Open three crypto apps at the same moment and you will often see three slightly different bitcoin prices. On AtAGlanceInfo itself, the ticker strip and the Cryptocurrency card can disagree by a few dollars. None of them is necessarily wrong. There is no single official price for a cryptocurrency the way there is an official closing price for a listed stock. Each exchange runs its own market, and price sites calculate their own averages. This guide explains where the differences come from, how large they usually are, and which number to use for which purpose.
Every exchange is its own market
A crypto exchange matches buyers and sellers in its own order book. The price you see is usually the last trade on that exchange, or the midpoint between its best bid and best ask. Gemini puts it plainly in its help center: prices on Gemini are determined by the buyers and sellers on the exchange rather than prices on other exchanges (Gemini Support).
US stocks work differently. A listed stock trades on many venues, but during regular hours brokers are generally required by SEC rules to fill customer orders at the National Best Bid and Offer, a consolidated best price across venues (FINRA). That keeps prices across venues tightly aligned. Crypto exchanges have no such link. Prices stay close mainly because traders buy on the cheaper exchange and sell on the more expensive one, which pulls them back together. When that arbitrage is slow or blocked, gaps persist.
Why the gaps open
| Cause | What happens | Typical effect |
|---|---|---|
| Different quote currency | BTC/USD, BTC/USDT, BTC/EUR, and BTC/KRW are separate markets. A stablecoin such as USDT is not always worth exactly one dollar. | Small, but constant; larger if a stablecoin drifts from $1 |
| Liquidity | A thin order book moves more on each trade, and its last trade may be minutes old. | Smaller exchanges and small coins show wider gaps |
| Timing | Two screens refresh at different moments. In a fast market, even a few seconds change the price. | Brief, disappears when markets settle |
| Regional demand and capital controls | If money cannot move easily in or out of a country, local prices can drift from global ones. | Can be large and last weeks |
| Fees and transfer time | Arbitrage costs money and takes time, so small gaps are not worth closing. | Sets a floor under how close prices get |
| Spot vs derivatives | Futures and perpetual swap prices differ from spot prices by design. | Varies with funding rates and time to expiry |
The regional effect can be striking. A study by Igor Makarov (London School of Economics) and Antoinette Schoar (MIT Sloan) found that for large parts of 2017 through February 2018, bitcoin prices on Korean exchanges were more than 20% above US prices, a gap the press called the “Kimchi premium.” The authors found deviations were much larger across countries than within them (Makarov and Schoar, Trading and Arbitrage in Cryptocurrency Markets). Gaps that large are unusual between major US and European exchanges, but they show why “the price” depends on where you look.
How price sites build one number
Aggregators such as CoinGecko and CoinMarketCap do not report one exchange. They combine many. CoinGecko’s published methodology describes its process (CoinGecko Methodology):
- It starts with the top 600 tickers (trading pairs on specific exchanges) by volume for a coin.
- It removes anomalous tickers, including price outliers detected with a median absolute deviation test. For coins with fewer than three tickers, a price change of more than 100 times the previous price counts as an outlier.
- It converts everything to a common base using its own bitcoin reference rate, then takes a volume-weighted average price (VWAP) of what remains. Busier markets count for more.
- Its exchange volume figures exclude pairs that have not updated for more than three hours.
The result is a reasonable estimate of the broad market price. It is not a price you can trade at, because no exchange is obliged to fill your order at the average. Different aggregators pick different exchanges and weights, so they will not match each other exactly either.
Why the two numbers on this site differ
AtAGlanceInfo shows crypto prices in two places, and they use different methods:
| Ticker strip | Cryptocurrency card | |
|---|---|---|
| Source | TradingView widget, Bitstamp BTC/USD and ETH/USD markets | CoinGecko aggregated price in USD |
| What it represents | One exchange’s market | Volume-weighted average across many exchanges |
| Update timing | Streams; TradingView says crypto data in its widgets is real-time | Fetched when the page loads, then every 60 seconds |
| Best used for | Seeing the direction of the market right now | A broad reference price and the 24-hour change |
TradingView’s widget FAQ notes that stock data in its widgets is delayed, while forex and crypto data is real-time (TradingView Widget FAQ). So a small gap between the two panels is expected: one is a single exchange updating continuously, the other is a market-wide average refreshed each minute.
The price you actually pay
If you buy through an app, the displayed price is rarely what you pay. The difference usually comes from:
- The spread. You buy at the ask and sell at the bid. The gap between them is a cost, and it widens in thin or fast markets.
- Fees. Trading fees, “convenience” fees on simple buy buttons, and card or bank fees.
- Price impact. A large order can use up the best offers in the book and fill at progressively worse prices.
- Currency conversion. Paying in one currency for a pair quoted in another adds an exchange rate and sometimes a fee.
The practical way to compare two services is to put in the same amount of money and compare how much crypto you would receive after all costs, rather than comparing headline prices.
A checklist when prices do not match
| Question | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Are both prices for the same pair (USD vs USDT vs EUR)? | Different quote currencies are different markets. |
| Is one an exchange price and the other an average? | Averages and single-exchange prices are expected to differ. |
| How old is each number? | A price from a minute ago can be well off in a volatile market. |
| Is it spot or a futures or perpetual contract? | Derivatives prices include funding and time effects. |
| Is the exchange small or regional? | Thin markets and local demand create bigger gaps. |
| What is the gap in percent? | A fraction of a percent on bitcoin is normal; several percent on a major coin at a major exchange is unusual and worth a closer look. |
Which number to use
- For a quick read on the market: an aggregated price such as the CoinGecko card.
- For a trade: the live order book on the exchange you will use, including fees.
- For taxes or records: the actual fill price and fees on your trade confirmation, not a chart.
- For comparing days: the same source every time, so the method stays constant.
For habits that keep price checking short, see How to Check Cryptocurrency Prices Without the Noise. Because crypto trades around the clock, it also helps to know when traditional markets are open; A Practical Guide to Market Open and Close Times covers that. Nothing here is investment advice; see the Disclaimer.
Sources
- CoinGecko, Methodology
- Gemini Support, Why is the price on Gemini different from other exchanges?
- Igor Makarov and Antoinette Schoar, Trading and Arbitrage in Cryptocurrency Markets (LSE Financial Markets Group Discussion Paper 782, 2018)
- FINRA, Extended-Hours Trading: Know the Risks
- TradingView, Widget data FAQ