifiedAt": "2026-09-16", "version": "ac36150b591067022052f45c9f087ca6ae0150507cf1596e998545ca61dbb8e1", "isLive": false, "limitations": "Published research snapshots and calculations; these exports do not contain current quotes or live account data. Observation windows and populations are stated in the source captions and methodology. Missing metadata is unknown, not zero. Prices are order-book midpoints read from Vultax's market-data service over 28 hours and can differ from any single exchange's own display. The executable check uses an assumed fee. Nothing here is a recommendation to trade or financial advice.", "downloads": { "json": "https://vultax.com/research/why-bitcoin-price-differs-between-exchanges/data.json?dataset=by-hour-chart", "csv": "https://vultax.com/research/why-bitcoin-price-differs-between-exchanges/data.csv?dataset=by-hour-chart" } } ] }