Appealing Bitcoin, Ethereum Discounts on Binance.US But Not for Everyone

Bitcoin and Ethereum are trading at an enticing discount on Binance.US, but not all users will be able to leverage it.

At nearly $27,500, Bitcoin is trading about $2,500 lower on Binance.US compared to global spot markets. Ethereum, on the other hand, was trading at $1,700 – a discount of $200, offering market participants a better price than other crypto exchanges.

Discount Concerns

Crypto users took to Twitter to address the situation and termed it a “depeg” of cryptocurrencies, a term denoting a significant divergence from the global spot prices.

But it’s not easy to take advantage of the disparity since discounted cryptocurrencies can only be purchased via USD holdings. However, Binance.US suspended USD deposits into the platform on June 9. This essentially leaves only those users with USD already sitting on the exchange to grab the arbitrage opportunity.

Another instance of price anomaly on a Binance platform was observed in late May when the Australian branch of the crypto giant witnessed a massive decline in Bitcoin’s price compared to global spot prices.

The event unfolded after the termination of fiat on- and off-ramps by the company’s third-party payments provider. Subsequently, Bitcoin’s price on Binance’s Australian platform plummeted by 20% against the AUD relative to global prices.

Tether CTO Chimes in

Besides Bitcoin and Ethereum, the world’s largest stablecoin – USDT – was also trading below $1 on the exchange, which fueled FUD in the community. In an attempt to alleviate concerns, Paolo Ardoino, the CTO of the stablecoin issuer, explained that the lack of many market makers willing to arbitrage could be behind the disparity considering Binance.US is embroiled in legal challenges.

The exec further added that Tether is in charge of its primary market, while arbitrageurs and market-making professionals are responsible for market-making secondary markets i.e., crypto exchanges.

“BTC/USD trades at 27600 there (30.1k on other exchanges). seems there is a general spread of ~8%. does it mean that BTC is also worth less globally? Of course not. The same logic applies. do the math on the spread for BTC/USD and USDt/USD and you get pretty much the same percentage.”