Bitcoin is becoming harder to buy at reasonable prices, with institutional investors muscling in on the crypto market. Data shows that digital gold is becoming far harder to buy on exchanges, with the granddaddy of all cryptos facing a steady decline in liquidity. With bitcoin less available to buy on the open market, the short term price gains for hodlers should continue in the near future. It’s not all good news however: not for those seeking to affordably stack sats, or for those who are paying a premium on their crypto in relatively sheltered markets.
Centralisation
One of the most important features of Bitcoin’s latest bull run has been institutional investment. Grayscale Trust is at the forefront of this drive, purchasing a further 16,244 BTC worth $590M on January 18th alone. This figure represents an 18x on the total number of bitcoins mined in a day, and brings the total value of bitcoin held by the trust to nearly $23 billion. Grayscale is not the only game in town however, with numerous other trusts scooping up large swathes of BTC.
At the same time, there remain huge differences in the price of cryptocurrency depending on what region a person lives. While this is not an issue for big investors who have preferential access to markets, it certainly doesn’t help the retail investor. Price differences in crypto between various countries can be as much as 10% meaning that some crypto buyers get a raw deal.
In South Korea this phenomenon is known as the “kimchi” premium. While the premium is generally lower during periods of price stability, the increasing interest in cryptocurrency and BTC has seen the premium rise once more. As Asia is a strong market for the crypto space it makes sense that traders would look for means and ways to sidestep this obvious financial handicap.
Since centralised exchanges are bound by regional capital controls, one of the best ways for users to avoid premium rates is to employ the use of a defi aggregator. Finxflo, based in Singapore, is a hybrid liquidity aggregator which offers the very best rates from both centralised and decentralised exchanges. This allows users to expand their horizons and enjoy the best prices for crypto assets no matter where they are in the world. Finxflo onboards users with a single registration, a single KYC process and a single wallet. With low fees and over 25 exchanges and liquidity providers to select from, the company can offer some of the very best asset prices available anywhere.
A Changed Market
The crypto market has drastically changed from only a few months ago. With large scale investors now making serious inroads into crypto, prices should continue to rise, and liquidity may yet fall further. One of the ways to mitigate this phenomenon is for users to broaden their horizons when looking to buy crypto assets. Defi aggregators are the perfect way of doing this. Following a successful private sale round in 2020, Finxflo may just be entering the market at just the right time to make a serious splash.
