Super minor correction: BTC wasn’t priced cheaper in Korea; it was priced higher. The actual arbitrage profits depending on the price differential of XRP: so you are right that Alameda was buying BTC in Korea and selling in the US, but they actually LOST money on that trade; they made their money because they were selling XRP in Korea at an even larger profit (than what they lost on BTC). The numbers are on p.93 of Lewis’s book, and I’ve spelled out all the details of the arbitrage in a Substack piece of mine, here: https://moneypower.substack.com/p/how-to-tell-the-story-of-crypto-part-5e7
Fascinating, thanks for sharing!
Great piece –I learned a lot.
Super minor correction: BTC wasn’t priced cheaper in Korea; it was priced higher. The actual arbitrage profits depending on the price differential of XRP: so you are right that Alameda was buying BTC in Korea and selling in the US, but they actually LOST money on that trade; they made their money because they were selling XRP in Korea at an even larger profit (than what they lost on BTC). The numbers are on p.93 of Lewis’s book, and I’ve spelled out all the details of the arbitrage in a Substack piece of mine, here: https://moneypower.substack.com/p/how-to-tell-the-story-of-crypto-part-5e7