S.Korea’s Central Bank Sweats Over ‘Kimchi Premium’ in Crypto Prices

While South Korea’s government policies have largely nullified the so-called ‘Kimchi Premium’ in cryptocurrency prices, the country’s central bank has called for continued monitoring into markets.

Officials at the Bank of Korea (BOK), the country’s central bank, have called for continued vigilance into South Korean crypto trading markets in an attempt to keep a lid on the heightened premiums of cryptocurrency – bitcoin, in particular – prices on domestic exchanges compared to spot prices on global exchanges.

At the height of 2017’s bitcoin mania leading into this year, the ‘Kimchi Premium’, named after a popular Korean dish, reached a staggering 50 percent earlier in January this year. Within weeks, Korean regulators moved to ban anonymous trading of cryptocurrencies in a policy that effectively killed the premium spreads.

“The government’s practical policies led the ‘Kimchi Premium’ to disappear in South Korea. At its peak, the ‘Kimchi…