Are All Crypto Exchanges Connected to the Same Market? How…
By Damilola Esebame
AI summary of the source article
Crypto exchanges operate independent order books and liquidity pools, resulting in cross-platform price variations. A September 2026 academic study found that persistent Bitcoin price differences stem from fiat gateway frictions, fiat-route stability, and institutional trust.
Key facts
- A September 2026 study in Quantitative Finance and Economics examined tick-level BTC/USD data from Bitfinex, Bitstamp, Coinbase, and Kraken between January 2017 and June 2021.
- Researchers identified fiat-to-crypto gateway frictions, fiat-route stability, and institutional trust levels as drivers of persistent Bitcoin price differences between platforms.
- Key arbitrage strategies include cross-exchange spatial trades, triangular conversions, spot-perpetual funding basis trades, DEX-to-CEX trades, and flash loan executions.
Source excerpt · FinanceFeeds
KEY TAKEAWAYS Crypto exchanges operate as fully independent platforms with their own separate order books and liquidity pools, so the same digital asset can trade at different prices across multiple venues simultaneously. A September 2026 academic paper in Quantitative Finance and Economics found that persistent Bitcoin price differences across centralized exchanges stem from fiat gateway friction…