Why two exchanges show two different prices for the same coin

Two browser tabs, the same coin, two different prices. Neither app is broken. There is no single global price for any crypto asset, only a set of separate markets that usually agree closely and sometimes don't.

Why isn't there just one price?

Unlike a share of stock, which mostly trades through one linked system of exchanges, a crypto asset can trade on dozens of separate venues at once, each running its own order book with its own buyers and sellers. Each venue's price is simply wherever its own supply, and demand settle on that specific platform. There is no central authority setting one number everyone must use.

What keeps the prices close together?

Arbitrage. If a coin trades noticeably cheaper on one exchange than another, a trader can buy it on the cheap venue and sell it on the pricier one, pocketing the difference. That buying pressure on the cheap side and selling pressure on the expensive side pushes both prices back towards each other. On liquid, well-connected exchanges for a major coin can usually happen within seconds, which is why the gap you see on a busy pair is normally a matter of cents, not dollars.

Why doesn't arbitrage close the gap instantly?

Because moving funds between exchanges takes time and costs money, and that friction is exactly what lets a gap persist for a while. Withdrawal fees, network confirmation times and an exchange's own processing delays, altogether get in the way of moving an asset from the cheap venue to the expensive venue, fast enough to capture the full difference. A smaller or less-connected exchange — with fewer traders arbitraging it — can sit noticeably off the wider market's price for longer, since fewer people are doing the work of correcting it.

When the gap gets genuinely large

A wide lasting gap between one region's exchanges, and the rest of the world usually points to something structural rather than a passing quote glitch: local capital controls that make it hard to move money in or out, a surge of local demand that the venue's own liquidity cannot immediately absorb, or restrictions that stop traders from easily arbitraging the difference away. When you see a persistent, large premium on one specific exchange rather than a market-wide move, that is usually the story; not a sign of when the coin is worth more there in any lasting sense.

What Northtape actually shows you

Northtape's markets page does not average across every exchange in existence. It pulls its price data primarily from CoinGecko. Providers like these already aggregate across the many venues they track to compute the figure they publish, so the number you see on Northtape is closer to a broad market reference point than the exact quote on any single exchange you might actually trade through. If you are placing an order, always check the live price on the specific venue you are using rather than treating any reference figure as the number you will get.

FAQs

Is the price difference between exchanges a scam? No, not on its own. Small, temporary gaps are a normal feature of how separate markets work and how arbitrage closes them, not evidence of manipulation.

Why do smaller exchanges often show more different prices? They typically have less trading volume and fewer arbitrageurs actively working to close the gap, so a price difference can persist longer than on a large, well-connected exchange.

Does Northtape show the price I would actually pay to trade? Northtape's markets page shows a reference price from its data providers, useful for tracking the market broadly. Always check the live quote on the specific exchange you use before placing an order.

Can I profit from these price gaps myself? In principle, yes, that is what arbitrage traders do; in practice, fees, withdrawal delays and the speed of professional traders make it far harder than it looks for most people to capture reliably.

None of this is investment advice. Price gaps between venues change constantly and depend on each exchange's own liquidity and conditions, so treat any figure here as an illustration of the mechanism rather than a current, tradeable number.