Theta Price Diverges Across Exchanges With Arbitrage Restricted

After a parabolic rally that brought the price of theta (THETA) up by more than 1,000% since March 13, the price is now correcting lower, with large price divergences seen across different crypto exchanges.

As of press time on Thursday (12:06 PM UTC), THETA is down by almost 20% over the past 24 hours, according to Coinpaprika’s price index, which takes into account data from multiple exchanges. Following the decline, the token is priced at USD 0.359.

However, as pointed out by Sam Bankman-Fried, founder and CEO of crypto derivatives exchange FTX, the price of THETA is not as easy to define now as one might have thought, given the large price differences that exist between exchanges.

For example, on Huobi Korea, THETA trades at USD 0.437, while on Binance and Gate.io it’s USD 0.34, and USD 0.39 on OKEx.

THETA price chart:

According to Bankman-Fried, several exchanges have been told to close deposits and withdrawals of THETA “for a few days,” and most exchanges are still doing this. As a result, arbitrage between different exchanges – which usually cancels out any price difference between them quickly – has now become impossible for traders.

“In a few days we’ll see what exchanges have done, and if many have opened up [deposits/withdrawals], we’ll consider removing exchanges that haven’t from the index,” the CEO said, referring to the index used to determine the price of THETA on his own derivatives exchange.

Today’s losses come after a parabolic rally for THETA, which has accelerated higher through much of March, April, and May, in anticipation of the platform’s launch of its “mainnet 2.0.” The upgrade, which took place yesterday, May 27, is said to represent a major step forward for the security, functioning, and decentralization of the blockchain platform.

Further, the decline also comes on the heel of news yesterday that Theta Labs, the company behind the blockchain network, announced that Google Cloud has “joined its Enterprise Validator Program.” However, the move by Theta Labs was met with some ridicule, with industry players pointing out that giving Google Cloud free tokens is “the new game in town” for projects that want “a nice pump.”