Everyone in the world can see it is only a matter of time before the Bitcoin price surpasses US$10,000 across all major exchanges. The world’s leading cryptocurrency has already done so on exchanges based in Japan and South Korea. However, Western exchanges still show a Bitcoin price of under US$9,900. This is an interesting trend that will generate a lot of buzz over the coming hours and days.

Bitcoin Price Wants to Surpass $10,000

With multiple all-time highs recorded for Bitcoin in the past few months, it is not surprising to see the trend continue unabated. To be sure, the Bitcoin price will surpass US$10,000 across all exchanges at some point. Whether that will be today, next month, or five years from now is subject to speculation. The bullish trend is still firmly intact, but the last mile is certainly the longest and most demanding.

Although both CoinMarketCap and LivecoinWatch put the Bitcoin price at over US$10,000, not all exchanges are following that path. To give one example, Bithumb values one Bitcoin at close to US$10,500 right now. As for Coinone, that exchange puts the Bitcoin price at almost US$11,000. In the Western hemisphere, however, no major exchange puts Bitcoin over US$10,000 in any fiat currency market. Bittrex’s ETC/BTC pair doesn’t count in this regard.

Outside of South Korea, bitFlyer is the only Asian exchange valuing Bitcoin at just over US$10,000. This only confirms that we will see arbitrage opportunities in the near future, although taking advantage of them will not be easy. That being said, we may see some Western exchanges permanently surpass the US$10,000 mark later today. GDAX is in a good position to do so, whereas Bitfinex seems to be slightly behind the rest of the Western exchanges.

With US$5.51 billion in 24-hour trading volume, it is evident there is a genuine desire to both buy and sell Bitcoin right now. With this historic milestone in sight, it is only normal that a lot of people will cash out and not look back until the inevitable correction is in place. Unfortunately for them, it may take a while before we see such a correction. All cryptocurrency markets are firing on all cylinders right now, and it is very difficult to tell when the money stream will dry up.

Moreover, the fiat currency markets dominate Bitcoin’s trading volume right now. Bitfinex still has a small lead over Bithumb in terms of 24-hour volume, and GDAX is poised to surpass the US$200 million mark in a few hours. There is only one altcoin market among the top 5 Bitcoin markets ranked by trading volume right now; all others are related to USD, KRW, or JPY. That’s an interesting development worth keeping an eye on.

How all of this will play out for the Bitcoin price remains to be determined. A lot of that hinges on whether or not the exchanges can remain online. Kraken is having another terrible day in this regard, with both its frontend and API not responding most of the time. This explains why the exchange isn’t listed among the top 15 exchanges ranked by trading volume. The time for new exchange solutions is now, as these centralized platforms are still the weakest link in all of cryptocurrency.