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I'm trying to find the current value of BTC.

If I go to MtGox the ticker at the top says the average price is about $950 but at CoinDesk.com the daily high, low etc are all $100 cheaper...

Both are in USD.

The CoinDesk seems to be the accurate one but why are the MtGox values so much higher?

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  • It is almost impossible to take money out of Japanese mt gox. That is the catch. – user13065 Feb 3 '14 at 21:01
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MtGox is an exchange: people trade Bitcoin for USD there. The value they report is what the exchange rate is on MtGox.

CoinDesk calculates its Bitcoin Price Index based on a number of factors, including MtGox's price, and the prices on other exchanges. This appears to be a much better indicator of the true market value than MtGox's exchange rate.

You might wonder, if the price difference is so large, why don't people buy on one and sell on the other to make a profit? People do, in something called arbitrage trading, but how close this will bring the markets depends on the overall costs of the transactions (fees, etc.). Since getting USD out of MtGox is not easy (or even possible?) at the moment, the gap can be quite large.

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  • So people are actually paying $100 more per BTC to buy on MtGox vs elsewhere? – sayguh Feb 3 '14 at 19:25
  • Yes, I believe so. I'm guessing there aren't too many people buying there, and they'd do so out of convenience (already set up a MtGox account) or ignorance (don't know it's cheaper elsewhere). – Tim S. Feb 3 '14 at 20:11
  • From what I read they are buying BTC there, because it is the only way to get their Dollars out in a decent amount of time. MtGox seems to still have a backlog of several weeks until withdrawals in USD are sent out. – Murch♦ Feb 3 '14 at 23:27

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