Important caveats for anyone interested in this as an arbitrage opportunity:

1. This exchange is highly illiquid, and has extremely low trading volumes.

2. Other cryptocurrencies are similarly inflated on the exchange.

3. Cash withdrawals are only allowed from the exchange to Zimbabwean banks. These accounts cannot easily be held by non-citizens.

3. Due to a cash crisis, Zimbabwean banks currently have strict USD withdrawal limits of around $50 / day.

Yea no kidding on the low trading volume. Only 118 BTC in the last 30 days. The Aussie exchange BTC Markets is more than a thousand times that.

"No such thing as a free lunch"

Is this the same price bitcoin is worth 'on the street' in Zimbabwe?

Does the exchange have a web page? Do you have a link to it?

> As the Bitcoin price reaches ever higher, many prospective investors become wary of the higher price, making it more difficult for entry-level investors to join the market.

I am quite surprised a seemingly crypto-centric news site doesn't know you can buy fractions of a coin.

Or maybe I misunderstood what this sentence meant.

I think it means that it looks more and more like a bubble, so people are less and less willing to buy in the more expensive it gets. It's not about the total amount risked, it's about the total amount of risk.

But this isn't true at all, bitcoin is skyrocketing

Think of it like when you want to buy a company's stock. If the price has recently increased by a lot, many people avoid it because they think it is overpriced. They don't want to risk buying it at this price. It has nothing to do with being able to buy fractions of a coin.

Why would they specify 'entry level' investors then? That argument would surely apply to all investors, not just the entry level ones.

Because people that already hold bitcoin will still be willing to buy. If you bought bitcoin at $1000 you might still be willing to buy at $8k as that would still price your avg bitcoin price at $4500 and won't be making a loss until bitcoin drops below $4500. Entry level doesnt mean your wealth but you being a first time buyer or entering into the bitcoin market at current prices. Which means when the price goes down you are going to make a loss.

It's not formally economically rational to be affected by history this way.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunk_cost

past performance is no indicator of future results.

The price is skyrocketing...

Regardless of whether or not this is the intended meaning of the author... I've been following various cryptocurrencies very closely for a while now, and this type of thinking is surprisingly common. It's crazy the number of times I've seen someone argue the total supply of coins is a limiting factor, or that one currency is more successful than another one because the price is higher. I try my best to correct misinformation, but it goes to show how inexperienced some investors in these markets really are.

>As the country’s economy grows more unstable, Bitcoin is emerging as the solution to its problems.

Deflation of the primary currency is not a good thing for economy either.

I don't understand. Why does the exchange price vary across countries? The whole thing is online.

Lot of reasons - liquidity, risks etc.

But mainly because of something called counter party risk. The caveats of selling a bitcoin on Golix exchange has been stated here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15627972

So the inflated price is in lieu for the risks someone is taking to withdraw from the exchange.

At $50 a day, it will take more than 8 months to even cash out a single bitcoin. By the time someone realises the mistake, the price might have jumped to 15k USD.

12400 still very low compared to where it will be in a year. This is a bargain.

Zimbabwe just ahead of its time. Soon all exchanges will be ay 12400. Where Zimbabwe leads, the world follows.