Why prices are different in different fiat currencies on the same market?

Question

What I noticed is that prices in different fiat currencies on the same market for the same crypto currency are different. But what are the reasons behind that? Does it has anything to do with market volume for the fiat currencies? What variables I need to know to predict the difference in prices?

Few examples:

1) Cexio.

BTC/USD: 6286 USD (~4749 GBP)

BTC/GBP: 4787 GBP (~6336 USD)

Price in GBP tends to be higher (currently it's +0.8%).

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2) Kraken.

BTC/USD: 6263 USD (~4732 GBP)

BTC/GBP: 4743 GBP (~6277 USD)

Price in GBP tends to be highter (currently it's +0.2%).

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BTC/USD: 6263 USD (703.5k JPY)

BTC/JPY: 697.2k JPY (6206 USD)

Price in JPY tends to be lower (currently it's -0.9%).

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BTC/USD: 6269 USD (~5363 EUR)

BTC/EUR: 5373 EUR (~6280 USD)

Currently price is higher in EUR (+0.2%). But it changes from time to time. Sometimes price is higher in USD. Why?

Answer 1

Because they are different markets. Each trading pair is its own market with its own supply and demand. Each has its own set of orders and traders. It is the same reason that different exchanges have Bitcoin at different rates: they are independent of each other.

Answer 2

Exchanges have to respect the law, so user base has different limitations that is based on different factors. One of them is geographical location. Some user accounts can operate only in their country’s fiat, causing difference in the asset flow and its pair price. Same way fees can affect different pairs.

Answer 3

USD on Kraken is worth more than USD on cex.io, so you don't need quite as many of them to buy a bitcoin.

Suppose you have a choice to have one USD on either Kraken or cex.io. Which would you rather have? There are a lot of factors you would take into account:

1. How reliable is the exchange? How likely are they to go out of business and not be able to get you your money?

2. How much do they charge to withdraw your dollars? How quickly do they do it?

3. What forms of withdrawal do they offer? Is it only stablecoins? Do they do wire transfers or other forms of payment convenient for me?

4. How many people can access this asset? Is it limited to people in particular countries?

As the answers to these questions will be different for different exchanges, the value of "a dollar" on each exchange will be slightly different. Thus prices in dollars on different exchanges will be different.

There are other factors, but this is (most commonly) the dominant one.