The Central Bank of South Korea (BoK) warned the public about the possible emergence of the so-called "kimchi bonus" - a phenomenon involving the difference between crypto prices on the exchanges in South Korea and cryptocurrency exchanges abroad. "Premium kimchi" is reportedly mainly seen in terms of the BTC price.
Kim Dong-Sup, an official responsible for the bank's payment systems research team, said that the "kimchi bonus" is an indicator of an overheated domestic market. South Korea is reportedly the third largest database of cryptocurrency users in the world, just after the USA and Japan, which dealt with the whole craze of alto sold over 3% over the rest of the markets. CoinMarketCap removed the South Korean stock exchanges from its index in January, citing extreme price discrepancies with the rest of the world. For example, from July 2017 to May 2018, cryptocurrency in South Korea cost 5% more than on an international scale. The "kimchi premium" rate reached the highest level in January at 48.2%, while crypto prices on stock exchanges denominated in major world currencies, such as the US dollar and the euro, did not have real price differences.
According to the BoK report, a high level of "kimchi bonus" may cause other side effects on the domestic market, such as the infusion of illegal foreign transactions. In December 2017, the Korean authorities banned the public from anonymous trading in cryptocurrencies, while the withdrawal of the ICO ban is currently being considered. More recently, the Korean Financial Supervisory Authority (FSA) has suggested the need for closer international cooperation between regulators in the field of crypts and ICO regulation, stressing that the main challenge for this country is to improve transaction transparency in order to prevent illegal activities.
Let's now take a look at the Bitcoin technical picture at the H4 time frame. The market has made a local low at the level of $6,126, but the price is still trading inside of the consolidation established between the levels of $6,083 - $6,416. Moreover, the price is still below the black trend line, so the odds for the market to move lower as still high, especially it traders will take into account the higher time frame trends. The key level to the upside is seen at $6,514.
