As Bitcoin Soars, Prices Diverge Wildly Across Exchanges

The world's largest bitcoin exchanges by trade volume are reporting significantly varying prices as the cryptocurrency's price soars to new all-time highs, market data shows.

In some cases, the differences amount to more than $2,000 in value, particularly among some of the most voluminous exchanges.

On Coinbase's GDAX exchange, for example, the price of bitcoin is trading above $18,259.00 as of press time. This value represents a significant premium over the price currently being reported on Bitfinex, where bitcoin is trading at $15,592.

At the same time, it's a considerable amount less than the prevailing price on Bithumb, South Korea's most voluminous exchange, and local exchanges Coinone and Korbit, all of which are seeing prices above $19,000 (denominated in the won, the country's national currency).

Additional data from CoinMarketCap highlights the price disparities, though it seems that a number of the top-10 exchanges are seeing prices below $16,000, including Bitstamp, Gemini and HitBTC.

Coinbase isn't alone in seeing bitcoin prices above $16,000. Japan-based bitFlyer is reporting bitcoin prices at $16,719.40 as of press time, while BitMEX is trading at roughly $17,200.

The varying prices come as bitcoin's value surges to new highs. According to CoinDesk's Bitcoin Price Index (BPI), the price of bitcoin has added more than $2,700 since the start of the day's session.

Disclosure: CoinDesk is a subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which has an ownership stake in bitFlyer and Coinbase.

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